The look of icicles can be quite beautiful during Michigan winters. However, these large chunks of ice are known to cause damage to your roof if you let them form. You definitely should not have icicles forming on your roof if it can be prevented, and these tips will help you deal with them.
What is an Ice Dam?
An ice dam will form due to snow that melts and rolls down a roof. The water will reach a cold part of the roof where it freezes once again, typically around the eave of the roof. Damage is caused by the water getting under the shingles, freezing, and expanding. The ice dam can cause damage to your roof deck that leads to rot, destroy shingles, and create leaks that let water into your home.
How To Get Rid of an Ice Dam …show more content…
This will prevent the snow from melting once the temperature increases, which limits the amount of water runoff that can freeze on your roof.
A roof rake allows you to remove snow on a roof from the safety of the ground. It has an extension handle that lets all the way to the top of the average sized home. Never stand on a ladder when using a roof rake, since falling snow can cause you to have an accident.
Start by making a path around your home that will make it easy to walk around and use the roof rake. You will be pulling snow off the roof and letting it fall to the ground, so be careful with where the snow is falling down. Make sure that nothing is underneath the path of the snow that can become damaged in the roof raking process.
You do not need to scrape the snow off so that the shingles are completely exposed. In fact, scraping the shingles can cause damage to them. You will want to us the rake to lightly remove as much snow as possible. You also can rake throughout the winter after each snowfall rather than waiting for a big build up of snow.
Install Heating