Matt and I both had a brain lapse and forgot to put up the heat tape that we had power ran for. I think when we moved in it was already December and by the time summer came neither one of us gave it a second thought. With all the snow then the warm weather then snow again it seemed like a matter of time before we had issues. We had been hearing about several neighbors having issue but it wasn't until Sat night when I put Liam to bed that we realized we had a problem. His bedding was wet and as I looked up there was a bubble in the ceiling that water was dripping out of. Matt crawled in the attic and put a dish to catch the water dripping in. I moved Liam's bed and put a bowl below it. Matt then checked the roof and found a pretty good size ice dam but it was dark and freezing again so we decided to take care of it in the morning. The next morning Matt got up early and went to Home Depot to get everything we needed and then he got to it. While I took the kids to church he cleared the snow and melted the ice with a propane heater. It was a slow progress but he got it all figured out. The water finished dripping the night before and never started again.
Later in the week Matt was traveling and as I was getting the kids thru their bedtime routine and Emy mentioned the floor was wet in the master bedroom. I went in to inspect it and found the floor was very wet and the paint was starting to run down the wall. I immediately called Matt and was panicked what to do. As I waited for him to call back I realized that I knew what to do from watching him. I crawled in the attic and found the leak and placed a dish to catch the water. But once again it was dark and things were starting to freeze again. So after talking to Matt I decided to wait until the next morning.
We had heat tape in this spot but it just wasn't as high as the ice was so it had continued to build an ice dam higher than the tape.
Matt had called Perry so he ran up to see if he could help. He helped me pull back the carpet so it could dry out. I got out the Bissell and sucked up as much water as I could which was about 2 canisters full. I was shocked that there was that much
I called Maddi to see if she could come and watch Liam while I cleared the roof and she said she would. Until she got here I gave Liam a walkie talkie and turned him on a show and headed out to get started. The night before I had spent some time on youtube watching ways to fix ice damns. Several people suggested hot water so that was my plan of attack. So I first cleared the snow. I was terrified to be on the roof but said a prayer that I'd be safe and know when I needed to get off.
So I ran the hot water hose from the garage to the back deck, up a ladder, and to the roof.
The hot water worked amazing! Once it was all melted I reran the heat tape and climbed down.
Then I found this over the kitchen and gym. But unlike the other space over the master it was a straight drop if you were to slip the outcome wouldn't be good. Once the kids got home Maddi and I cleared as much as we could but then it started to feel unsafe so we called it.
Then back in the attic to see if the water had stopped dripping.
While they were fixing the roof a little water must have gotten through and it caused a small leak but once they covered everything back up it has been fine but anytime I see water in an odd place it makes me a little jumpy.
The water above the mud room has been a pain. Matt finally called Life Time Roofing and had them come. They pulled the shingles and some of the siding off and reran some flashing to divert the water. But once spring comes and the snow melts were gonna have to redo the siding, rock, and reset the window. It's a mess but we can get it fixed but there's no point until the snow melts.
But because of the fix it caused an ice dam and of coarse Matt wasn't home. So I got out the hot water again and got it fixed. I feel like at this point we're getting a rhythm down. I felt like Christoph on Frozen cutting the ice with the hot water and getting them out a big chunk at a time.
The ice over the gym has been getting bad so we got a ladder from Parker and got it cleared out some of the ice was 12 inches thick but luckily it hasn't caused any problems inside the house....knock on wood.
If the ice could just stop now that would be awesome
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