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Health & Fitness

STL BRICKKICK'N INSPECTOR TIPS: READING YOUR SNOW

Do you know that how your snow melts on your roof says something about your home you might want to know? Read why...

Reading Your Snow
Here is something interesting to do if you find yourself snowed in with cabin fever this winter. LIKE RIGHT NOW PERHAPS?  Read your snow.  Seriously!  You can get a fairly accurate idea of the quality of the insulation and other things in your attic by watching how the snow melts – or doesn’t, off your roof and off your neighbors’ roofs.  Your attic insulation is supposed to keep the cold out, and the heat in, but if it’s not adequate, it won’t do a very good job and can let too much heat out and increase your energy bills.  Just what you don’t want and most of us can’t afford.

A uniform covering of snow on your roof in the winter can be a good indicator of what’s happening in your attic if you pay attention to the patterns revealed by the way it melts.  Too thin an insulation layer, or virtually no insulation at all around your attic will cause a fairly quick and uniform melting of the snow off your roof, and insulation missing in just one or more areas of your attic will cause spot melting in isolated areas of your roof. 

By looking at a row of fairly identical houses all facing in the same direction, you can often pick out those where the owners have installed extra insulation in their attics by observing which ones the snow stays the longest on.  Those owners are keeping more of their warmth in their homes, and not losing it through their attic insulation.

Some homes have some or all of their HVAC duct work routed through their attics.  This is okay if it’s well secured and well insulated, but can be a huge energy drain if it’s not. As a home inspector, I find a lot of attic ductwork that is loose, or it has holes.  Attic ductwork is often made from plastic, with a layer of insulation around it.

What is difficult to see in the photo with the duct work, the bottom of the front duct has been torn open by a raccoon that had gotten in and set up housekeeping in this attic.  The raccoon was comfortable, but the poor homeowner was unknowingly heating and cooling his attic and a family of raccoons as well as his house.  Damage like this would be fairly easy to spot by noticing the fairly quick rate of snow melt from the roof over this area of the attic.

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So, while you’re out there making snowmen and shoveling your driveway this winter, take a look at your roof, to see what’s happening in your attic.

Michael Chambers – St. Louis Area Home Inspector
BrickKicker Home Inspections
Email: Michaelc@brickkicker.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The.BrickKicker
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stlbrkkickr


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