Snow rakes, heat tape, better attic insulation and ventilation. It's all been covered.

Kill it with fire!

If they installed Ice and Water shield it should help. This product usually adds several hundred dollars to the price of a roof.

Yeah, I don't know if they did. They didn't ask me, I know that.
Got a whole new roof after the hailstorms last year. Insurance paid for the roof + the upgrade to the 50 year material. Guess I'll check the invoice.

Bottom line I guess is that if there is damage to the inside walls or behind the siding, can it be argued that the roofing installers did a shitty job? If it's not their fault, I'm not looking to blame them, I just don't know if any damage (not the dam itself, but any damage from it getting up and under the roof) can be blamed on something not being installed correctly.

Funny I never had a problem before with my aging wood shingle roof. Now I have the new expensive one, and bam. The amount of snow + length of the cold spell is worse than most years though.

You guys are lame. 34 posts and no one said anti-freeze.

Antifreeze.

Sucks. You are in the wrong universe. The other you's don't have this problem in the other universes.

aids tree fire

"Is that a God Damn"?

http://www-deadline-com.vimg.net/wp-...27-300x243.jpg

so I guess you can undamn it

Is this why rednecks never remove their christmas lights?

You didn't have a problem because shake roofs breath a lot better than asphalt. Roofers are not responsible for anything except for placing enough vents up top to meet code (one vent for every 150 sqft attic space). They're not responsible for installing ice & water shield unless local code requires it or you pay for the upgrade. Even if you wanted to be a dick, you couldn't pin it on them. It's simply not their fault.

Hmmm. So do the local codes around here usually require it? I'm in Shawnee, but I'd assume they are all pretty similar.

You'd have to check with Johnson County.

That ice and water shield won't prevent dams but it will help prevent penetration into the attic/decking should a dam form.

Residential
Ice barrier. An ice barrier (ice dam membrane) that consists of at least two layers of underlayment cemented together or of a self-adhering polymer modified bitumen sheet, shall be used in lieu of normal underlayment and extend from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point at least 24” inside the exterior wall line of the building.

An ice dam protection membrane should be applied starting at a roof's eaves and extending upslope a minimum of 24 inches from the exterior wall line of a building. For slopes less than 4:12 (18 degrees), a minimum of 36 inches is recommended. See Figure 1.