Lodes in South Attleboro is making them up and selling them for the cost of the parts plus $5. People are just grabbing them as they make them. Pretty good deal and it works well too. Handle is long enough to do a ranch house from the ground about 3 feet above the gutters.

The salt balls work great. Learned this from an old timer that I used to live next to. Said it even helped kill the weeds on his drainage around the house. The salt eats a nice path through the ice. You can even break the ice back father tohelp more. Good substitute if you can't find rock salt or calsium.

Poland baby!!!

Ross - What a relief this post is ... or maybe just adding company to my misery ... I just moved into a new townhouse in NBPT ... on MLK day, walked up stairs to a leaking roof ... I was amazed at the amount of water ...

... now I am only renting, and the owner lives in the townhouse next door ... an old house split into two units ...

... when I brought it up to her, she said it happens every 5-7 years and has been happening for the past 20-25 years ... but she cannot afford to get the roof repaired ... I asked her is it worth buying all the other crap she has been spending money on for the past 20 years to not fix the roof? She also told me she only needed to spend $6,000 ... but I will tell you, the leaking happened all week long this week ... if I could capture that water, there probably is enough to alleviate the droughts in Etheopia there is so much coming through ... every 5-7 years ... right, every snowfall seems more like it ...

... she has been hiring guys to come and shovel the snow off the roof, getting overwhelmed by spending $300 a pop ... her boy friend went up there today apparently and shoveled it off ... I guess I should do it myself ... it is a bit hairy up there thought ... but I must say i am a bit peeved to be living in a home that has a leaky roof ... I know it's much more common ...

I will check out this remedy ... I am sick of the leaking water ... I was planning on staying here a few years at least ... but with this roof, not sure I want to ... the ceiling must be totally destroyed ...

My challenge is I have absolutely no knowledge of this kind of stuff, so would prefer the owner to fix it when it's broken ... i will try to follow the suggestions above and inspect the roof for the dams ... thanks

^^^ I don't think I would go up there, you could get hurt, and I would be careful what you do or she may try and blame you for something and force you to finance repairs. Hopefully someone with better knowledge than myself will chime in.

Andy, make sure she makes an insurance claim. You should be covered under your own policy, but use this to force the issue of getting the roof repaired. Re read your lease. It's not like this is the only ice dam claim the adjustors are seeing..... In insurance, misery does like company in terms of settlements. Just don't accept the first one.

Anyone with damage should be documenting everything from cost of buckets to calcium chloride. Photos too. In your case, Andy, you could make a case for witholding it from the rent....

Ice damns are one of the reasons your seeing such a comeback of metal roofs. have one and it works great. The only time I hear the rain on it is in a huge down pour. Works fantastick as to ice damns an such. Been leaving the snow on mine for xtra insulation with all the sub zero nights this yr and am having no problems at all.

The application of calcium chloride will kill all plants and small trees that it comes in contact with. Is that true? I have a Japanese Maple in front of my house that I don't want to lose.
Small bushes and shrubs will get killed also....

HD got some snow rakes in during the week. Some **^%%$ came in and the dumb &**&^ at HD sold him ALL of them. Now he's selling them in town for $150 each. he paid $49.95.

Some one is going to burn his house down.

That's one of the reaons the old timers like table or pickling salt. It's not as harmfull as pure calcium.

Home Depot has them up here in Maine. I think you can order on line from them also.

Easiest site in the world to upload pics - don't know what you are talking about :smash:

I wouldn't . I would fall & break my a$$.

Should be worth one of those Hummel reports ;)

I can just stand on the snow pile and reach over my gutters :smash: :uhuh:

Thanks - I just went to survey the back of the house ... ice pouring over the entire length of each side of the house, as the back is somehwat of a "U" with a courtyard in the middle between the two units ... some of the icles are about 12-15 feet long, she's off camping in a yurt (sp?) up in Northen New Hampshire right now ... but something has to be done ... just tired of the leaking roof ...

I have a 36" wide gravel rake... the kind you spread blue-stone dust with... I took a 12 foot aluminum fence post, and clasped it to the handle of radiator hose clamps... Free snow rake... MAny people have the components in their garage or shed to make a snow rake... it doesn't have to be a "snow rake" by name from a store to be a snow rake... Works great. Word of caution: Hide your stuff! I live in a decent area, and people have been getting their snow blowers and rakes stolen... someone sees you clearing your roof, knows you have one, and will swipe it

I use a long cable and run it through the chutes of my two snow blowers (Ariens 1032 and 1336 they have metal chutes) and then paddle lock them and cover with a tarp and so far they have not been stolen, if they want them they have to take them both or cut the cable (I think it's a Brinks 15' available where they sell locks, I got mine at lowes). I have started drilling holes in the soffit to allow the water to escape. My brother in law found they just got (Friday night) 4 pallets of Calcium Chloride in at Home depot on 104 in Bridgewater and is bringing me 100lbs. and I've rounded nylons to make some dam busters.:wall:

Today is D day. When the warmer air and rain start , you will either get lucky with some places through the ice dams to let dranage occur or you will get it inside. It doesn't take much to get some drain action. Even if its just running between the house and the back side of the gutter is will keep it from backing up the slope and beyond the overlap of the shinkles.

