How To Unfreeze Ice Dams In Gutters

Ask this old house general contractor tom silva explains the best ways to keep your roof and gutters free from those dreaded ice dams.

How to unfreeze ice dams in gutters.

Those ice dams can cause some serious. Lay the hose onto the roof so it crosses the ice dam and overhangs the gutter. If you live somewhere that gets a lot of snow and ice during the winter you ve probably had to deal with ice clogging up your gutters. If necessary use a long handled garden rake or hoe to push it into position.

But unless you can somehow run a hose from a hot water source you ll be forced to use pitchers pots or similar containers to repeatedly dump the water where it needs to go which can be cumbersome and time consuming. Sometimes gutters do freeze up completely and people worry they are going to pull away from the house or cause a huge ice dam. Strategies to safely thaw a frozen gutter don t get out your hammers ice picks or axes. Frozen gutters can pull away from roofs lead to leaks inside the home or even form ice dams.

An ice dam is a wall of ice that forms at the edge of the roof usually at the gutters or soffit. What to do about ice gutters. This pool of water can leak into your home and cause damage to walls ceilings insulation and other areas. Here are five ways to remove an ice dam from your roof.

If you are dealing with frozen ice gutters the first thing you should do is have patience. 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. Using hot water or steam to thaw icy gutters. Read on to learn how to prevent gutters from freezing and what to do if you have ice on your gutters.

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. A third method is to use hot water to melt the ice in and on your gutters. 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. 4 if your gutters are already frozen solid and the dam is backed up to the house roof that is seriously going to be tougher.

When it forms the water then backs up behind the ice dam and creates a pool of water. So they try to chip out the ice themselves. How to remove ice from gutters. Chipping away at ice is dangerous destructive and futile.