Harsh Reality
Believe it or not, I have been back on the roof again! Even with all the work I did back in December to get my roof cleaned off, this winter has delivered a maximum dose of ice dam forming weather that has forced me back up there to intervene. This time there wasn’t as much snow as before, but the ice has just grown and grown up there. If it snows much in the near future, I’ll have a real disaster on my hands.
I have resorted to the do-it-yourself ice-melt granules in one of Cyndie’s old nylons. From the ground, I could see it was getting pretty thick on the outside edge, but if I didn’t get up there yesterday, I wouldn’t have discovered that there was already standing water behind the dam. I removed the snow cover from the bottom half of the roof, to minimize the source of additional water from melting snow. After chipping away a little channel, I placed my nylon ice melters in two places. If they turn out to do the job, I’ll be begging for more nylons, because I think my problem may require more intervention than just the one spot on each edge of my roof.
Ultimately, I’m thinking this year’s problem with ice dams is a call for improving the insulation in my attic. Unfortunately, I think it’s about time for new shingles, too.
Relative Something 
John with the amount of snow you get why aren’t your roofs more inclined like in Switzerland or even here. And wouldn’t placing the gutters lower down help, too? But where would the fun be in that! How you haven’t slipped and fallen off your roof I don’t know. And now melting ice with Cyndie’s stockings strikes me as hilarious- I can just image her dancing out there to get them back and you ending up in a tug of war. Perhaps, you people there have invented a new sport to keep you amused and life always on tender hooks. TV can’t compete, which must be the rationale behind this.
Ian
February 7, 2011 at 5:11 pm
If they made the roof more steep, I’d be too scared to risk my limbs puttering about up there!
Ideally, there is supposed to be enough insulation in my attic to slow the melting of the underside layer of snow on the shingles.
Cyndie gave me her throw-away stockings, but I am glad they weren’t full of too many holes or they wouldn’t have worked. We have plenty of other issues to ‘tug of war’ over
johnwhays
February 7, 2011 at 5:46 pm
dup deleted
Ian
February 7, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Sorry for double posting: I hope you can delete the version with ‘can’ instead of ‘can’t’ in it as I don’t seem to be able to…
Ian
February 7, 2011 at 5:14 pm