Off Topic: Ice Dam

[Greg]

Everything I read online says you have to use calcium chloride in the socks, not regular old rock salt. Well, I have 100 lbs of Halite brand rock salt. Will it even work or is not worth trying?

 

[MR. evil]

Not going to help anyone much right now, but have your attics insulated this summer. I had 18 inches of insulation put into the attic when I moved into my house as well as some air sealing. I have had virtually no melting.

Inadequate Insulation is only half the problem. Proper attic ventilation ( soffit & ridge vents) is just as important. You can have all the attic insulation in the world, but without good attic air flow you will have just as many problems.

 

[MR. evil]

Everything I read online says you have to use calcium chloride in the socks, not regular old rock salt. Well, I have 100 lbs of Halite brand rock salt. Will it even work or is not worth trying?

Just off the top of my head, salt is very corrosive to almost any building material. I would not intentionally throw salt on my roof / house.

 

[MR. evil]

We had a new roof put on a few years ago and 3' of rubber ice guard was put on the edges. Brown icicles against a white house is an interesting sight.

3 feet or one row of ice and water shield is better than nothing, but most cases one row of ice and water shield at the rood edge does not meet most building codes in New England. At least those states that follow the IBC or have state building codes based on the IBC. It's hard to explain with out a diagram. But a house with a soffit (roof over hang) of 12" or more will need more than one row of 36" ice & water shield to be code compliant. It BS that most roofers get away with just one row.

One most sloped roofs I design / detail I call for the entire roof deck to be covered in I.W.S. Or I call for the minimum code required I.W.S and a really high end ($$$$) roof underlayment that cost more than I.W.S. Contractors then come back and recommend covering the entire roof deck with the I.W.S and they think they are getting one over on me. But I am actually getting exactly what I want.

 

[Glenn]

I should check the file and see if it says what the guy put on. That some good info.

So here's how it went down today.....me on a ladder, snow pants, old ski hat, old goggles, spare ski coat.....and chipping away with a small sledge. Since we were in vt all weekend skiing ( priorities :lol: ), this was my first chance to do this in CT. I made 4 channels up front.......3 where filled with ice melt tube socks from the dollar store. Anyone ever try to mucle around an aluminum entention ladder in 2/3 feet of snow? It aint easy!

Made 4 channels in the back, used the tube socks again. Theyre not that long, but should do the trick for now. That damn ice was thick!!! Had to be 6" in spots. And went a good 12" up the roof. Nasty. I grew some brass and went up on the back of the roof. I had the ladder secured where two gutters meet and could use the vent pipe to grab. I went over to the flat roof above the porch and shoveled that off. I then cleared ice from around that gutter. So thereI am, on my knees, on the roof, hitting ice with a small sledge....and its dark out. What a sight for tqhe neighbors. Ha!

 

[RootDKJ]

I should check the file and see if it says what the guy put on. That some good info.

So here's how it went down today.....me on a ladder, snow pants, old ski hat, old goggles, spare ski coat.....and chipping away with a small sledge. Since we were in vt all weekend skiing ( priorities :lol: ), this was my first chance to do this in CT. I made 4 channels up front.......3 where filled with ice melt tube socks from the dollar store. Anyone ever try to mucle around an aluminum entention ladder in 2/3 feet of snow? It aint easy!

Made 4 channels in the back, used the tube socks again. Theyre not that long, but should do the trick for now. That damn ice was thick!!! Had to be 6" in spots. And went a good 12" up the roof. Nasty. I grew some brass and went up on the back of the roof. I had the ladder secured where two gutters meet and could use the vent pipe to grab. I went over to the flat roof above the porch and shoveled that off. I then cleared ice from around that gutter. So thereI am, on my knees, on the roof, hitting ice with a small sledge....and its dark out. What a sight for tqhe neighbors. Ha!

Any beer involved?

 

[Glenn]

After there was. :lol: I'm not big on heights. I mean, the chair lift doesn't bother me; it's unrestrained heights.....like being near the edge of the roof that make the ol palms a little sweaty.

