We all think that we gain knowledge and wisdom from our mistakes.  After installing a new shingle roof on our home during construction of a Great Room addition project  I expected a dry room for at least the 30 year warranty period.  Things were great until the first winter when the roof started leaking after we had several inches of snow on the roof.  I am no rookie to the building trades and started my construction experience while in college working for a roofing  contractor.  I had been installing roofs for years with no problems.  We had water backing up under the singles and leaking into the house because we had an Ice Dam Problem.  Too far into the winter season to make any real repairs, so we placed buckets and towels to try to save the floor while we watched the stains grow on the ceiling and the damage continued onto the drywall and paint.  I explained to my wife that I had a solution to the problem and to just be patient.  It got worse!  We got up on the roof and shoveled off the snow and chopped away the ice to let the water flow.  The drips quit.

By the next winter I had installed electric heating cables and knew that I had the problem solved.  The cables melted the snow (which then froze in the gutter and backed up) and caused the ice dam again with more leaks.  More shoveling, ice chipping, and excuses later I go to plan "C".  The new plan is to remove the gutters, install additional insulation, and add more heating cables.  It has to work now I say with confidence.  Well, it still leaked last winter and with the treat of divorce, I was tasked with getting the problem solved for good, or else.

With a little help from my friends at Thermal Technologies, we now have a system that will solve our Ice Dam Problems.  I installed the T-2 Panel System with electric heating cables on the eve of the roof and hooked-up the DS-8 rain/snow sensor controller from Automated Systems Engineering and got it powered up last week.  It got a real test last Saturday when we had over 8" of heavy wet snow and the unit worked to remove all of the snow from the eve.

This system only uses power when the sensor switches the unit on and then automatically shuts off until the next snowfall.  This will reduce our electric cost for de-icing our roof and prevent damage to our interior.  I am still married and hope that this is the final chapter in the Ice Dam Problem.