RACINE COUNTY - Most roofers are likely spending their days the way Jan Roland of Johnson & Son Roofing & Insulation Co. has been.

"I'm up on a ladder with a sledge hammer, ice pick, ice melt and a shovel," Roland said when he answered his cell phone Wednesday.

Roland was working to open yet another ice dam - one of many he's been called about. Although it's only December, this area may be headed for a record ice dam winter - if such records were kept.

"It's been more than any year I can remember, and it's been a lot of years," Roland said. He estimated he's gotten roughly 75 phone calls about ice dams in the past week - and emphasized that he doesn't want calls from any but existing customers.

An ice dam is a build-up of ice at the edge of a roof, usually starting in the gutter. Ice dams form when melted snow refreezes at roof edges. The gutters clog up with ice, then water runoff from the roof gets held back by the dam. It can then work its way under the shingles and leak into the attic.

From there it can flow into exterior walls or through the ceiling insulation and stain the ceiling finish.

As gutters fill with ice, they can bend and rip away from the house bringing fascia, fasteners and downspouts in tow.

"Every gutter in town is full of ice," Roland said. "Or if you had no gutters, it'll happen."

"I was called to one (Tuesday) that had 14-foot-long icicles cascading from the second-floor gutter."

Johnson & Son is certainly not alone in getting ice-dam calls.

"We're getting flooded with calls," said Rob Hunt, owner of Hunt's Contracting, "… I haven't even been responding to them because we're so busy."

Icicles are a likely sign of an ice dam, Hunt said.

He said his firm usually attacks ice dams by trying to break up the ice and apply calcium-chloride along the gutter and eves.

Not just older homes

Older, more poorly insulated house are more prone to growing ice dams, because more heat will leak through the roof and cause melting. And the literature says that ice dams can be prevented by controlling heat loss from the home.

But roofers say the best-made homes are ice-dam candidates this year. "It's across the board," Hunt said.

"We're seeing numerous well-insulated attics, well-ventilated attics, with roof dams," Roland said. "You don't stop heat loss, or you would only have a one-month heat bill."

Roland attributes this year's high ice-dam incidence to a combination of 10 to 12 inches of snow followed by cold, overcast weather. The snow closest to the roof melts, runs down to the edge and freezes. "It just keeps building up."

The freezing slush, he said, only made it harder to remove snow from the roof, which is one of the first rules for reducing ice dams.

"We suggest removing the first three feet of snow, and then work on the ice dam with calcium-chloride," Hunt said.

Roland said he's used 250 pounds of ice melt in the past few days. He makes repeat visits to the same homes to remove ice dams.

All of this can wreak havoc on shingles, Hunt said. "There are houses where the shingles are older, and the shingles are breaking with the ice."

Some people also use heat tapes to open gutters, but not all experts recommend them.

Hunt noted an easy trick to reduce the damage after the ice dam has formed. Fill the leg of a discarded pair of panty hose with a calcium-chloride ice melter. Lay the hose onto the roof perpendicular to the gutter so it crosses the ice dam and overhangs the gutter.

The calcium chloride will eventually melt through the snow and ice and create a channel for water to flow down into the gutters or off the roof.

DEALING WITH ICE DAMS

Immediate action:

Remove snow from the roof. This eliminates one of the ingredients necessary for the formation of an ice dam. A "roof rake" and push broom can be used to remove snow, but may damage the roofing materials.

In an emergency situation where water is flowing into the house, making channels through the ice dam allows the water behind the dam to drain off the roof. Hosing with tap water on a warm day will do this job. Work upward from the lower edge of the dam. The channel will become ineffective within days and is only a temporary solution to ice dam damage.

Long-term action:

Increase the ceiling/roof insulation to cut down on heat loss by conduction. Make the ceiling air-tight so no warm air can flow from the house into the attic space.

Both of these actions will increase the snow load that your roof has to carry because it will no longer melt. Can your roof carry the additional load?

Natural roof ventilation can help maintain uniform roof temperatures.

For more, visit the University of Minnesota-Extension on the Web at http://www.extension.umn.edu and search for "ice dams."