Assault on the ice dams
Posted at 2:30 PM on March 2, 2010
by Bob Collins
(10 Comments)
Filed under: Weather
Cold nights, (comparatively) warm days. It's ice-dam season in Minnesota.
Ahab had his whale and a Minnesotan has his ice dam.
I found one technique -- hang onto a ladder and swing an axe -- by looking out the back window of News Cut's world headquarters today.
Here's another man's method. Don't try this at home.
There's the brute-force-and-we'll-worry-about-the-shrubs-later method:
There's also the we-didn't-need-this-roof method. Turn down the volume on this one. Why someone thought an ice-dam-removal video needed music is beyond the capacity of your writer.
If none of those work, try the don't-let-it-happen-in-the-first-place method:
Comments (10)
Dadkat used the brute-force method on a big droop of ice dagger-laced snow which subsequently fell on our grill--only destroyed the plastic grill cover. Lucky us!
My husband, after ruling out the potentially disastrous axe idea, headed up the ladder, protective eyewear firmly in place, and attacked the problem with a simple, elegant solution: a hammer. It amused our neighbors, but it sure worked!
I've used the heat tape the last two years and I can say it doesn't work very well, at least in my case.
The snow melts around it and then forms ice and what you end up with is a sort of heat tape tunnel in the middle of the ice dam.
For me the best solution is the pull the snow down with a snow rake and about once a year I toss some salt on the roof for the times I wasn't fast enough and ice formed.
I could feel the shoulder pain for the fellow swinging that ax. The hammer idea sounds a bit more controlled.
What happens to the lawn and such where the salt water comes out of the downspout?
At our last house I used hot water. I hooked up the hose to the basement sink and ran it out the window and up to the roof. It took 3 times the volume of the waterheater each time. I had to go in and wait for the water to heat up. The drawback, you pretty much get soaked.
One winter of that and I installed the heat strips. They really work.
>> What happens to the lawn and such where the salt water comes out of the downspout?
Better flavor, higher blood pressure.
I had heat tape installed this fall. It works just the way @justacoolcat says: igloo effect and the installers should have used more tape running it farther up the roof since it's the cathedral ceiling-side of the house. So no leakage in dining room but living room drywall is really damaged in one area. The paper has separated from the drywall.
Should have just gone back to the snow rake; which I can't effectively use now or I'll pull out the clips holding the tape in. Now saving up for new roof and spray insulation under decking.
There's another option as well! We have a system that utilizes 100% recycled aluminum to encase the heat wire and spread the heat out over a larger area. This completely clears your eave rather then just leaving the tracks in between more ice!
Check out our products here: http://www.thermaltechusa.com/ and never have to worry about that ice dam ever again!
My landlord took a hammer or something forceful to the ice (30'+ pieces) on our building, and tore big holes in the siding. What a bunch of morons. Fight the symptoms, not the disease (in this case, the 30+ inches of snow on the roof).
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