Ice dam at your Manlius eave: it may need the edge rebuilt, not the whole roof

The weather station at Syracuse sees temperatures cross freezing on about 84 days a year, and March has more of those days than January. At the overhang, where the roof is coldest, meltwater from higher up refreezes into a dam. The water behind it has nowhere to go but back under the shingles.

The Town of Manlius annex of the hazard plan records no unique wind or winter vulnerability. So the winter your roof faces is the county's ordinary one, and the eave detail is the same question here as anywhere in Onondaga County.

State code answers this problem at the edge. Where ice has formed and backed water up under the roofing, it requires an ice barrier. The barrier runs from the lowest edge to a line 24 inches or more inside the outside wall. The code also requires a drip edge at the eave. You cannot see either from the ground.

When you ask a roofer to look, ask three things. Does the ice barrier run past the wall line? Is there a drip edge? What did the water do to the deck and the ceiling below it? If the deck is sound, an eave job may be all you need.

If the boards are stained or soft, the repair grows. Replacement then becomes a fair question, but it should be argued from what is found under the shingles, not from the age of the roof.