How to Prevent Icicles on the Roof When You Have Skylights
Icicles form on a roof when snow melts due to the home's interior heating. Icicles especially form around skylights because the glass or acrylic glass used for the skylight lets heat escape. The snow freezes into icicles as it drips in the frigid weather. To prevent icicles from forming on a roof with skylights, take measures in the spring and summer months to secure proper roof ventilation. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Seal the skylight. Purchase caulking strip--like thin, clay strips. Lay the strips inside the creases of the skylight, where the glass edges meet the ceiling. Feel for areas where cold air especially leaks in. Cover this area with two or three strips of caulking strip. Note that a water leak from ice and snow is caused by interior heat. Water from this melting gets trapped, creating an "ice dam" on the roof, causing severe interior water damage.
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Check your home's insulation material. Determine the type, whether it is rolls and blankets, concrete, foam board, rigid foam or another material. Assess whether you need to add insulation by seeing if the insulation is thin or thinning around the skylight. Before adding any insulation material, if needed, ensure that your home is properly air sealed.
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Weatherize your home. Create insulation improvements to your home. Develop proper ventilation to protect from moisture damage year-round and reduce ice in snowy weather.
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Protect the eaves. Waterproof the eaves with a membrane, such as roofing felts, roll roofing, or metal sheets.
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Lay the membrane along the lower edge of teh roof closest to the skylight. Note that peel-and-stick modified bitumen products are ideal and relatively simple to use. Purchase ones that come in 3-foot-wide rolls.
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Waterproof the roof in spring or summer. If you have a shingled roof, remove the shingles surrounding the skylight opening. This allows for waterproofing measures. Purchase tar paper, also called roofing felt, in a roll. Lay in the tar paper in place of the shingles. Caulk the area where the tar paper touches the skylight edge. This prevents water and snow build up, so the water will rush off the sides of the house to the gutters instead of freezing by the skylight.
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Tips & Warnings
According to EnergySaver.gov, asking an energy auditor to check the type of insulation you have in a whole-house energy assessment (or energy audit) in an ideal way to make sure you choose the most energy-efficient option.
Note that skylights are vulnerable to leakage. Allow for the possibility that condensation may be a contributor to icicle formation and damage. Consider looking for an ice dam -- damage is usually localized below the skylight and to the sides.
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