[Munson]

Originally Posted by Bwana

There you go!

One thing I learned, is the fact that roof/gutter heating cables aren't worth a crap when it gets this cold. I have a very slight grade on the garage roof and I had issues with ice dams a few years ago. I countered by installing the heated plugin cable to melt the snow and ice to prevent that. It worked great last year, but we didn't see temperatures this low.

When this latest polar blast arrived along with a bunch of snow, I plugged them in again. Turns out when it gets this cold, they don't work. My gutters are packed full of ice again and I'm dealing with ice dams. I need to figure something out before I have water flow back up to a heating vent, which will result in having water enter the garage, like it did a few years ago.

Last time this happened, I had to grab a dead blow hammer and beat the ice out of the gutter and off the edge of the roof. That worked fine, but it also raised hell with the gutter. I just had new gutters installed right before this last cold front arrived, so I'm not anxious about going that direction.

Salt doesn't work well when it's this cold either. The direction to go, would be to use a steamer, but I can't find an industrial grade unit to rent, and I'm not going drop several grand to buy something I would use at most, twice a year. The idea of wandering around on an ice covered roof, doesn't get me excited either.

Time to MacGyver something, I just haven't figured out what yet.

You need one of these...





Or maybe a propane torch if you have trouble finding a flamethrower.