All of the freezing and melting in southeastern Wisconsin right now could wreak havoc on your home, but it's all damage you can prevent.
Icicles are one sign you might have a problem. They form when snow melts off your roof, but freezes when it gets toward your gutter where temperatures are colder. It could happen because of the sun, but if the snow melts because your roof is warm, that could mean trouble.
"We've got a lot of ice coming off of our roof from the sun. It warms up and the sun comes out - bam, we've got ice," said Scott Berggren of Whitefish Bay.
Berggren tells TODAY'S TMJ4 he had to wait days to get salt to melt the ice coming off his roof from a local ACE Hardware.
Contractor Randy Miller said it's a common problem. Miller, who owns Allright Home & Remodeling and S&E Insulation, said short of redoing the soffits on your home, there are several preventative measures you can take. First, roof raking.
"Going past into the warm section an extra two feet so that when it does melt it's not causing it to be that icicle clump that ends up backing up under the shingle and causing the big problems," he said.
Roof rakes come at many price points, starting around $40.
Another item that could save you - a ruler. Miller said 16 to 17 inches of insulation are recommended to keep heat from escaping, creating that problem melting.
Additionally, salt and ice melt can be used in your gutter to keep ice from forming there - but use caution, some forms can damage your roof.
Be sure and try our new SNOWCAST APP! It is the "snow equivalent to STORM SHIELD" - a great new product that gives you high resolution snow forecasts for any part of the nation! It has just been introduced for iPhones, but we are working on the Android version! Just search SNOWCAST in the App Store or click here.