Piemma did it the best way , just totally remove that ice cap but most can't do that do to lack of equipment (no ladder) lack of strength or lack of know how. Unless you are used to doing handyman stuff , stay off the high ladders etc. A broken neck is worth a million roofs so be smart. Ross's salty balls (that doesn't sound right :) ) will likely save the day for many people.

I'm lacking something for sure but, luckily my BIL isn't. He took my Korkers and jumped right in. We, or really he got the snow off. About 7' up on the backside, which is where it was doing the most damage. We laid Calcium chloride in nylons , pretty much the whole length. Took about 3' of snow off the garage roof and then the front of the house. Most of the snow to about 5'-6' and again with the nylons,. Keeping my fingers crossed, but I am very relieved.
I hope this is only a wake up call.
I'm getting some insulation tomorrow and getting to work.

You let someone on your roof with Korkers...:smash:

I know Mike, that's the second time I've seen that written by people here :confused:

korkers on roof shingles, nice combo

I don't think the Korkers could have caused much damage, the shingles were cold thus I don't really feel they could penetrate the shingles, if they were warm than I could see them penetrating. It's a second layer of shingles that my step father and I put on 22 years ago and it's time for stripping and replacing anyhow, after all the water dam issues. I am going to the Home show next weekend to look into having Interlock roofing installed, unless it's too expensive compared to other options, and now that my stepfather has passed and I no longer have the sack for heights, I'm leaving it to the pro's. Now I'm wondering what type of penetration the Korkers could of had, I think I'll have to experiment with them on some cold shingles, on the ground/driveway which won't have any give unlike the roof. Has anyone found Korkers cause damage this time of year or is it speculation? I still think having the weight off the garage and the ice dams under control will be less costly than what the Korkers could do, time will tell and perhaps it will be another lesson learned:confused::wall:

Best cure in the world for ice dams: bright sun and 40-45 degrees!

We're working on the roof today. Roof rakes and calcium chloride filled socks. Just taking a five minute break right now.

I see, better to be safe than on the ground with a broken neck or worse.

I was out on the ladder last nite around 9:30 as i had water coming in thru the top of my kitchen window and also out the window sill. I up there hacking away with the claw end of a hammer as i have in past years and it starts to thunder and lighting out for Pete's sake. I got the damn cleared in the area that needed it and went out today and cleared all the gutters and ice dams till next time. Beauty of a day out, lots of mealting. Now my driveway is a whole different matter. Friggin skating rink. Got stuck this morning trying to go to church but the good lord saw fit for me to get unstuck. I need some snow on my driveway to fill in the ruts and give me some traction.

Well todays a balmy 40 degree day it will do some good for drainage it looks like the weather will be in the low 30's for the next few days,this is good news.
I had some water work its way into my master bed room I looked in the attic and it wasn't as bad as I thought,looks like im spending my tax money on a new roof.
With all of this talk on the news with roofs collapsing I looked out at my camper and saw at least 20-24" snow on it:smash:Today was a good day to take advantage and shovel it off,maybe just naive or lucky but better safe then sorry.

Anybody have a good source for heat tape? The best I found online was 4.64 a foot. Looking to this coming summer doing the North side of the house, garage and the gutters

Was able to get some salt bombs up on the roof, about six or so ... so far so good ... also the warm weather was real helpful as well ... bought a lot of extra if need be.

Swung back into the hardware store this morning, and must say, I was amazed at the amount of people there discussing their problems with ice dams ... dozens and dozens of people in this one hardware.

Rock salt flying off the shelves

I ended up using the water softening salt (blue bags) in the nylons for the front of the house and it worked well. Because of the gutter guards they slid off with what was left of the ice dams and it looked like some sort of perverted toilet papering type prank out front with nylons hanging in my bushes and laying on the snow banks:rotf2:

the cobbler's kids...
 

I too got some water in the kitchen and my den last night... Seems I had been paying too much attention getting my clients' houses freed up, and didn't quite clear enough of the ice on my own house.:smash: So I too was up on a ladder in the dark and the rain last night.... Also had it follow my vent pipe right down to my basement.... Spent hours today clearing up to 26" drifts that were still up there. Four straight days of this. I'm whipped.... Glad if my suggestions were able to help some of you out. If so.... as Bassmaster would say, you owe me a plug!:rotf2: