As if slippery sidewalks and snow-covered cars aren’t bad enough in the winter, you face another potential headache: ruined carpets and water damage to your ceilings and walls from leaks caused by ice dams or bursting pipes. You can prevent the resulting aggravation and expense by taking several basic steps right now.

An ice dam is an accumulation of ice at the lower edge of a sloped roof, usually at the gutter. When interior heat melts the snow on the roof, the water runs down and refreezes at the roof’s edge, where temperatures are much cooler. Eventually, the ice builds up and blocks water from draining off of the roof. This, in turn, forces the water under the roof covering and into your attic or down the inside walls of your house. Avoid trouble later by doing the following:

• Keep the attic well ventilated. The colder the attic, the less melting and refreezing on the roof.
  
• Keep the attic floor well insulated to minimize the amount of heat rising through the attic from within the house.

Unfortunately, ice dams may be unavoidable if your home has recessed lighting near the roof. Heat from these lights melts snow, which then contributes to ice dam buildup.

Frozen water in pipes can cause water pressure buildup between the ice blockage and the closed faucet at the end of a pipe, which leads to pipes bursting at their weakest points. Pipes in attics, crawl spaces, and outside walls are particularly vulnerable in extremely cold weather, when holes in your house’s outside wall for television, cable, or telephone lines allow cold air to reach them.

To keep water in pipes from freezing, take the following steps:

• Fit exposed pipes with insulation sleeves or wrapping to slow the heat transfer.
  
• Seal cracks and holes in outside walls and foundations near water pipes with caulking.
  
• Keep the cabinet doors open during cold spells to allow warm air to circulate around pipes.
  
• Keep a slow trickle of water flowing through faucets connected to pipes that run through an unheated or unprotected space. Or drain the water system, especially if your house will be empty in winter. TPW