And now, ice dams on Mom's roof

[Stormin Mormon]

Mom's house has ice dams. That's been every year, Dad used to be on a ladder every year.

Well, it's my turn. I was on a ladder, today.

Ice pick didn't do much. It does clear ice, but throws chips that go right up my coat sleeves.

Claw hammer clears ice, but the chips hit my face. propane torch melts ice, but it's slow.

Home Depot had some buckets of salt pellets (about size of hockey puck) you throw up there to melt a channel. I'm going to try those. Hope they work. Going to tape a plastic container of some kind on the end of telescoping pole, so I can put the pellets where they are most needed.

[BurfordTJustice]

Well, it's my turn. I was on a ladder, today.

Ice pick didn't do much. It does clear ice, but throws chips that go right up my coat sleeves.

Claw hammer clears ice, but the chips hit my face. propane torch melts ice, but it's slow.

Home Depot had some buckets of salt pellets (about size of hockey puck) you throw up there to melt a channel. I'm going to try those. Hope they work. Going to tape a plastic container of some kind on the end of telescoping pole, so I can put the pellets where they are most needed.

[Moe DeLoughan]

Here's what a local house inspector, who has plenty of experience with ice dams, has to say on the topic:

Basically, he says the safest and most effective way to get rid of dams is to use a steamer to melt them. As for future prevention, plan on adding insulation and sealing attic air leaks to prevent warm downstairs air from getting into the attic. He also notes that certain home and roof designs are predisposed to develop ice dams, and counsels prospective home buyers to be aware of that. It's a pretty good read. And as a couple of commenters on his article noted, steel roofing doesn't have ice dam issues, since the snow slides right off.

[trader4]

Main thing in the code to do with this is that new roofs in cold climates are required to have a waterproof membrane from the bottom edge of the roof, continuing up 2 ft above where the heated inside wall meets the roof. For typical soffit, that would be about 3 ft. Bigger soffit, then it takes a wider coverage.

[The Daring Dufas]

I wonder if there is a way heat tape could be used to combat the ice situation. When I've had a problem with condensate drains clogging with ice, I've used a flexible braided coaxial heating element inserted in the drain to keep it free of ice. If the ice is building up in the areas of the roof which channel rain water like areas where different planes of the roof meet, I'm wondering if you could lay heat tape in those troughs to keep ice from building up? We don't have ice damn problems here in Alabamastan but that dam Global Warming could cause Climate Change which will give us plenty of icy winters to worry about. o_O

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

No new text?

[clare]

Either fix it right (proper insulation etc) or install heat tape. Doesn't have to run full time (terribly expensive if you do)

[Stormin Mormon]

Thank you for the link. Thinking ahead, and solve the real problem if possible. The one back room, a friend and I blew in six bags of cellulose, some years ago. It (back room) has much less ice dam and less icicles, though it does have some. Gets me to wondering if the other ice dam places need some cellulose and venting. Hmm.

[Stormin Mormon]

That will be considered, when ever Mom gets forced to re-roof the house. Or reshingle.

[Stormin Mormon]

When I was out, I noticed there was some heat cable in the eaves troughs and down spouts. I looked in the logical places,and found a power switch for the heat tape. Turn that on. See if that helps. Always seems nuts to me, to use electric to remelt snow that has been refrozen. But, it beats water damage.

[Stormin Mormon]

Dad paid to have some heat tape installed in the back of the house. And I turned that on, this afternoon. Not sure when to turn it back off. Well, turn it on when there are ice dams, or snow. Mom's electric bill just took a spike up. Well, at least we're not running the 1500 watt space heater in the cellar at the moment.

[clare]

The electric cost is a lot less than the cost of repairing the roof where the claw hammer or hatchet goes through the roof trying to break the ice.

[DerbyDad03]

I had to use heat wires for a few years until I had the roof replaced. 2 years ago I had full soffit vents cut, a ridge vent replaced the box vents and I installed baffles in the rafter bays. Allow me to tell you how much that job absolutely sucked. To get to one section of the attic I had to squeeze between the 16? OC studs while lying on my stomach and crawl into an area that is about 3 feet below the main section. I slid a couple of long boards into the space so I could lie across the joist and insulation. Hot, dirty, and no room to work.

Anyway, for the past 2 years I have had practically zero ice dam issues. I compare my house to the other houses in the neighborhood and there is no doubt that the roof work has paid off. I have no icicles while other houses look like mine used to - icicles along every gutter. Eventually I want blow even more insulation into the soffit area but for now I pretty happy with the results.

[DerbyDad03]

Many years ago I had a huge ice dam problem. It was leaking into the house above the window and door frames. A buddy of mine had a truck with a water heater that he used for carpet cleaning in the warmer months. He wanted to see if he start a business of clearing ice dams with a long hose and high pressure nozzle, so he offered to try it in my house.

He cut the ice dams with the hot water cross wise every 2 feet or so and then cut them along the top of the gutter until the chunk fell off. It worked, except for the fact that everything was covered with ice from the spraying water. My yard, my deck, the roof he was standing on, the ladders, everything.

He decided that it was way too dangerous and doubted he could get insurance for the business. It was fun, but really, really dangerous.

[Stormin Mormon]

I can see when the ice is getting thin, and not bang as hard. Non issue.

[Stormin Mormon]

Yes, that does sound miserable. I sure don't enjoy the idea of doing such work.

[Stormin Mormon]

Used to know a guy with a "steam jenny". Puffed fuel oil fire and belched smoke, but provided good stream of super hot water. That would likely do the job, if the machine was kept warm between jobs. The carpet steamer sounds like a good off season use of the machine. I know my church has carpet steamer guys come in twice a year. They get some dirt, but not as complete as the extractor machine the church has.

Coated with ice from the water spray sounds a bit dangerous. Glad you were able to test the concept before getting a lot of contracts.

[DerbyDad03]

Yes, yes, and yes.

There is no standing in my attic, even in the main section. I wore a hat to keep my head from getting scratched by the roofing nails as I reached as far as I could down the rafter bays to staple only the top of the baffles. My house has those slanted ceilings in the bedrooms. You know, the kind of house where the exterior walls are shorter than the interior ones because of the roof line. That means that there is very little room to work at the outside edges of the attic. Very hard to retrofit with the baffles.

[DerbyDad03]

For snow yes. For ice dams, not so much.

But you knew that.

[Stormin Mormon]

My parents house has those low ceilings. I never did like that while I lived there, but no one asked until now. Come to think of it, no one asked here, either.