Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Icicles

I noticed I had some very large icicles this week. The longest is about six feet long.

I have always thought that my icicles are telling me that I need to put more insulation in the attic, but years ago I did put six inches of fiberglass up there. I wonder if they may also be caused by inadequate venting of the attic. I only have two small vents, and maybe they do not allow the heat produced by the chimney to escape. You can also see an ice dam forming along the edge of the roof.

What do you know about the causes of icicles? And how are your icicles and ice dams doing this winter?

2 comments:

flatbow said...

My guess would be since the attic is presumably well insulated, it is the venting.

Our house, which has roughly the same attic space, has two large gable vents (one in the front and one in the rear). The home inspector suggested that that was insufficient if we were to use our whole house fan too often during the summer.

As I remember, the gable vents on your house are much smaller, plus with your recent bathroom renovation, I would guess ventilation is the problem. Maybe you need some soffit vents?

The icicles look cool though!

Anonymous said...

I like the personal touch here. I need to complain about my cracked sidewalks up to the house.