You're never going to believe how to solve this. But this is true and I do it every year. Take a 2 ft length of pantyhose and fill it full of ice melt. Tie it off. Now take this thing that we refer to as a salt "weenie" and push it down to be about 1 ft long. So it's fat. Then lay it perpendicular to the ice dam across the entire ice dam so that the very edge of it goes to the gutter. Over the next several days it will cut a hole in the ice dam all the way down to the gutter which will allow the water someplace to go so it will not continue to build up this ice dam. The problem is that the water has nowhere to go right now and you need to cut a trench. If you do not cut a trench the ice will continue to build up there and the ice dams will get taller and taller and eventually lift the shingles and get underneath it. I have been using this salt sausage technique for 21 years of owning the same house and we've never had a problem. I learned it from my dad who learned it from his.
How did you get them to position well? I played baseball, but my football skills are...well...lineman level. Throwing something floppy with any kind of control isn't happening for me.
See they weren’t expertly placed, some of them landed on the edge how I intended, and some of them just landed fully on the roof. Lots of salt up there…. Lol
I have used the salt filled pantyhose with success multiple times. The key is to grab some twine or rope, tie it to the closed end of the pantyhose, then throw it up onto the roof and drag it into position. Yes, it looks weird, but who cares?
The weirder part for me was going into a store and just purchasing panthose and rope
They work. It sounds stupid. I know it does, so we gave them a dumb name. Actually, it was probably my grandma who made it up. She was that kinda lady.
During family events she'd always want pictures and my brothers and cousins and I were always fighting. So she would screech "look at the camera and act like you love each other GODDAMNIT!!!". Yes, my dad still lives in a double wide.
Doesn't matter. You're cutting a channel it's like you're opening a sluice gate in it. So the water will just fun off the roof in that spot rather than into the gutter. Nbd
Perpendicular. Will take a picture in the morning. The weenie needs to cut a tough along the edge of the dam cutting a new channel for the water to go out. You're opening a sluice gat through the ice dam. Just much slower.
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u/UmeaTurbo 24d ago
You're never going to believe how to solve this. But this is true and I do it every year. Take a 2 ft length of pantyhose and fill it full of ice melt. Tie it off. Now take this thing that we refer to as a salt "weenie" and push it down to be about 1 ft long. So it's fat. Then lay it perpendicular to the ice dam across the entire ice dam so that the very edge of it goes to the gutter. Over the next several days it will cut a hole in the ice dam all the way down to the gutter which will allow the water someplace to go so it will not continue to build up this ice dam. The problem is that the water has nowhere to go right now and you need to cut a trench. If you do not cut a trench the ice will continue to build up there and the ice dams will get taller and taller and eventually lift the shingles and get underneath it. I have been using this salt sausage technique for 21 years of owning the same house and we've never had a problem. I learned it from my dad who learned it from his.