"jeff" wrote in
:

Hey everyone,

My parents have a cottage that has some roof leakage last winter. We
live in southern New Hampshire, and last winter was a real real cold
one.

My parents are bent on getting the roof re-shingled and having more
snow-ice-shield added further up the roof since the leakage was from
some serious ice damming along the eaves. Never leaks in heavy rain,
only when big ice dams form.

I look at the roof, and see that the shingles are still looking ok, no
curling, peeling or racking. Also, I notice the roof has no venting
whatsoever. The cottage is one story, and I'm not sure the heated
living space is well insulated (I bet it isn't).

***snip***

From the sounds of it, the ice dams are the culprit and not the shingles.
It sounds like you may be on the right track with venting the attic space
and insulating the attic floor. If you can prevent heat loss into the
attic, the ice dams should cease to be a problem.

Chris