It's not a hole in your roof. It's a ridge of ice turning your shingles into a swimming pool liner — and Calgary's chinook cycle is the perfect machine for building one.
Every late winter, Calgary restoration crews get the same call: a brown stain spreading across an upstairs ceiling, or water dripping from a window frame, in a house with a roof that passed inspection two summers ago. The culprit is usually an ice dam.
Heat escaping from your living space warms the roof deck. Snow melts, runs down, and refreezes at the cold eaves — building a ridge of ice. Behind that ridge, meltwater pools. Shingles shed running water, but they're not designed to hold standing water; it works up under the shingles and into the attic, insulation, and eventually your ceilings and walls. Calgary's chinooks — melt, refreeze, melt, refreeze — build dams faster than almost any climate in Canada.
Ice dam leaks are slow and repetitive. Insulation compacts and stops insulating (making the dam worse next cycle), drywall stays damp for weeks, and hidden mold gets a head start in exactly the cavities you can't see. Proper handling means moisture mapping, drying or removing what's wet, and — in pre-1990s homes — testing before any ceiling comes down.
Ice dams are a symptom of heat loss: improve attic insulation and air sealing, keep soffit vents clear, and consider eave protection membrane when reroofing. Fixing the leak without fixing the heat loss buys you exactly one winter.
Ceiling stain spreading? We do water damage restoration across Calgary and area, 24/7 — (403) 477-2281.
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You can't tell by looking — but your home's age narrows it down fast, and a lab test settles it for the cost of a dinner out.
The first day decides whether this is a dry-out or a gut job. Here's the exact order of operations.
Speak with Aden Integrated Services Ltd about your project.