 

[gmcunni]

I Used a nylon rope as a safety line and tied it o a tree on the other side of the house. Worked out real well and saved my ass twice!

reminds me of the story of the guy who tied the rope to the bumper of his car in the driveway so he wouldn't fall off the back of the house. his wife got in the car and drove away.

 

[gladerider]

when i got home last nite, went to check the roof after dinner. found ice dam formation. started by shoveling the snow on the roof. 5 hours of shoveling. 9-2am. geez. and more coming. this flat land snow is useless.

 

[billski]

Inadequate Insulation is only half the problem. Proper attic ventilation ( soffit & ridge vents) is just as important. You can have all the attic insulation in the world, but without good attic air flow you will have just as many problems.

I have all that and still have problems, we rebuilt the entire friggin thing. Our contractor is seeing a lot of this.lately. I think a steeper roof pitch would help.

 

[billski]

when i got home last nite, went to check the roof after dinner. found ice dam formation. started by shoveling the snow on the roof. 5 hours of shoveling. 9-2am. geez. and more coming. this flat land snow is useless.

Look at my roof today and you would never know it was shoveled clean on Sunday :sad:

 

[MR. evil]

I have all that and still have problems, we rebuilt the entire friggin thing. Our contractor is seeing a lot of this.lately. I think a steeper roof pitch would help.

Having all those things and having them done right are two different things.

 

[billski]

Having all those things and having them done right are two different things.

Agreed. Not convinced of the implied assertion as we were intimately involved in understanding the theory and rationale the builder presented. It's an old house with lots of odd angles, many places other than soffit area where dams can form, such as where upper walls meet roof.

 

[gmcunni]

i don't need a ladder to put the nylons on my roof

 

[Warp Daddy]

Inadequate Insulation is only half the problem. Proper attic ventilation ( soffit & ridge vents) is just as important. You can have all the attic insulation in the world, but without good attic air flow you will have just as many problems.

THIS !!

3 yrs ago I had R 49 blown in the attic and installed fibreglass rafter channels along the inside leading from new soffit vents to a large Venting tower, that same yr i had an architectural roof with ice guard installed too, then i had R 20 blown in the walls this yr and the house has a double sandwich sheathing job with a 4 inch dead air space that had the blown insulation installed --- this together with 39 new windows done about 7 yrs should hopefully do the trick for both ventilation and insulation

 

[wa-loaf]

Inadequate Insulation is only half the problem. Proper attic ventilation ( soffit & ridge vents) is just as important. You can have all the attic insulation in the world, but without good attic air flow you will have just as many problems.

Got all that going on too.

 

[Glenn]

Round 2 after cleaning the driveway yesterday. Put up about 12 more tube socks filled with melter. I bought a 50lb bag of melter....and the stuff turned out to be green. So now I have green drip marks on the ground under the socks. :lol:

 

[billski]

Round 2 after cleaning the driveway yesterday. Put up about 12 more tube socks filled with melter. I bought a 50lb bag of melter....and the stuff turned out to be green. So now I have green drip marks on the ground under the socks. :lol:

How well do the tube socks work? Guess the success will be measured when we have a thaw/freeze cycle again.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

glad i'm not the only one with these issues! the frnt of my house faces north, there is a good 6" of ice built up...I have leave guards on the gutters so i'm assuming all the ice is on top of that and not in the gutter as well....i'd like to get it off...some water coming in...

 

[billski]

My contractor said that many contractors are seeing these problems this year in New England, old, new, remodeled houses. The contractors are surprised nobody has found a way to address these problems. The "correct" methods, including ice shield rubber and full ventilation and insulation are not working in many cases in these climates of frequent thaw/freeze cycles. He is astonished nobody has come up with a fix for this. He is collaborating with others to devise something, but it's still in the experimentation-test phase. The current thinking is that the water passes over the edge and past the flashing and works it's way back into the sofit space, which is why we see water/icicles coming from the vents. It then works it way back to the house structure.

My insurance appraiser said he is dealing with hundreds of claims already on all types of homes, old an new. He is already inundated and expects substantially more.