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I'm a contractor in Maine and we certainly have a lot of experience with ice dams. An ice dam can be the quickest way to force water under the roof shingles even on a roof in good shape. I have had mixed results with heat tapes. When they are used properly, they can be somewhat effective. Most folks expect to see a nice bare zig zag pattern along the edge of ...

Ok gentilmen , lets talk ice dams. First and foremost, what causes an ice dam to form anyway. Heat trapped in an attic, either from heat loss from the house or sun beating on the roof, cannot escape quickly and melts snow on the roof. This water drains to the bottom of the roof where it runs across a cold edge and freezes. The overhang of your roof (soffit ...

You are right, Salt will eventually harm or "shell" concrete. I would suggest potassium chloride. This product will de-ice down to apx 15 F and will not harm the concrete or adjoining lawns or other plantings. Potassium chloride comes in a variety of brand names and can be found at most hardware stores. We use it all the time for roof de-icing because it ...

I had bad ice dams after last years blizzard in DC. My roofer told me to just break up the dams taking care not to damage the underlying asphalt shingles. I ended up using a large rubber mallet. It probably wasn't the best approach but I figured the cost of repairing some shingles would be better than repairing any water damage inside the ceiling/walls of ...

Attempt No.1 Acquire small plastic container. Drill small holes around base to allow water to flow out. Fill with salt. Place under exhaust vent. Wait and see what happens. I'm hoping the moisture in the exhaust will drip into the container of salt, and then run out carrying salt with it. This might have the added benefit of dispersing salt to the ...

Well, fixing the damage won't prevent it from happening again, so to fix this and prevent further damages from ice in the future, you will need to install some hardware. First, you are going to need to get out the ladder and , with some assistance, push the down spout back up and re-attach it to the elbow. I'd use extra fasteners, and possibly a short rubber ...

Electric cables can be fixed there very well. Let's say we use 2 mm thick cables with low wattage (10 W/m). Firstly you cut 2 mm wide and 3 mm deep cuts to the bottom side of your steps (using a hand circular saw). They should be parallel going from side to side. Put silicone and cables into the cut doing S bends, they should just fit in there. Cover the ...

Such a vent terminal can work, depending on your roof's micro climate. Depending on prevailing wind, solar orientation, drifting patterns, etc. there is often an area of the roof, usually near the ridge, which is relatively free of snow. If you must vent on the roof, this is where it should go, regardless of the type. As B. White indicated, a wall outlet is ...

If the cool down the exhaust gasses more you will reduce the level on condensation that is build up on the end of the exhaust pipe. The heat exchange in the furnace may not be working as very well as possible due to not having enough air being blown over it. (With water based systems it is often due to have the boiler set to high, so stopping the boiler ...

How many turns does your shutoff switch take to close? If it is more than half a turn, it's a gate valve and not a ball valve. Gate valves are inferior to ball valves and rarely do they fully close. If this is the case, you still have pressure in your sprinkler system (though the flow-rate will be vastly decreased.) Once a ball valve is in place, the ...

It looks to me like it's still the sprinkler pipe, they're attached at the top? So that line that's covered in ice is probably the supply that comes from inside your house, and the line going down goes out to the sprinkler system, and there is a backflow preventer at the very top where they connect. When you shut it off, there was still water in the line ...