After fighting the ice damming up on our gambrel roof over the last several years (and mopping up water when it comes in!!), we have decided to bite the bullit and spend the money to fix it. A good friend of ours who is also a carpenter, has offered to do it as cheap as possible. Rather than strip the shingles off the roof and then laying down the ice dam shield (or the damn ice shield!!) and re-shingling, he wants to apply the shield right over the old shingles...then put more shingles over that. Does that sound right? We don't want to question him as he is a good friend, but...we don't want it done half-a... either! Any suggestions would be muchly appreciated!!

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Answers

Marcia, I ain't no expert but here's what I have done. I bought a roll of aluminum flashing as wide as I could get it. Then I tucked it under the old shingles at the top, tarred it up where it was necessary and nailed the rest of it down. It didn't stop the ice dams but it made it alot easier to get rid of the ice when it did build up.

Beyond that, it seems to me that what your friend is suggesting would work. Good luck

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Husband used to be a professional roofer, ice problems were his specialty, we used to live up in NE OH in the edge of the "snow belt".

The ice dam, he used something from GAF, heavy rubberized rolled roofing stuff, very pricey, but it WORKS, has to applied under the shingles, under the black tar paper that's under the shingles, right next to the wood, and extended beyond the edge of the wood at the gutter line, and tucked around under the drip edge. If you don't do this, the water/ice will still back up under the existing shingles on the bottom.

Also, husband always went up at least 36" from the edge of the roof with this stuff, even farther in ice/snow prone areas.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001