Are the Icicles On Your House Brown? Here’s Why You Should Worry.
Home ownership is so awesome... Ugh.
I definitely love owning my own home, but there are always times where I wish any given home improvement project was someone else's problem. Septic bills, electric bills, fallen trees, whatever... There's always something that needs to be done. Sure, sometimes the projects can be fun, like installing new flooring or something. But most of it just makes me cringe with financial fear.
What I love most, is when totally normal things happen, but they reveal a greater issue that needs to be looked at. Like your water pressure going slowly down, only to find out you need a new water pump. There's never a shortage of things your house is willing to tell you that require getting your checkbook out to make them go away.
How much attention do you pay to your roof in winter?
Recently I was driving down a road in Hampden, and I noticed this one house in particular seemed to have brown icicles flowing down from the roof. The sight sent my Spidey Senses tingling, so I had to look it up online to see if it meant something totally horrible. Of course, it quite possibly does...
Quite likely, you're a victim of an ice jam or ice dam on your roof. This jam is causing water to access interior parts of your roof, and bringing out all sort of dirt with it, causing the ice to discolor. It could also be rusty sheathing around your chimney. But chances are, water is getting under your shingles, and you may want to take a peek up in your attic, ASAP.
If the ice is jamming things up you probably shouldn't try to fix it yourself, as you could severely damage the roof, or hurt yourself in the process. But if you're at the point you have brown icicles, you might need a new roof anyway. Either way, if you do see these nasty brown roof hangers, you've likely got a big problem, bub.