Home Depot has them up here in Maine. I think you can order on line from them also.

Easiest site in the world to upload pics - don't know what you are talking about :smash:

I wouldn't . I would fall & break my a$$.

Should be worth one of those Hummel reports ;)

I can just stand on the snow pile and reach over my gutters :smash: :uhuh:

Thanks - I just went to survey the back of the house ... ice pouring over the entire length of each side of the house, as the back is somehwat of a "U" with a courtyard in the middle between the two units ... some of the icles are about 12-15 feet long, she's off camping in a yurt (sp?) up in Northen New Hampshire right now ... but something has to be done ... just tired of the leaking roof ...

I have a 36" wide gravel rake... the kind you spread blue-stone dust with... I took a 12 foot aluminum fence post, and clasped it to the handle of radiator hose clamps... Free snow rake... MAny people have the components in their garage or shed to make a snow rake... it doesn't have to be a "snow rake" by name from a store to be a snow rake... Works great. Word of caution: Hide your stuff! I live in a decent area, and people have been getting their snow blowers and rakes stolen... someone sees you clearing your roof, knows you have one, and will swipe it

I use a long cable and run it through the chutes of my two snow blowers (Ariens 1032 and 1336 they have metal chutes) and then paddle lock them and cover with a tarp and so far they have not been stolen, if they want them they have to take them both or cut the cable (I think it's a Brinks 15' available where they sell locks, I got mine at lowes). I have started drilling holes in the soffit to allow the water to escape. My brother in law found they just got (Friday night) 4 pallets of Calcium Chloride in at Home depot on 104 in Bridgewater and is bringing me 100lbs. and I've rounded nylons to make some dam busters.:wall:

Today is D day. When the warmer air and rain start , you will either get lucky with some places through the ice dams to let dranage occur or you will get it inside. It doesn't take much to get some drain action. Even if its just running between the house and the back side of the gutter is will keep it from backing up the slope and beyond the overlap of the shinkles.

Piemma did it the best way , just totally remove that ice cap but most can't do that do to lack of equipment (no ladder) lack of strength or lack of know how. Unless you are used to doing handyman stuff , stay off the high ladders etc. A broken neck is worth a million roofs so be smart. Ross's salty balls (that doesn't sound right :) ) will likely save the day for many people.

I'm lacking something for sure but, luckily my BIL isn't. He took my Korkers and jumped right in. We, or really he got the snow off. About 7' up on the backside, which is where it was doing the most damage. We laid Calcium chloride in nylons , pretty much the whole length. Took about 3' of snow off the garage roof and then the front of the house. Most of the snow to about 5'-6' and again with the nylons,. Keeping my fingers crossed, but I am very relieved.
I hope this is only a wake up call.
I'm getting some insulation tomorrow and getting to work.

You let someone on your roof with Korkers...:smash:

I know Mike, that's the second time I've seen that written by people here :confused:

korkers on roof shingles, nice combo

I don't think the Korkers could have caused much damage, the shingles were cold thus I don't really feel they could penetrate the shingles, if they were warm than I could see them penetrating. It's a second layer of shingles that my step father and I put on 22 years ago and it's time for stripping and replacing anyhow, after all the water dam issues. I am going to the Home show next weekend to look into having Interlock roofing installed, unless it's too expensive compared to other options, and now that my stepfather has passed and I no longer have the sack for heights, I'm leaving it to the pro's. Now I'm wondering what type of penetration the Korkers could of had, I think I'll have to experiment with them on some cold shingles, on the ground/driveway which won't have any give unlike the roof. Has anyone found Korkers cause damage this time of year or is it speculation? I still think having the weight off the garage and the ice dams under control will be less costly than what the Korkers could do, time will tell and perhaps it will be another lesson learned:confused::wall:

Best cure in the world for ice dams: bright sun and 40-45 degrees!

We're working on the roof today. Roof rakes and calcium chloride filled socks. Just taking a five minute break right now.

I see, better to be safe than on the ground with a broken neck or worse.

I was out on the ladder last nite around 9:30 as i had water coming in thru the top of my kitchen window and also out the window sill. I up there hacking away with the claw end of a hammer as i have in past years and it starts to thunder and lighting out for Pete's sake. I got the damn cleared in the area that needed it and went out today and cleared all the gutters and ice dams till next time. Beauty of a day out, lots of mealting. Now my driveway is a whole different matter. Friggin skating rink. Got stuck this morning trying to go to church but the good lord saw fit for me to get unstuck. I need some snow on my driveway to fill in the ruts and give me some traction.

Well todays a balmy 40 degree day it will do some good for drainage it looks like the weather will be in the low 30's for the next few days,this is good news.
I had some water work its way into my master bed room I looked in the attic and it wasn't as bad as I thought,looks like im spending my tax money on a new roof.
With all of this talk on the news with roofs collapsing I looked out at my camper and saw at least 20-24" snow on it:smash:Today was a good day to take advantage and shovel it off,maybe just naive or lucky but better safe then sorry.

Anybody have a good source for heat tape? The best I found online was 4.64 a foot. Looking to this coming summer doing the North side of the house, garage and the gutters

Was able to get some salt bombs up on the roof, about six or so ... so far so good ... also the warm weather was real helpful as well ... bought a lot of extra if need be.

