Patternfor Ice Dams On A Metal Roof

Heat tape installed at the eaves melts channels for the water to flow through.

Patternfor ice dams on a metal roof. In regards to the idea of a hot edge system on a metal roof it can be helpful. A metal roof will generally shed snow better but snow running down the roof will still freeze on the unheated overhangs creating an ice dam. If you do not want to install an entire new metal roof you can put metal only where it is really needed to prevent ice dams along the eaves. The quality of installation is still the key and while a metal roof doesn t have the same weakness as composition shingles that can be lifted rising ice and water a metal roof that is not installed correctly can certainly leak with or without ice dams.

This is called ice belt metal panels. The major issue with ice dams on the roof is that they trap the melting water running down from the top of the roof and thereby cause it the melted water to rise up underneath the roofing shingles and eventually seep through the boards and walls inside our homes. Metal roofs ward off ice dams pretty well to begin with but a steeply pitched metal roof is kryptonite to an ice dam. Why ice dams are dangerous.

An ice dam forms when the roof over the attic gets warm enough to melt the bottom layer of snow. If an ice dam does form an ice belt will reduce the penetration of standing water. An ice belt a band of metal roofing installed at the eaves helps prevent the formation of ices dams by placing a low friction surface where ice dams are likely to form. Metal roofing can help but is not an ice dam panacea.

Ice belt metal panels are typically short 3 4 and wide 2 5 3 and are made of thin gauge aluminum. Ice dams can be frustrating. The hot edge systems i am familiar with do not retrofit well onto an existing metal roof. However on a building with a deep overhang it likely will not transfer heat high enough up the roof.

So the ice dams still build just higher on the roof. On a metal roof there s almost nothing for an ice dam to adhere to.