When you live somewhere that can experience some pretty harsh weather events, you know how susceptible your roof is to damage. It gets hit with direct sun in the summer, and rain, hail and snow during the cooler seasons. As a result, it’s important that you keep your gutter clear all year round to prevent buildup and unintended damage.

But that alone won’t protect your roof from weather damage, particularly during the winter. Winter presents the possibility of snow buildup and unseen ice dams obstructing your gutters, impeding proper drainage and exposing your roof to potential damages. So, how can you prevent these ice dams from occurring?

It may be a big early to begin thinking about snow, but there’s a lot to be said for being well-prepared! When winter does hit, snow will quickly collect on top of your house. Typically this isn’t a huge problem as long as your roof is properly sealed. But when temperatures begin to rise a bit, this snow begins to slowly melt, releasing water into gutters and downspouts. In the ideal situation, this process won’t be interrupted. But Mother Nature doesn’t quite work that way—temperatures fluctuate throughout the day and night.

As a result, ice melt can refreeze within your metal gutters, your eaves, roof edges, and in your downspouts. The more this happens, the more obstructed these passageways become, creating icy blockages that cause snow and ice melt to seep back under your roof shingles, causing decay and leaks. The bad news is that this could result in you needing a new roof once winter is over. The good news, however, is that it’s preventable!

A roof heat cable, which looks similar to an extension cord, is wrapped in heavily insulated rubber to make it moisture-proof and grounded. It’s placed around your roof edge and within your gutters, and when activated it radiates heat to help melt the ice before it even has the chance to collect. This means proper water drainage is possible all winter long. This prevents roof damage and even prevents icicles, which although pretty can actually be pretty dangerous.

A hefty amount of our readers here on the MyLEDLightingGuide’s official blog consists of facility managers (along with contractors, government employees, and other decision makers). This post is made specifically for the facility managers and building owners out there to help keep you up to date and fresh on the latest news and opportunities for you and your buildings.

This list of 14 blogs will consist of some popular and most likely already heard of publications, along with a few lesser known places that you still may find extremely interesting. Picking a few from this list is definitely the first step to keeping up to date and staying ahead with your work.

There will be a brief description along with a URL for each blog / magazine listed, and it should give you a good idea or not if that facility management resource will benefit you more-so or not than others listed here. Now, let’s get started with this list…

2. Buildings.com

Another very popular publication which covers a lot of useful topics and products that any building decision maker should be aware of to create a more efficient and overall better workplace. They also have many courses and webinar on topics like life cycle costs, energy management, lighting, security, and more.

4. Maintenance World

As the name suggests, this blog leans on the side of maintenance based topics. Although, they often talk about topics that are important to any facility manager, such as cooling an industrial sized area. That is just a glimpse of the type of stuff this blog publishes, so reading more on what they offer may be important to seeing if this blog is worth your time or not!

6. FM World

FM World seems to put a lot of their attention on news, but all are topics that are probably very relevant to you and your tasks as a FM. They also (like many other of these blogs on this list) offer many different white papers which carry tons of valuable information in them. Along with professional interviews, webinars, and other pieces of content they are very well rounded in the variety of things that they offer.

8. The Built Environment

They don’t only talk about the environment and green buildings, but surprisingly they publish a lot about facility managers and how to become a better one in general. You can thank Michel Theriault for this great resource, as he is the brains behind it all. He also offers services such as consulting and training for FM staff, so if a budget allows and you want to become a better FM; that’s always an option!

10. Building Automation Monthly

Phil Zito is the creator and sole person behind Building Automation Monthly. He writes about and educates on the topics solely regarding building automation systems. No time for reading? Phil offers a Podcast which covers many different great topics as well. So, next time you are driving or taking a flight you might want to listen in to his podcast!

12. The fmguru blog

Although this blog doesn’t seem to be updated as often as many others on this list; their past and current posts are a good read. They are definitely insightful and thought provoking on the tasks and purposes of a facility manager.

14. i-FM.net

Like their headline says, “if you’re in FM, you need to be on i-FM.” They offer tons of content through news, interviews, top 50 list of great and relevant companies, and overall great resources.

Missed any that you think is worthy of being added? Be sure to comment them down below, this list is always being updated!

Final Words

There you have it, 14 (and growing) facility manager blogs, magazines, and resources that will hopefully make you an informed, up to date, and more educated facility manager overall. Our #1 tip for you is to pick two or three from this list that really peak your interest, and make it a ritual to check in on them often for the latest content that they offer.

Again, if we missed one that you think should be added; feel free to comment it down below for consideration!

Want more of our topics for facility managers? Here are some: