snow issues

I have seen this problem many times and everybody wants to tackle it with ventilation and more ventilation, even power vents. The real problem is heat loss which has to be stopped, ventilation does not do a good job of removing the heat loss in the winter, something to do with barometric pressures. Usually the issue is at the eaves where it ia too thin to get proper insulation in and ice dams form causing a lake to form on the roof(roofing is not designed to be a swimming pool). The best cure is to hire a spray foam applicator to come in and do the job.

Snowguards would be helpful. But I am concerned that this is largely due to lack of ventilation. A great source of information on ventlation is at www.airvent.com Also, here is some information I have written on ice dams: http://www.asktoddmiller.com/roofing-solutions/snow-ice-dams-and-metal-roofing/ I think you can find more information I have written on this subject by googling my name and "ice dams" Sorry for all you have been through, You really may need to hire a ventilation specialist to come review the entire structure.

It is really interesting that you mention venting. My mom has owned this house since '82 and the roof has always been an issue. When I moved back in '07 the ice damn issues were really bad. My mom had had the roof redone in '02, but I don't think they did a proper job since I don't remember such water issues when I was younger. There isn't a ceiling in the house that doesn't have staining, and there would be a running water fall down the dinning room light fixture in the winter during thaws. Trying not to make this a huge story; in '08 I added insulation on the West side of the roof and had two vents put in. There were openings for storage in the wall on that side, and the insulator guy closed them up and insulated them. This helped me since I was living in the attic rooms (there is a dormer on the East side), but still had water coming in. Anyway we were hit by a storm in '10, the roof was damaged, so I opted to go metal. I had a real hard time finding a contracter, and I thought I found a good one, but even the local building inspector knew little to nothing about metal residential roofing. I had wanted to add a vent on the East side (on top of the two I had installed on the West side), and a ridge vent with the new roof; but this roofer insisted that it was a bad idea. I really got buldozed because I had wanted to open up the roof on the dormer as well and reinsulated it (since I figured it would be easier to do from outside than the inside). I really didn't know anything about roofing, and he convinced me that there would be plenty of venting through the ridges of the metal, that no additional venting would be necessary and that he could only guarantee no leaking that way. I did go last winter with no issues; but it was a very warm and dry winter. We got hit with this 12" and the snow took down my gutters. These were the same gutters I had with the previous roof and I have never had that happen, even with the ice damming. I honestly just want to cry because this has been a nightmare. I assume the gutters couldn't handle the snow load coming off the roof. The contractor said the snow would just slide right off..... ================================================================================================= So I need to contact the contractor, and I know he is going to brush me off and say it isn't his problem. The gutters are trashed all around the house. I googled these snowguards..... is this what I need? Looks like they are a better bet than some kind of gutter cover; but it really sounds like even with snow guards, the ice damming issue isn't resolved, and I could still get water in the house......