The past two winters have hit the Anchorage area with record breaking snowfall. For JBER, the largest challenge experienced in our homes during these seasons has been a substantial increase in water intrusion through roofs, primarily resulting from issues with some of the roofs.
What have we found so far?
The good news is that the uptick in intrusion incidents resulting from ice damming and subsequent water intrusion has consistently and primarily manifested only in specific floor plans and areas. This knowledge has enabled us to further focus our efforts to diagnose and repair the issues on the floorplans with consistently high incidences of leaks on a programmatic basis.
The bad news is that the cause of these leaks is not necessarily a simple fix, nor is it necessarily consistent amongst these homes and thus each style of home experiencing a water intrusion requires its own analysis and solution. As it stands, the underlying cause of most issues is related to heat loss on or around the roof. In some cases, heat loss results from the placement of venting, in others, it’s related to how air is circulated in homes and in other cases tied to insulation both within the home and around the roof. Many of these issues have manifested due to the excessive snowfall in the Anchorage bowl over the last two years, exacerbating the issues.
What has been done so far?
Prior to this winter, upon discovering water intrusion, our team engaged in roof shoveling. This was an effective short-term fix but it’s responsive, expensive, and does not address the underlying issue. Following the winter of 2022-2023, we worked with numerous vendors and experts to evaluate hardest hit floorplans. These evaluations included testing, analysis, consultations with engineers, construction experts, and thermal imaging of homes. Numerous fixes were proposed and executed in test homes in each identified floorplan. A larger scale project in the Cottonwood neighborhood to address circulation and insulation concerns began in the winter of 2023 to 2024.
Furthermore, for the winter of 2023 to 2024, our team built a plan to proactively shovel roofs of floorplans that were most impacted the prior winter. As a result of these efforts we saw a considerable decline in both water intrusion incidents, and in the severity of water intrusion incidents. Throughout this winter, we have hired additional engineering teams and consulting firms to further evaluate the root causes and prepare a comprehensive proposal to address this challenge in numerous floor plans.
What happens next?
We are nearly ready to begin implementing these multi-phased, multi-year solutions to address the select floorplans on JBER that are most vulnerable to ice damming/water intrusion. Primarily, our focus will include specific floorplans within Cherry Hill, Denali, Moose Crossing, and Cottonwood. At this point, we are still determining what resources and materials will be available for work in 2024.
As work begins and as a timeline is established, we’ll communicate updates directly to impacted neighborhoods via email and door hangers. Our website’s project page, will be the best resource for an up to date summary of our plans and projected timeline.
