How To Safely Remove Ice Dams From Roof

By cooling down the underside of the roof snow won t melt in the first place and preventing ice dams from forming.

How to safely remove ice dams from roof.

One great non harmful way to combat ice dams is to point fans directly at your roof where the problem starts. Lay the hose onto the roof so it crosses the ice dam and overhangs the gutter. If an ice dam removal service spends 3 hours for example to complete a job it s fairly common for 60 90 minutes of it to be spent on roof snow removal for which the company s ice dam removal not snow removal rates would apply. This does involve a bit of manual labor on your part but it s a small price to pay for keeping your roof in one piece.

To help prevent this fill up a pair of pantyhose with the salt you d use to get rid of ice on your sidewalk and tie off the ends. Because ice dams are almost always covered by a thick blanket of snow which must be removed before any ice dams can be removed. When your roof heats up and melts the bottom layer of snow or ice the water leaks down to the edge of your roof and freezes again creating an ice dam. Over time the calcium chloride will clear a channel in the ice dam allowing the water on your roof to escape.

If necessary use a long handled garden rake or hoe to push it into position. Here are five ways to remove an ice dam from your roof. So the first step is to remove this ice and snow using a snow rake which is a retractable rake that can extend up to about 17 feet or so in length. Fill a woman s stocking with calcium chloride and lay it in position directly over the ice dam in your gutter.

One way to remove an ice dam is to melt it using calcium chloride ice melt. Eliminate its fuel source if left alone the ice dam will continue to be built up by the snow and ice up on your roof. If necessary use a long handled rake or other tool to help get it in position. The calcium chloride will eventually melt through the snow and ice and create a channel for water to flow down into the gutters or off the roof.

Another preventative measure to take care of ice dams is to get rid of snow on your roof before it has a chance to melt.