Saturday, January 9, 2010

Worst Case Scenario Happening ALL around Kansas City!


*gulp*    I thought they were so pretty.  Glistening in the sun, when the sun was actually out this last week.  They got so long like the stalactites at Cave of the Winds, not so far away.   The thought of uplighting them with blue, green or red lights was going to be my next step. Sadly not.  They are heralders of BAD NEWS!

I asked on Facebook, how in this sub zero weather, do we have icicles?  My friend, Brownyn Maguire McNeese, commented on this photo via my facebook page, with some very disturbing news.  "Okay....I know the answer!!Icicles are caused by "ice dams" on your roof which are caused by warm and cold spots on your roof due to poor ventilation or insulation.The ice or snow melts on a warm spot, runs down and freezes when it hits a cold spot --usually gutters or valleys. It is bad because the ice expands pushing up under shingles and or ... See Moreflashing, thawing, and then causing leaks inside your house! Yuck! So be sure to look for water coming in where you see this!I know this because we have them too!! Was researching online and also talked to several people who are now battling water in their houses :( Contractors are saying it is happening all over town! Damn!"     C R A P!

Now, it's like my blue feather (reference to Richard Bach's book Illusions). I see houses all around town as I perform my daily tasks, with long icicles on the front, the corners, the sides... everywhere. Meh!   My 7 yr old daughter and I headed out to photograph the longest one's we could find.  That is before my batteries ran out.  We got a few.




This is the absolute worst case scenario!
Apparently they had melting water coming out of the vents in the soffett, from behind the shingles and from the inside of the window frame.  OMG!   I wonder if they know!






4 comments:

Ed said...

There are whole businesses that do nothing but clear ice damming all winter up north.

Alexis Ceule said...

I'm anxious to see what the 40 degree weather will do to all of these homes on Wednesday. Us in particular. LOL! We need those companies down here. And perhaps... we need to review our roof building codes. I'm kind of wishing we would have removed our gutters before the season started. lol... seems drastic, but it might have worked. Give me a weather update Ed.. you weather guru!!!

Donovan said...

I have the solution to your ice dam problem.

Installed gutter helmets last year on all gutters. Presto. No more ice dams. Didn't think about it when I bought them, was just expecting to never have to clean leaves. Added benefit. How cool is it when something works even better than advertised.
donovan
Gotham, WI

Alexis Ceule said...

Thanks Donovan... yep, I thought about that as I was looking at the foot high ice dam. LOL! We're actually looking into it for installation this summer. I hope we're done with this stuff for the remainder of our winter season. As I type, the news is telling me more snow tomorrow. AWK!!!