With energy costs rising, you probably have already sealed any cracks and drafts around your windows and doors to make your home more energy efficient, but have you considered the financial impact of heat loss through your ceilings? While drafts around doors and windows will cost a few more dollars in heating bills, heat loss through your roof can result in thousands of dollars in damage. Why? The answer is ice damming.

Ice damming happens when snow on your roof begins to melt and freezes before it has a chance to run off. Usually, this is caused by warm air leaking from your house into your attic. The warm air heats the roof’s surface and causes the snow to melt. As the water runs down your roof, it freezes near the roof’s edge and an ice dam starts to form. This process repeats itself a few times and eventually creates a dam made of ice that prevents water from draining away. Inevitably, this water backs up under the shingles and into your home.

The key to preventing ice dams is to make sure your attic is properly insulated so that the warm air stays in your home and the cold air in your attic. Experts recommend having a minimum of 8 inches of R20 insulation on your attic floor. However, insulation alone may not prevent ice damming. Heat that escapes from light or ceiling fixtures, attic access hatches, exhaust fan systems, chimneys or other perforations in your ceiling can increase the risk of damming.

Here’s what you can do to prevent ice dams or minimize the damage it causes.

Preventing an Ice Dam

• Insure that your attic is adequately insulated
• From inside the home, seal any perforations in the ceiling
• Ensure your soffit vents are not blocked by insulation
• Take measures to draw more air into the attic through the gable and eave vents
• Keep roof vents free of snow so cold air can circulate in your attic
• If you are installing a new roof, have the contractor install roof felt or install heating cables as an interim measure
• If you suspect your home is susceptible to ice damming, consult an expert who can use diagnostic tools to identify problem areas providing opportunity to prevent damage from occurring

What to do if an Ice Dam occurs

• Consult an expert, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE, should you climb out on your roof to inspect or attempt to remove the ice dam yourself
• Take pictures and call us
• Remove any damaged contents and move any undamaged contents out of harms way
• Contact a local restoration contractor to inspect and take immediate and necessary preventative action

A smoke detector is important to warn you that there is a fire. You should have a smoke detector on every level of your home. Test your detectors every month and change the battery twice a year. To test your detector, there is a small test button on the detector that is usually coloured. Push the button and hold for several seconds until you hear the alarm sound. If after 15-20 second there is no sound, change the battery and repeat.

You may start to hear some rumblings of your credit score affecting your Property Insurance premiums. It is new to us too and we know our clients will have many questions. We want to take this opportunity to advise you the best that we can and if we can not answer your questions, we hope to be able to point you in the right direction.

What are we talking about?

Many of you may not be aware that Credit Scoring is increasingly being used as one of the factors in determining the premiums for property policies, more specifically homeowner’s policies. Property claims have risen significantly over the past few years with many companies paying out more in claims than they collect in premiums. When this happens we start to see rising premiums and actions taken by Insurance Companies to improve the frequency and severity of claims. One of the strategies is using your Credit score as one of many factors in determining your premiums.  This has proven to be a very effective in determining the probability of claims within a larger Group. It is found, on the whole, those with better credit scores tend to have less claims then those groups with less favourable credit scores; however the reasons for this are not clear.

The term Credit scoring maybe unfamiliar to you as it was to many of us. We want to share with you a couple of informative websites on what Credit Scoring is and factors that influence it. There are two Reporting Agencies operating in Atlantic Canada, they are as below:

  -  Equifax Canada www.equifax.ca
  -  TransUnion Canada www.transunion.ca
  

We would like to congradulate our Cooke Insurance Busary recipients at Holland College PEI. These students have excelled in their chosen studies and are well derserving of the assistance this provides them.

Our thumbs up to:

Logan Thomsen, Steamfitting/Pipefitting
Megan Baird, Dental Assisiting
Ashley MacDonald, Sport and... Leisure Management
Kyle MacDonald, Electrical Technology
Adam Loo, Applied Degree in Culinary Operations
Micheal Guthro, Culinary Arts
Daniel Angelini, Golf Club Management
Travis Higginbotham, Golf Club Management
Danielle Stewart, Tourism and Travel Management

Well done!