Water Damage Can Cost You Thousands

Eliminate Water Damage To Your Home...

Water Flow

Gutter Filter will easily handle heavy flows of rainwater on steep roofs and valleys. This material handles high flow rates of up to 24 inches of rain per hour, which is ten times the average rain fall. Most gutter covers cannot handle heavy downpours…typically water will flow over the cover and off the roof, damaging your home and landscaping. Watch the video demonstration of our bucket brigade in action, the water just can’t clog the downspout.

The Gutter Filter solution has so many innovative advantages, that many industry experts consider screens and covers “outdated technology”.

Ice Damns

Gutter Filter will protect your home from damage in winter. By keeping snow and ice out of the gutter in the first place, melting snow flows right through Gutter Filter and out the downspout.

If there is standing water in the gutters, it can freeze solid, causing overflows and damage to your house and gutters.

Every few winter’s cities are plagued by ice dams. They generally appear after a heavy snowfall during an extended period of cold temperatures. Because ice dams occur on roofs buried in snow, few people actually see them, let alone understand their causes. The only time people think about them is when they occur, which is about the only time that almost nothing can be done.

What are Ice Dams?

Ice dams are literally dam-like build ups of ice on a roof. They normally occur at the edge of the roof but can occur higher up under certain circumstances. The ice itself is not a problem. What is a problem is that melt water from the snow can form a pool behind the dam.

Most roofs are very effective at shedding water. Very few roofs, however, are designed to cope with pools of water. Water backs up behind the ice, seeping up under the shingles until it finds its way through the roof to the attic and living areas below.

While usually temporary in nature, the massive roof leaks the dams cause can wreak all kinds of havoc with wiring, drywall, paint, and carpet, flooring and interior furnishings. Ice damming can also cause problems for your exterior siding and the wood and insulation behind it.

What Causes an Ice Dam?

Ice dams occur most often when we get heavy snow followed by below freezing temperatures, but they can occur with just an inch or two of snow. Some part of your roof warms up enough to melt the snow. The melt water flows down to another part of the roof that is cooler, and the water refreezes. The ice forms a small dam that builds up slowly as more melt water refreezes. Eventually, water backs up behind the dam and works its way up under the shingles until it begins to leak through the roof into the living space below.

There are four main causes of ice damming:

• Weather
• Household heat escaping to the attic
• Uneven roof temperatures
• Roofing underlayment that water can penetrate

Preventing Ice Dams

Ice dam prevention is best achieved in three ways:

• Attic insulation
• Attic ventilation
• Proper re-roofing
• Attic Insulation

While some warm spots on the roof occur because of sunlight, most are caused by heat escaping from the heated portions of the house. Most homes have attic insulation, but in many cases there isn't a sufficient amount or the insulation has settled, been compressed, gotten wet, or has otherwise become less effective.

In many homes the problem is breaks or gaps in insulation due to light fixtures, pipes, settling, or foot traffic. The goal is to have an attic that stays very close to outdoor temperatures.

Attic Ventilation

Even a well-insulated attic is likely to have some heat escaping from the house. It is also likely to be affected unevenly by sunlight. Proper ventilation can smooth out temperature variations and largely eliminate the risk of ice dams. Attic ventilation is usually the easiest way to prevent ice damming, yet it is the step most often omitted. Most attics are designed to take advantage of the fact that heat rises. Air must be able to circulate freely under the roof.

To be effective against ice damming, your attic ventilation needs to have a two-part system: Intake vents Exhaust vents Warm air rises and escapes out of the exhaust vents, drawing fresh, cool air into the intakes. Ideally, this prevents any part of the roof from having the opportunity to become warmed by air escaping from the home below. Good ventilation also helps minimize variations in temperature due to sunlight.

There should be at least an inch and a half of space between the insulation and the roof inside the attic at the eaves. There should be no insulation on top of the intake vents themselves.