Good Afternoon Tim,
Our house has a roof valley that never gets sun, and each winter ice builds up and usually forces its way into the house. We would like to know if you think a Gutter Helmet on that side of the house would help. We are running out of ideas for combatting this problem and can't find any past article of yours dealing with this.
Thanks in advance for your help,
John and Judy Guetzow - Evanston, Illinois
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John and Judy,
Gutter Helmet will be about as helpful in preventing an ice dam as a child's plastic beach bucket bailing the HMS Titanic. Gutter guards of any type do nothing to prevent ice dams and some actually help create them because of the large expanse of cold metal that turns super-chilled liquid water to ice as it flows over the gutter guard.
You can't stop ice dams. I have written about why in a past column. But you can stop the leaks created by ice dams.
This spring you need to remove the roofing material around and near this valley as well as the valley itself. You will then install an ice dam membrane at the roof edges in this location and up the valley overlapping the membrane at the roof's edge. After this is complete, reinstall the valley and shingles and all should be well in years to come.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB