How Ice Dams Cause Damage to Your Home

Back to Blog

We’ve had quite the winter so far here in Coastal Maine and the Portland area. With a constant fluctuation in temperatures, many homeowners are experiencing icicles, known as ice dams, on their gutters. Ice dams can not only be difficult to remove, but unfortunately, they can cause severe damage to your home as well. 

At Evergreen Home Performance, we understand how frustrating it can be to deal with ice dams, especially on top of all the other winter maintenance your home needs. Luckily, we can solve the issue with our comprehensive insulation and air sealing services. 

What Causes Ice Dams?

Ice dams occur when heat escapes from your attic and prematurely melts snow that has accumulated on your roof. As the snow melt flows to the eaves, or edges of your roof, it will then refreeze and create a blockage that prevents water from draining properly from your gutters. 

How Ice Dams Lead to Damage

When ice dams accumulate on your drip edge or gutters, the water from snowmelt will have nowhere left to go and can back up underneath your roofing and leak inside your home. This can lead to numerous problems for your home health and structure, such as:

  • Roof damage & leaks

  • Broken gutters

  • Wet & damaged insulation

  • Moisture & mold growth

  • Sagged ceilings

  • Wood rot 

  • Stained drywall or plaster

  • Peeling paint

The icicles on your gutters can also cause damage to HVAC equipment or parked cars outside of your home and even pose a fall risk to people walking by.  

Ice Dam Prevention with Air Sealing & Insulation

Removing ice dams after they have formed can be both difficult and dangerous. Luckily, Evergreen Home Performance can help you prevent ice dams at the source with air sealing and attic insulation. Air sealing helps to stop warm air from escaping your home while insulation helps prevent heat transfer. 

These two essential services work together to stop the snow from unevenly melting on your roof and come with many whole-home benefits, including:

  • Lower heating & cooling costs

  • More consistent temperatures

  • Improved indoor air quality

  • No more hot attics in the summer 

Find Reliable Ice Dam Solutions with Evergreen Home Performance

To find the most accurate and reliable ice dam solutions for your home, we recommend getting started with a free consult or an energy audit. This crucial step allows our team to pinpoint exactly where attic insulation and air sealing is needed to prevent heat from escaping out your roof and causing ice dams to form. Insulation and air sealing are also eligible for several incentives in Coastal Maine and Portland, like rebates from Efficiency Maine.

Evergreen Home Performance has been helping homeowners in our community with their home efficiency needs for nearly 20 years. We have extensive knowledge of building science principles that aid our team to find the right insulation type for your home’s specific needs and make sure it’s installed correctly. Don’t just deal with ice dams every winter, solve them for good with Evergreen Home Performance.

Get started with ice dam prevention for your home today. Call 207-594-2244 or contact us online to get started.

Icicles on your roof?

Your attic could be to blame. 207-594-2244

I highly recommend Evergreen! 1st, I had a home efficiency inspection (that was free) & Bryan P. was great! He took the time needed, asked & listened to what I thought were priorities, explained clearly what he thought were priorities & why, then gave me numerous options. No pressure whatsoever. Then I had my attic sealed & insulated as the 1st step & Bryan came along on day 1 to introduce everyone & make sure we were all on the same page. Bruce's team (inc. Kelsey & Roland) did the work - they were exceptional!!

Melissa M.

Kennebunk

Evergreen has just completed Phase 2 of 2 at my home. They are professional, hard-working and courteous. They communicate well..no surprises. They've gone above and beyond to make my home comfortable and were very respectful of my home.I recommend them unequivocally!!!Many thanks to Brian, Brian, Rick, Eddie, Dawson and the rest of the Evergreen crew!!

David Henry Feldman

Great company. Very professional and thorough. They take the time to explain everything and offer options to fit your budget. Wonderful experience from start to finish.

Bonnie Eustace

The Evergreen Team did a fabulous job and was very tuned and responsive to the particular needs we had. The job was done right on budget and we are thrilled with the improved warmth and energy efficiency.

Ira M.

Rockland

I was extremely pleased with the professionalism and quality of service that I received from the Evergreen team. I met Richard to discuss options for insulation. I knew immediately that I wanted to do business with them because he did not try to over-sell extra services that I did not need. Dave was the project manager. He was not only kind, but very respectful of my home. I would highly recommend this company.

Darlyann M

Bath

Evergreen has a professional and reliable team of people who do excellent work. If you want the best of the best in the area, select Evergreen to accomplish your insulation needs.

Mary E.

St. George

We had Evergreen Home Performance of Rockland come in to make our home more energy efficient, and what a TOP notch crew. Brian and his crew did an amazing job from start to finish. Very knowledgeable and professional. We would Definitely highly recommend this crew to anyone who is looking for energy efficiency in their home with a company that truly is an expert and knows how to do a quality job and truly cares about their customer.

Melissa S.

Owls Head

I waited a year to write this review. Evergreen finished our job late last winter. Terrific results!!! we've gone from 12-day propane deliveries to 30+ day propane deliveries. The house is noticeably warmer. The Evergreen crew was/is professional, prompt, thorough, scientific, gracious and immaculate with respect to keeping our house clean. Money well spent.

John E.

Boothbay

Bryan, Dave and the entire Evergreen team are wonderfully professional, prompt and thorough. I enjoyed working with them and look forward to continued work as we upgrade our home! Thank you so much for your professionalism, fairness, time and diligence.

Cait

Yarmouth

The crew members from Evergreen Home Performance each made sure to greet us every day, while maintaining their distance in this time of the pandemic. Their work took a total of nine days, spread over three weeks. Even though they were working in multiple rooms of our house, as well as the basement and attic, they were unobtrusive and always cleaned up after themselves every day. The on-sight manager kept us informed of their daily schedule so we'd know which parts of the house they'd be working on.

Bob & Sue

Whitefield

We initially contacted Evergreen through Efficiency Maine for an energy audit, which was conducted promptly and professionally by Justin McEdward, one of their Energy Advisors who is BPI-certified. After a thorough inspection of our newly purchased home, Justin explained in great detail what we needed and did not need. It was agreed that Evergreen would remove all of the existing attic insulation, which was not adequate, and replace it with blown in cellulose, to a rating of R-60.

Thomas W.

Scarborough

I cant say enough about this company and the benefits that it created for our family. They are very professional and have effectively re-insulated our home. The heating bill proves the point.

Bob O.

Springvale

My husband and I bought a home on the water in Owls Head and decided to make the investment in Evergreen's recommendations for insulation. Brian Robinson spent 3 hours examining every nook and cranny before he made practical suggestions and explained them thoroughly to us.

Marie McNeely

Owls Head

We had a fantastic experience working with Evergreen to insulate our roof this winter. Everyone was extremely friendly throughout the process - the crew at our home worked hard, were approachable with questions, and the team leader even showed me around the project to point out specific areas they were working to improve.

Joel Wentz

Evergreen is a terrific company to deal with. Polite and efficient crews, meeting deadlines and major reduction in our heat bills. They corrected a lot of issues we suffered from doing work with a shoddy building contractor. We would recommend them to anyone.

Mary Carey

Portland Buy Local
Efficiency Maine
EPA Lead-Safe Certified
Building Performance Association
BPI Certified