We were talking about this topic (deep snow and ice dams on roofs) in another thread. It occurred to me that there's many people that aren't used to the snow. I thought we could discuss it as a group.
1) If you're in a usually-warm climate you probably don't have to do anything. Just letting it melt is the safest.
2) It's the ice dams on the edge that cause the most problems. The water freezes on the edges of the roof and pushes shingles up. Then water backs up and flows under the shingles causing harm. In mostly-warm climates this usually melts away easily before forming too much. But in "borderline" temp areas or colder, they form and build up.
3) Helping them melt is a good thing. Roof rakes or melt pellets.
DO NOT CLIMB UP ON THE SNOWY ICY ROOF. Falling off roofs is only funny in comedy movies. Not IRL.
Right way:
Suicide way:
Also, you can toss some melt pellets up there to give the water escape channels:
Others may have more ideas. I thought it worth sharing.
1) If you're in a usually-warm climate you probably don't have to do anything. Just letting it melt is the safest.
2) It's the ice dams on the edge that cause the most problems. The water freezes on the edges of the roof and pushes shingles up. Then water backs up and flows under the shingles causing harm. In mostly-warm climates this usually melts away easily before forming too much. But in "borderline" temp areas or colder, they form and build up.
3) Helping them melt is a good thing. Roof rakes or melt pellets.
DO NOT CLIMB UP ON THE SNOWY ICY ROOF. Falling off roofs is only funny in comedy movies. Not IRL.
Right way:
Suicide way:
Also, you can toss some melt pellets up there to give the water escape channels:
Others may have more ideas. I thought it worth sharing.
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