Ice on roof

Doug - Iowa · Feb 13, 2010

I've got a fairly large chunk of ice building up in the valley of the house roof. We always have a little there but this year the freeze/thaw/snow/freeze cycles has made it worse. I'm thinking about throwing a couple scoops of ice melt out the window on it. Will ice melt hurt the shingles?

old · Feb 13, 2010

Depends on what and how the ice melt is. My self I think I would throw some fertilizer up there in stead of ice melt at least that way the run off will not kill the grass plus it will help your yard and also melt that ice

Dutchman · Feb 13, 2010

Keep post what you do and if it works .. I have the same problem with my sunroom gutter... I broke it as far as I can reach ... it's on the south east side so get alot of thaw and freezing too...
Mark

Janicholson · Feb 13, 2010

They are called Ice Dams. If it is not an issur to have frozen water on the ground below, use warm water in a hose to thaw it. (it will leak back into the house if left to continue building up!!)
Roof edge heat tapes are what I have (on when needed between 30 and 20 degrees)
An electric charcoal starter loop can be used to melt it carefully to get to the point of putting the tape in place. JimN

Larry D. · Feb 13, 2010

While on a Trip up in Canada I saw in Roof valleys heating Elements , I'm sure that done a geat Job on Melting Ice! Larry KF4LKU

fixerupper · Feb 13, 2010

Ice melt has salt or calciun chloride, meaning salt. A week or so ago I was looking at every brand of ice melt I could find trying to find something salt free for the machine shed doors and everything I found basically had salt. It won't hurt the shingles but unprotected steel like common nails will rust. The hot water idea sounds like a winner to me. Good luck. Jim

bo · Feb 13, 2010

One woman here loaded her used panty hose nylons with ice melt and heave it on the roof. It seemed to work. I wouldn't use salt but use that concrete friendly melter. Get some nylons and try it.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 13, 2010

Gutter heat tapes don't do everything for melting here in N Iowa, but at least mine melt slots thru the ice so snow melting up the roof has a place to run thru rather than back up & weep under the upper shingles & into the house.
next thing for me when reshingling is due, change to metal roof and let the snow slide off.

Firewood · Feb 13, 2010

If you can get some sunny weather the best thing to do it rake the snow off the roof at that insulates the ice. Be real careful around power lines! Just a couple of sunny days and the dark shingles absorb the heat and the ice goes away even with temps in the 20's.
I rake my roof sometime between New Years and the 15th of Jan and then about now.
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bc · Feb 13, 2010

Guess you could hook your hose up to the hot water heater drain.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2010

I don't have that problem on my house.
I have plenty of heat lose through the roof to take care of it.
You just need to get rid of a bunch of that insulation in your attic.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2010

Try sugar.it melts it in the freezer.

Ice on roof

Doug - Iowa

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old

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Dutchman

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Janicholson

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Larry D.

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fixerupper

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bo

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Anonymous-0

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Firewood

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bc

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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