Fall Roof Prep for Madison: The October Checklist
The first measurable snow in Madison usually lands in November and the first real ice dams follow in December or January. Everything you can do to make the winter easier on the roof has to happen in the next five or six weeks, while the maples are dropping and the ground isn't frozen. Most of it you can do yourself from the ground or a stepladder. Two things are worth paying for.
1. Clean the gutters — twice
Madison's silver maples drop seeds in May and leaves in October, and the oaks hold theirs until the first hard freeze. Gutters packed with leaves freeze into a block of ice at the first cold snap, and that block is the foundation of every ice dam that forms on top of it. Clean them once now and once after the oaks let go, usually early November.
While you're there, run water through the downspouts. A downspout that drains onto the driveway or the front walk is a skating rink by January; extend it onto the lawn.
2. Clear the valleys
Leaves and seeds pile up where two roof planes meet, hold moisture against the shingles all winter, and give snow something to grab. A leaf blower from a ladder handles it on a one-story; on a two-story, leave it to whoever's doing the gutters.
3. Look at the trees
Every summer storm brings down silver maple limbs, and the dead ash trees the emerald ash borer left standing come down under snow load. Any limb within six feet of the roof or hanging over it should be cut back now, before the ground freezes and the tree service's schedule fills up. Branches that rub the shingles wear them through by spring.
4. Check the attic on a cold morning
Pick the first morning it's below freezing and go up with a flashlight before the sun hits the roof. You're looking for:
- Frost on the underside of the deck or on nail tips. That's warm, wet house air reaching the roof. It melts and drips on sunny days, and it's the same heat that builds ice dams.
- Insulation depth. Wisconsin's energy code target for attics is R-49, which is about 14 inches of blown cellulose or 16 of fiberglass. Most 1960s ranches in Westmorland and Nakoma have five or six. If you can see the tops of the ceiling joists, you're at half the target.
- Insulation stuffed into the eaves. It blocks the soffit vents, which is why the attic doesn't breathe.
- Bath fan ducts that end in the attic instead of outside. Every shower pumps a gallon of water vapor onto the deck.
- The attic hatch. If it's a bare piece of plywood, it leaks more heat than any window in the house. Weatherstrip it and put a foam board on top.
Fixing what you find is the real ice dam prevention. Air-sealing the ceiling penetrations is a weekend with a few cans of foam; adding insulation is a contractor job that Focus on Energy, the state's efficiency program, often rebates.
5. Walk around the house
From the ground, on a bright day:
- Shingles lifted, curled or missing, especially along the eaves and on the west slope
- Flashing at the chimney that's pulled away or shows a bead of old caulk
- Pipe boots that look cracked or split (binoculars help)
- Gutters pulling away from the fascia or sagging between hangers
- Fascia and soffit boards that are stained or soft
Anything you find, photograph. Some of it is a fall repair; some of it can wait. Our post on which repairs need to happen before winter sorts them.
6. Buy a roof rake, and know how to use it
A roof rake is a wide blade on a long pole for pulling snow off the lower part of the roof from the ground. On a one-story house, clearing the first three or four feet above the eave after every heavy snow removes the raw material ice dams are made of. It's the most effective $50 a Madison homeowner can spend on the roof. Rules: stay on the ground, don't scrape to the shingles, don't try it on a two-story where you can't reach, and don't knock down icicles with it — the ice behind them is attached to the shingles.
7. The two things worth paying for
A roof inspection Madison roofers do in October — $150–$300, credited back against any work — puts eyes on the roof, the eaves and the attic before winter closes it. If the roof is over 15 years old or has ice-dammed before, it's worth it. See the roof inspection page for what it covers.
Any open leak or lifted flashing should be fixed now, while shingles can still be worked and sealed. After the first hard freeze, a repair is a temporary one until April. The roof repair page has prices; most fall repairs are $300–$1,500.
What you can skip
You don't need a roof cleaning before winter. You don't need heat cables unless a roofer has told you the roof's geometry gives you no other choice. And you don't need to worry about a light algae streak on the north slope; it'll be there in spring, exactly as ugly, and no worse.
Do the gutters twice, clear the valleys, cut the limbs, check the attic on a cold morning, and get the rake. That's a Madison fall.
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