Three Ways Winter Causes Damage to Home Exteriors (And How to Stop It)

When most people think about winter damaging their roof, they usually picture a huge snowstorm with heavy snow, or perhaps a falling tree branch from an ice storm.

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While these winter weather-related factors can definitely cause damage to your home’s exterior, they’re not the only ones, nor are they necessarily the most common. In fact, most winter damage isn’t just from a foot of snow on your shingles.

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The real damage comes from a physical "stress test" that happens every single year, whether your winters are biting cold, or relatively mild. 

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The physics of how winter destroys a home usually comes down to three silent threats: Weight, Obstruction, and Intrusion.

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Here is a deeper look at how these three winter threats can cause damage to your home exterior, and how to prevent them.

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The Physical Stress of Weight

The first major threat isn't particularly complex, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. It really just comes down to the simple, relentless force of gravity.

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We often think of snow as light and fluffy, but once it settles and compacts, it gets heavy very fast. A single cubic foot of wet snow or ice can weigh over 20 pounds. When you multiply that by the square footage of your roof or the length of your gutter run, you are talking about thousands of pounds of extra stress bearing down on your home.

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The Risk to Your Gutters

This is often where the failure starts. If your gutters are secured with old spikes or lightweight residential hangers, they simply aren't engineered to hold a massive accumulation of ice.

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When winter moisture freezes in a clogged or slow-draining gutter, it creates a heavy block of ice. That sheer weight can pull the spikes loose and rip the gutter right off the fascia board. When that happens, it often tears away part of your home’s trim or siding with it, turning a gutter problem into a structural repair.

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The Risk to Your Roof Structure

It’s not just the gutters that feel the strain. Uneven melting and refreezing puts massive stress on your shingles and the decking underneath. If your roof structure is older, this added weight can expose weaknesses that weren't visible during the summer months, leading to sagging or compromised decking.

Obstruction and Poor Drainage

Water needs a clear, fast path off your roof. During the summer, this is straightforward: rain hits the roof, runs down the slope, and exits through the downspout. Winter, however, complicates this process significantly.

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Frozen Blockages

In colder climates, leaves and pine needles that fell late in the season can settle in your gutters and freeze solid. This creates a rock-hard blockade that is almost impossible to remove without damage. When the snow on your roof eventually melts, that runoff hits the frozen debris and has nowhere to go. It pools, freezes again, and begins to back up onto the roof itself.

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Sludge and Overflow

In climates with milder, wet winters, those same leaves turn into a heavy, wet sludge. Winter storms often bring high volumes of rain accompanied by strong winds. If that sludge is slowing down the flow, your gutters can’t keep up with the volume. Instead of draining away from your house, the water overflows the edge of the gutter. This dumps gallons of concentrated water directly next to your foundation, which is a leading cause of basement leaks and foundation cracks.

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Water Intrusion: Backups and Wind

This threat is unique because it exposes the limitations of some roofing materials, especially if they are of a lower quality.

Roofing shingles are highly effective at shedding water that flows downward with gravity. They act as overlapping shields. However, they aren't designed to stop water that is forced upwards or sideways.

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The Ice Dam

To understand ice dams, you actually have to look inside your home first, specifically in your attic space.

If your attic ventilation is poor, heat from your living space escapes upwards and warms the roof deck. This melts the snow sitting on top of your shingles. That water runs down the roof until it hits the eaves and your gutters, which aren't exposed to the attic heat and remain freezing cold.

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The runoff hits the cold metal gutter and freezes instantly. If the gutter is already clogged with debris, it forms an even larger base for the ice to anchor onto. This creates a solid wall (in other words, a dam) that grows higher as more snow melts. Since the water can't drain, it pools behind the dam and is forced up and under the shingles, leaking directly into your walls and insulation.

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Wind-Driven Rain

Winter storms are rarely calm. They often bring high wind gusts that can push rain sideways rather than letting it fall vertically. These gusts can lift the edges of standard shingles and drive moisture underneath the protective layer. If your roof relies solely on shingles to keep the water out, this horizontal rain can find a way in.

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The Solution: A System That Breathes and Drains

You can't just fix one part of the problem and expect the rest to hold up. To survive the stress of winter, your exterior needs to function as a complete system.

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• Ventilation: It starts with a balanced intake and exhaust system that keeps your attic air moving. This keeps the roof deck closer to the outside temperature, preventing the melt-freeze cycle that creates ice dams in the first place.
• Protection: You need a secondary line of defense. We use a waterproofing underlayment (often called an ice and water shield) at the eaves and valleys. This rubberized layer seals tight around the nails. Even if water backs up behind an ice dam or is driven sideways by the wind, your wood decking stays dry.
• Drainage: Finally, you need high-capacity seamless gutters installed with heavy-duty hangers. They are designed to move the volume of water away from your house immediately, without buckling under the weight of winter.

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Eliminate Winter Risks with a Complete System Upgrade

Your roof and gutters function as two halves of a single defense system. The roof sheds the water, and the gutters carry it away. If either component fails, the entire system is compromised. Whether the issue is a backup under the shingles or an overflow at the eaves, replacing just one part often leaves the root cause of the damage unresolved.

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Right now, Landmark Roofing is making it easier to fix the whole system at once.

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When you purchase a full roof replacement (which also upgrades your ventilation and protection layers) we will give you $1,000 OFF a new seamless gutter system to complete the package.

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Ready to get started?

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Click here and fill out our form to schedule a free, no-pressure inspection!