I thought I had been sucked into lecturing you on the wonders of 
gutters and ice dams and then sort of remembered that you associate 
with engineers and then figured I was being being had.

Just in case.  Gutters are for protecting your foundation and lower 
siding from roof run off, not for protecting the roof, evee or soffits. 
  They are handy for keeping rain off your head at a door way, but 
that's not a preservation issue...unless the person is the maintenance 
guy and you want to keep him healthy.  Its nice to keep visiting 
dignitaries, like architects dry too!

If your gutters are hung too close to the roof edge and with too little 
slope, they will collect snow and ice and hold it against your roof 
edge and damage the roofing and the materials at the roof edge. It 
looks like an ice dam and it has the same affect, but its not, its just 
someone deciding that level looks nicer than sloped...probably someone 
who got A's in design studio.  (Fortunately they mostly work with 
Dryvit now.)

If you truly have ice dams, you need to find a way to cool down the 
roof so you don't get a lot of melting when the outside temperature is 
below freezing.  Snow on the roof is a good thing.  (In the 
winter...you got winter in New Jersey?)

-jc


On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, at 09:53  PM, Ralph Walter wrote:

> In a message dated 2/25/2003 10:41:05 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Oh yes.  I think I've just proven my gullibility again.  I'm going to
> slink off...stage right.
>
> -jc
>
>
>
> John,
>
> Whaddaya mean, your gullibility?  I thought it was MY turn in the 
> barrel (or gutter, as the case may be).  Or we were both there?
>
> Ralph