Roof Leak After Snow

Rotten or missing trim or siding can allow water to leak behind flashing and into your roof.

Roof leak after snow.

Worn out flashing or missing sealant can also cause roof leaks around dormers. This roof leaks during the snowy part of winter and during storms in the summer certainly due to poor flashing. A roof leak at the edge of a dormer can allow a lot of water to enter your home. When i checked the roof i saw all the snow had fallen off the two story roof and landed on the addition.

The cold weather turns the super chilled water to ice and the ice pack begins to get thicker and thicker creating a dam quite like hoover dam but a much smaller. The steeper your roof pitch the more ice it takes to create interior leaking see ice dam case study 09. This keeps the warm air in and the roof at a constant temperature thus eliminating melting snow and roof leaks from occurring. The roof leaked a few days after a foot of snow had fallen.

In order to avoid melting snow and roof leaks you need to have very good insulation ventilation and an effective air barrier. Dormer leaks can be caused from a number of issues. Protection for the perishable areas of your roof. Heat leaking up from your home is melting the snowpack in the tight roof canyon.

If you have a low slope roof area accumulations as little as 1 thick can cause problems. Most roofing materials are designed to work under the influence of gravity. An ice dam occurs when snow melts and the water freezes when it hits the colder edges of your roof. In the photo you can still see signs of an ice dam.