Icicles under soffit?

[nzwasp]

I went outside my front door (house built aspen area in 06). And I noticed some small melted ice spots all over the front door landing. Then I looked up and saw little icicles protruding from the holes in the soffit. Has anyone experienced this with their house before?

I didn't notice this happening last winter or the winter before.

The icicles are less than 10cm long for the most part.

The only thing that is different from this part of the soffit versus the rest of the house is my father in law was going out there 15 times a day to smoke for the last month.

[JRSC00LUDE]

I'd say you have poor ventilation/insulation in the area.

[98type_r]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
I'd say you have poor ventilation/insulation in the area.

Exactly this, we had the same problem in our house a few winters ago. It was condensation buildup, the builder came out to remove the soffit, put in some more insulation, reinstall soffit and we haven't had a problem since.

[403Gemini]

On a more serious note...

We've also had a very unusual year this year with weather. I mean Calgary is always high and low with our chinooks then immediate cold snaps (i mean look at this weekend, Friday is what, -17, Saturday +15?), but these erratic weather patterns typically cause ice damming to occur. Ice damming also doesn’t typically damage the shingles – in almost every single instance, the shingles don’t lift (or at least very little).See the diagrams below showing what ice damming actually is. What is happening is during a chinook , or if the inside of your house is warm, the roof shingles/decking heats up so the snow on the very bottom begins to melt and the water runs under the snow pooling in the eaves trough. Then we get a cold snap and all that water becomes a solid block of ice that builds up in the eaves and covering the shingles, so when we get another chinook the snow begins melting again and it backs up under the shingles since it has nowhere to escape. Calgary is one of the unique climates where this occurs with our erratic weather patterns.



Things come into play such as;

-insulation covering the soffits not offering proper ventilation in the attic -not having enough ventilation on the roof to get the excess heat out -cleaning out the eaves twice a year (spring & fall) -roof design – if there are valleys then ice tends to form easier (where two slopes of the roof meet) - It was also on the north exposure so it receives less light exposure from the sun to melt the snow properly.

-ice/water shield installed under the shingles Etc.

[nzwasp]

Yeah I haven't really had any snow build up on the piece of roof above it ever this winter. I have a picture of the icicles now too.

http://imgur.com/GC7JbJZ

If its just insulation its probably easy for me to remedy this spring/summer.

On a semi related note, does this happen to everyone or just me?

http://imgur.com/nrYSxFu

[ipeefreely]

Originally posted by nzwasp
On a semi related note, does this happen to everyone or just me?

http://imgur.com/nrYSxFu

It's caused by an incorrect angle on the furnace exhaust... the condensation from the exhaust should run back down (to the furnace) and then drain with the other water produced by the furnace.

Mine drips a little so I knock what ever ice there is off every week. When it's really cold I check it each day.

What you don't want is it to ice all the way up and block the exhaust because your furnace will not work (start).