Ice Dam Roof Leak in Minneapolis

Here is what a leak from an ice dam looks like.

Here is what a leak from an ice dam looks like.

Ice dams cause leaks in Minneapolis homes but not usually until later in the ice dam season. I received a call earlier today from a client in Edina with water pouring through her ceiling. The water was coming through a smoke detector (B) and soaking her floor. One interesting but not entirely surprising thing was that the water affected a much larger area than was obvious from below (also showed at location C). Slight cracking in the door frame also indicated water problems (B).

Ice dam removal in Minneapolis Ice dam inspection and prevention

When I looked up I notice a ring of discoloration around the smoke detector (seen in photo, above). The thermal imager revealed a 6′ x 6′ area of wetness around the smoke detector. The client had a hard time understanding why the water had not shown in a larger area until I explained how her ceiling assembly worked. Because there was unconditioned space above the drywall there was also a code required vapor barrier, i.e, plastic sandwiched between the drywall and the ceiling framing. When the ice dam above caused water to back up and leak into the home it collected on top of the ceiling until it found the path of least resistance in the vapor barrier.  In this case that was a smoke detector but it is often a light fixture, a vent or a seam in the plastic itself.

Ice dam removal in Edina

Ice dam removal in Edina

A quick look at the thermal image shows a large dark purple area (photo left, point B). This is wetness that has not yet manifested visually from below. It is damage nonetheless and should be repaired.

We take immense pride in being industry leaders in ice dam prevention, insulation and ice dam removal. There isn’t another ice dam removal company in town that has thermal imaging technology in-house or guys like Tom, who are certified geeks in all things relating to home performance technology.


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Ice Dam Removal, Ice Dam Prevention

Removing Ice Dams in Minnesota: We Serve Many Areas in the Minneapolis Metro

The Ice Dam company based out of Hopkins, Minnesota, about 5 miles west of Minneapolis. We've done gutter ice removal, roof ice removal and ice dam removal all over the Twin Cities, on new houses and old ones.

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