Frequently Asked Questions

No. The age of your roofing material has nothing to do with whether ice dams form or not. While a properly installed roof is intended to keep out water from melted snow that has backed-up underneath your lower rows of shingles when an ice dam has formed, there is never an absolute guarantee that water won't get into your home. Protective adhesive ice & water underlayments seal around the nails holding your shingles on, but if any of these nails aren't sealed completely, any backed-up water can leak into your roof. None of the roofing products installed onto the outside surface of your roof prevent excess heat from inside your house from prematurely melting the snow on your roof, and causing an ice dam to form. RafterDrafter is your best defense against the formation of ice dams, for new and older roofs.

RafterDrafter has been designed to combat many of the design flaws of other rafter venting products. Most other products on the market don't completely cover the full width of the rafter bay, allowing for the edges - and in some designs, the center - of the rafter bays to be heated from excess heat in your attic. RafterDrafter spans the full width of your rafter bay, and seals its edges against the rafters themselves, preventing any heat from inside your attic from passing beside and up to the roof deck.

Also, other available products are designed with a single-layer air channel, which allows any excess heat that does get into this channel to come in direct contact with the underside of the roof deck. RafterDrafter incorporates into it's Patent Pending design multiple layers of air passageways, allowing for excess warm attic air to escape up through your roof's ridge vent without coming in contact with the underside of the roof sheathing at all, keeping the roof the same temperature as the outside air.

No. A layer of fluffy snow on your roof is the sign of a well vented and insulated roof. There should be no premature melting of any of the snow on your roof. Any melting that does occur should only happen when other elements around your house experience melting as well; like walkways, driveways, lawn, unheated garage or shed roof. Any melting on your roof should start around the edges. If you first notice melting in the center of your roof, that is a sign of improper venting and/or insulation.

Not in many cases.

Heat wires have to be turned on to work, so if you forget to turn them on, or if you're away, or if your thermostatic switch fails, or if the GFCI or circuit breaker trips, the wires won't do what they are supposed to do.

Heat wires have to be maintained as well. The average homeowner has no way of testing their heat wires after they are installed, and when they fail in winter, they become buried under a layer of snow and ice that locks them in and makes them incredibly difficult to replace. Leaves, twigs, and other debris can build up on the wires as well, and this must be cleaned off periodically.

RafterDrafter never has to be turned on or maintained. Once it is installed, air flow due to natural convection and wind provide all the venting your roof needs to keep ice dams from forming every winter for years to come.