How To Keep Ice Off Your Roof

If you see icicles hanging from your roof you most likely have an ice dam.

How to keep ice off your roof.

Roof raking is generally best as an ongoing winter long task that you the property owner can perform as a way of keeping the snow off your roof. The melted snow trickles into your gutters and then refreezes. After a snowfall a cold roof will have a thick blanket of snow. This has caused ice build ups and insurance claims caused by ice build ups on roofs.

And it s not just snow that can spell trouble for your roof. Steps on how to de ice your roof. An ice dam is just what it sounds like ice build up that blocks off sections of your roof and prevents snow from sliding off. Prevent ice dams with heating cables.

If you live in a small one story home you can probably use a roof rake to reach most or all of your roof and keep. Ice dams happen when ice melts trickles down the roof then freezes again. These dams can tear apart your home so limit them by keeping your roof clear of snow. Ice dams forming on your roof can damage your home leading to costly repairs.

These tips can help avoid an insurance claim. Know your roofs capacity and how the design of the roof may collect snow and ice. Pull off snow with a long handled aluminum roof rake while you stand safely on the ground. If dams are a serious threat to your roof the problem is usually due to poor ventilation.

Ice weighs more than 57 pounds per cubic foot a load your roof isn t necessarily equipped to handle. When ice clogs your gutters there is nowhere for the melted snow to run off the roof. A rake with wheels like the one shown here will instantly change the exterior temperature of your roof without damaging shingles. Now we are ready to go down to the details on how to de ice your roof.

Close up attic bypasses. To keep your roof cold follow these three steps. Ice dams are those beautiful but deadly mounds of ice and icicles that you see along the edge of some roofs. Because of this it pools up and leaks back into your house causing damage to the roof and attic.

This prevents the gutters and downspouts from doing their job which is to drain water off the roof and away from the structure. 4 ways to prevent ice dams on your roof. We say they are deadly because sheets of ice start to break loose as the weather gets a little warmer stabbing or crushing anything in its path. They can give temporary remedies to ice formations but will not permanently stop ice formations when another winter storm comes.

Take note that the tips we enumerated below are short term solutions. Below are some great tips to keep ice from accumulating on your roof. For more advice from tom see how to prevent ice dams. An ice dam is a condition that develops when the warm air in the home melts the snow that is against your roof leaving a pile of snow above the melt.