Just Grumbling About A Roof Leak ....

[peakbagger]

That photo is the classic reason not to have gutters. The ice appears to have backed up in the gutters and gotten under the sheathing into a cold soffit. Ice and water shield wont do a darn as its applied to the top of the sheathing. Rain deflectors mounted down low may survive (broken link removed). I will occasionally get large icicles on mine but never had any backup in 20 years. Taking the gutters off works but most folks leave them off and hopefully their foundation drainage system work well. I had gutters on my garage and after 3 years of ice buildup I yanked them off and never put them back up.

Alternatively if they had run a strip of heat tape along the gutter and down the downspout I expect they wouldn't have any issue.

 

[Hogwildz]

The cause of many water issues like that garage, are the gutters filling up with ice, then any snow melt, even from a sunny day, will run down to the gutter, hit the ice damn in the gutter, and run behind the gutter. Sometimes even building up enough to run up between the fascia board and the plywood deck and running in. In either case, the runoff can actually get in on top of that soffit and run back to the wall and run down like you see in your pics. That soffit looks like it is pitched back towards the wall too. I have seen this happen many times. Sometimes just making sure the soffit pitches away from the wall solves the issue of water running down the wall. With the soffit pitched away from the wall, any water that may get in on top of the soffit, will just run out the end away from the wall.

 

[Hogwildz]

If the ice and water shield is run down onto the fascia board, then gutter installed over top sandwiching the I&W between the back of the gutter and fascia board, the water won't get in under the deck sheathing.
Those louvers, are junk and don't do a damn thing in anything but a drizzle.
Also doesn't get the water away from the foundation.

 

[mass_burner]

Need a little advice. I have a jotul 602 in my patio. Should I fire it up and get the room warm? My concern is the ice that has made it up under the shingles. I did go up and clear to about 2' above the 3 skylights across the whole span of the patio.

 

[Hogwildz]

Need a little advice. I have a jotul 602 in my patio. Should I fire it up and get the room warm? My concern is the ice that has made it up under the shingles. I did go up and clear to about 2' above the 3 skylights across the whole span of the patio.

Do you use the patio? If not, don't bother.
If there is an ice daming problem, the stove may only make it worse.
If there is no heat in it now, there shouldn't be any ice damning, UNLESS it has a gutter that froze over, and snow melt backed up under the shingles at the eave.
If you don't use the patio in winter, and don't need to, don't bother.

 

[mass_burner]

Do you use the patio? If not, don't bother.
If there is an ice daming problem, the stove may only make it worse.
If there is no heat in it now, there shouldn't be any ice damning, UNLESS it has a gutter that froze over, and snow melt backed up under the shingles at the eave.
If you don't use the patio in winter, and don't need to, don't bother.

We only use the patio from time to time in the winter. Yes, gutters, ice daming, leaks. After I removed all the snow from the roof, the leaking stopped. Thought it may help thaw the ice and let it run off as normal.

 

[Hogwildz]

Better to have as few thaws as possible.
Might want to remove snow as best as you can. Is the leaking near the eave of the roof just above the gutter?
If it is damning due to the gutter being solid ice, and melt running up and behind, the stove prolly wont have any effect to the gutter ice.
You can try and see what happens. Maybe time for gutter heat lines. My father uses them, and they do the job.

 

[mass_burner]

Better to have as few thaws as possible.
Might want to remove snow as best as you can. Is the leaking near the eave of the roof just above the gutter?
If it is damning due to the gutter being solid ice, and melt running up and behind, the stove prolly wont have any effect to the gutter ice.
You can try and see what happens. Maybe time for gutter heat lines. My father uses them, and they do the job.

The leaking was between the front of the skylights and the eave, but its stopped now that the snow was removed.

 

[Hogwildz]

Sounds like it is coming in around the skylight area. If they didn't put a big enough pan behind the skylight, it could be daming up behind the skylight backing up to the top of the roof pan above the skylight and running in down the rafters. If the patio is like most, and has a low slope roof, that will cause daming back up even more. A layer of ice & water shield with good flashing around the skylight(s) would solve it, if that is the issue.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

X2 for what Hogwildz said.

 

[mass_burner]

Sounds like it is coming in around the skylight area. If the didn't out a big enough pan behind the skylight, it could be daming up behind the skylight backing up to the top of the roof pan above the skylight and running in down the rafters. If the patio is like most, and has a low slope roof, that will cause daming back up even more. A layer of ice & water shield with good flashing around the skylight(s) would solve it, if that is the issue.

Ice water shield was installed around the new Anderson skylights in 2010, I saw it myself.

 

[Hogwildz]

Ice water shield was installed around the new Anderson skylights in 2010, I saw it myself.

Yeah, but was it installed correctly and tight? Even a small pin hole one of the corners will leak given the opportunity. And again, if low slope, the entire roof surface should have been done in I&W.
Is the underside of the porch open to trace the leak?

 

[mass_burner]

Yeah, but was it installed correctly and tight? Even a small pin hole one of the corners will leak given the opportunity. And again, if low slope, the entire roof surface should have been done in I&W.
Is the underside of the porch open to trace the leak?

The underside is t&g breadboard. Im not sure how high the water shield was installed, I can go back and look at the pics I took. It is low slope, haven't seen any more leaking since I took off the 4+ feet of snow.

 

[Hogwildz]

There is only a few spots it can be getting in. Low slope porch roofs are notorious for this.
The shingle manufacturers used to require 4" exposure on the shingles, counting on a larger overlap to combat damning.
Now most want I&W on the entire deck(other won't warrant anything under a certain pitch),skylights over top of the I&W, then more I&C around the skylight and the top pan.

If the porch ties into a wall, it could be getting in there also with the deep snow you're having.
Usually follows the rafters down till it hits a spot to drop off, puddle and leak through.
If there is insulation in there, can make it a bit harder to find as the insulation acts as a wick. And rot issues would be exasperated.
If it don't leak during normal weather, rain etc. I would just tough it out this winter and see what it does during spring & summer rains, if anything.

Sadly, a lot of porch roofs were built with like a 4 pitch or less, and not made tight while doing so.

 

[mass_burner]

It has never leaked a drop since 2010. We'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the input.