Ice Dams: What to do...

[The Reverend Floater]

So I got home from SIA last night sick as a dog (filthy strippers are like sailors..only strippers) and come to find that I have significant ice dams on my roof that are causing leaks--one in my garage and one in my kitchen.

Today, despite my illness, I shoveled my entire roof off (no small task) and can now get at them. Anyone have any suggestions for a relatively quick removal technique?

I'll install heat strips this summer for sure but I have to deal with this for now.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Rock salt?

[NorCascader]

assuming you have a tin roof....very careful hatchet or axe work. Hit it hard but fairly blunt then use a screw driver or other form of pry tool to unleash.

Oh...and start from the lowest part of your roof

oh...and wear glasses....ice and eyes bad combo

[Yukonrider]

Calcium chloride, or something like that, more effective than rock salt i hear, no firsthand experience.

[DJSapp]

[mr_gyptian]

use that de-icer you can get at the hardware store and keep the area clean as much as possible.

we've got one of these at the dealership and it does a serviceable job.

http://www.minnsnowta.com/

looks crazy, but it works well. I don't know where the hell you'd store it.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

[QUOTE=mr_gyptian;1666804]

looks crazy, but it works well. [QUOTE]

That may be the understatement of the season, but if it works....

[jimmy page]

Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong?
Maverick: Yes ma'am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate.
Charlie: How's that, Lieutenant?
Maverick: Well, I just happened to see a MiG 28 do a...
Goose: We!
Maverick: Uh, sorry Goose. WE happened to see a MiG 28 do a 4G negative dive.

What no love for your helper?

[The Reverend Floater]

Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong?
Maverick: Yes ma'am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate.
Charlie: How's that, Lieutenant?
Maverick: Well, I just happened to see a MiG 28 do a...
Goose: We!
Maverick: Uh, sorry Goose. WE happened to see a MiG 28 do a 4G negative dive.

What no love for your helper?

Oh, right. You worked off half your rent today, Goose. Great fuckin' quote by the way...I have no idea how you come up with these.

[The Reverend Floater]

use that de-icer you can get at the hardware store and keep the area clean as much as possible.

we've got one of these at the dealership and it does a serviceable job.

http://www.minnsnowta.com/

looks crazy, but it works well. I don't know where the hell you'd store it.

Thanks, G. That thing looks nuts but there's tons of good info on that site. And while it's no Montecarlo, my place is just a tit bit bigger than the one in that video.

[squirrelmurphy]

DJSapp, your sig looks awesome under that picture

[The Reverend Floater]

Anyone else? Somebody's gots to have experience with this bullshit!

[skifishbum]

Top quality (Grace) Ice & water sheild on the first two or three rows of plywood.
I'm assuming you dealing w/ asphalt shingles as metal roofs dont usually dam.
The ice needs to come off. Repeated hammer blows ,a pick axe if they're that big and you don't mind some damage to your shingles. You can melt them w/ a propane weed burner but it takes a while.

[iceman]

Urea melts the shit out of ice and it's fertilizer, unlike salt which plants don't like much. Won't work below about 20F though.

[Cliff Huckable]

That's got a good reach. You could heat up the roof from inside with that.

[encore]

Is your garage roof vented? Venting your roof should help significantlly. Also, install ice and water shield 36" up form the edge of eave will help. I can help with some details if you'd like.

[timvwcom]

Two items to address;

1) Stop THIS PARTICULAR ice damming episode
2) Prevent FUTURE ice damming episodes

For #1, I think you are on track... remove as much snow as possible (WITHOUT damaging roof!!!). On the ice part, I've tried chopping/smashing but it always seems to slightly damage the shingles. So would only use salt/de-icers now. A warm snap should finish the job, unfortunately more water will leak until the ice inside is gone.

For #2, there are two sub-issues... A) ways to stop ice dam from forming in the first place and B) ways to keep ice that does form from working back under shingles and into attic.

First a clear explanation; Ice damming is usually CAUSED by the heat in your attic which originated from inside living spaces (especially at the outside edges) warming the roof from beneath causing snow to melt on the roof above, and when that water runs down the roof and out over the eves/overhangs and no longer has a heat source, will re-freeze and back up under the shingles into the attic. At the next warm snap that ice, again which is now already under the shingles/inside the attic, will melt and run inside the house.

So for A) The long term solution is usually to re-adjust/add to your attic insulation to keep the extra heat from the house from melting the snow above living portion. More vents can also help remove the heat that can cause the initial melting, but I think if you are messing around up there might as well do the RIGHT cure and get your insulation FULLY COVERING the living spaces all the way out to the outer wall. If you have lots of insulation now, look for areas where it isn't tucked all the way to the outside. If you have only a small amount of insulation, fixing this is a second excuse to add more. Remember to keep vent spaces from attic overhang interior spaces clear into the rest of attic. Use plastic/styrofoam vent channels you can find at home improvement store if needed.

For B) You'd honestly either have to strip off the lower section of roof shingles and underlayment, maybe 3 to 6 feet back up roof. Then add the rubberized ice dam membrane down the lowest portion of the roof, making sure to lap over the fascia board. But once you've gone to all this trouble, often easier to just do the whole god "damn" roof. Especially since you are almost 100% unlikely to get the new shingles to match the old. In some small areas, where say two ridges meet and form a valley, or on a shady north roof aspect, you can effectively use heat tape... but that's a bandaid solution. (Edit to add; Oh, or you can buy a roof rake etc and just get in the habit of farming that roof every time it snows.)

As always, I write WAY too much... Sorry.

[RootSkier]

tim is right, as usual it seems.

Ice and Water Shield (or whatever brand) won't prevent ice dams, but it might help keep the water that backs up under your shingles from getting inside your building envelope.

Ice dams are caused by inadequate insulation at the top of your wall, which leaks toward the roof and causes warm spots, where snow will melt and then refreeze immediately below.

The best way to fix it is to fix the air gap at the top of your walls where the roof and wall meet. There are many ways to accomplish this, it depends on the construction of your house. Sometimes, the only real way to fix it it is to tear the roof and sheathing off back to the wall, and sprayfoam above your wall, then replace sheathing/roofing. It sucks, but it works.

[Beaver]

I get up on my roof with a sledge hammer and use it like a pile driver (I don't swing it). First few hits do nothing then you start busting out huge chunks of ice. I stand on the ice and hit beside me so that the ice I'm standing on does not break off. that way I don't stand on the metal roof and fall off. That was on my POS house in Rossland with a metal roof. The house I'm in now has an asphalt shingle roof and I do much the same but don't have to worry about falling off. It's an old roof and need replacing so I don't worry too much about breaking the odd shingle. In 7 years of busting ice off this roof I've not damaged the shingles enough to make any difference in it's water shedding abilities. I've got the shingles and plan to put a new roof on this summer. What a joyous holiday that will be.

[powderripper]

you need to get a channel through the ice for the water to flow down.
put salt into the legs of panty hose and lay them at angles across the dam to melt channels for the water to escape from behind the dam. chopping almost always causes damage.

[Happy Fun Ball]

I would avoid picking at a shingled roof. As you break the ice off you'll end up removing some of the asphalt on the shingles and you'll take years off the life of your roof. Second, in the summer, vent your soffits. That should solve the problem.

[lemon boy]

Salt = the answer I got last year when we had this problem from my buddy who got it from his FIL (a roofer in Tahoe).

[MakersTeleMark]

x2 on the weed burner. Propane saves a lot of back work.