Swung back into the hardware store this morning, and must say, I was amazed at the amount of people there discussing their problems with ice dams ... dozens and dozens of people in this one hardware.

Rock salt flying off the shelves

I ended up using the water softening salt (blue bags) in the nylons for the front of the house and it worked well. Because of the gutter guards they slid off with what was left of the ice dams and it looked like some sort of perverted toilet papering type prank out front with nylons hanging in my bushes and laying on the snow banks:rotf2:

the cobbler's kids...
 

I too got some water in the kitchen and my den last night... Seems I had been paying too much attention getting my clients' houses freed up, and didn't quite clear enough of the ice on my own house.:smash: So I too was up on a ladder in the dark and the rain last night.... Also had it follow my vent pipe right down to my basement.... Spent hours today clearing up to 26" drifts that were still up there. Four straight days of this. I'm whipped.... Glad if my suggestions were able to help some of you out. If so.... as Bassmaster would say, you owe me a plug!:rotf2:

That is what Lowes on Rt106 W Bridgewater was pushing as DeIcer! Obviously they were out of the standard calcium chloride...

Bingo thats the place, it worked and was only a little over $5 for a 40lb. bag.

I didn't have ice dams or leaks, but I did have frozen solid gutters. I got up there with a ladder and a shovel and cleared off the snow about six feet up from the gutter. With the warm weather today - 43 degrees - the ice in the gutter melted no problem. The only problem I have is when the gutter freezes up and the melt water from the snow runs over the gutter and down the outside of the house. No problem today, but I still have ice in the back gutters - less sun back there.

I have electric heat wires on the roof and in the gutters.. i rake after every snow fall... I have the only house on the street with out ice dams....

the reason for CaCl is because it relies on a chemicle reaction to work ( just add water) rock salt requires help from the sun and warmer temps...

My lawn is crab grass.... i couldnt kill it if I wanted to...

Rock salt is Sodium Chloride - NaCl. Calcium Chloride is CaCl2. When NaCl dissolves, there are two ions - one of Na and one of Cl. When CaCl2 dissolves, there are three ions, one of Ca and two of Cl. That's why Calcium Chloride works better. Both are chemical reactions - they lower the temperature at which water freezes - so they cause ice to melt as long it the temperature is above the new freezing temp.

Look at the size of the brain on mark!

BSD-135: Ice Dams — Building Science Information
This site is worth looking at when you try and figure out what to do to permently solve your problem

I hate to nitpick, but isn't dissolving a physical change? You mix table salt into water, then evaporate all the water and you'll still have table salt. If it were a chemical reaction, then a new compound would have to be created.

Dissolving salts into water raises the boiling point of water and lowers the freezing point. I believe calcium chloride lowers the freezing point more than NaCl would and is why it is more effective at dealing with ice.

I always loved chemistry in college is high school.

No quite correct, JD.

Is mixing calcium chloride and water a chemical reaction?
Answer YES

CaCl2(aq) + H2O(aq) = 2HCl(aq) + CaO(s)

You con't get CaCl2 back.

More importantly for melting snow: the reaction is exothermic giving off HEAT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYy9B...layer_embedded

(thermometer is in Celsius)

All I know is that working all day with two other guys and plenty of calcium Chloride got most of the ice dams off of my roof.

that made me chuckle out loud... have no idea why. :rotf2:

That's right, forgot CaCl2 is one that actually reacts with water.:smash:

Is it called the eutectic point ?
Haven't thought of it since Charlie Waughs 1972 chemistry class, all I wanted to do was burn stuff . . . . . boy did I ever.:grins:

Nope , you had it right Johnny D.

When we use either CaCl2 or NaCL to melt ice , its because it lowers the melting point of the water. There is virtually no contribution of an exothermic reaction at the very low levels it gets diluted to when you use a sprinkle of salt on an icy surface. yes , a spoon full in a small amount of water will raise the temp but for the use in melting ice , its all Phase diagram stuff , not exeothermic reaction. It actually will lower freezing point to -50 degrees at a 30 wt% solution but my guess is that at the concentrations we use , it might lower it 4 degrees or so.

The experiment to prove this using the video shown , would to be to put the reacted mixture that was raised to 50C inot a freezer. The freezing point of the water would be way low , maybe approaching -50 C at the concentration he used. Remember , in the freezer you are not taking the salt out. You are just taking heat out and even though all the heat of the reaction is gone , the water with the same salt in it still has that hugely lowered melting point.

To read more , search for "water/Calcium Chloride Phase Diagram.

Saltheart
MIT 77 :)

Didn't see makai's post.

the eutectic point is that specific concentration of salt and water that has the lowest melting point of all the possible concentrations. It aloso needs to transform from a total Solid to a total liquid to be a Eutectic point. If it is at a concentration that turns to slush , some water and some solid , its not a eutectic point , its just some point along the partial fraction liquid + solid phase line.

Eutectic= complete solid to liquid transformation on heating at one specific concentration where the melting point is the lowest

Think my head just got a little bigger,
now I wanna make some homemade ice cream the old fashioned way !

So... Phil and I are both kind of right?

I like that...on a grand scale. I'm a single molecule scale guy!

If there is no water and its below freezing...each crystal/molecule CaCl2 on a molecular scale reacts with snow/ice to generate water based upon mini-exothermic reactions, e.g. ice melts. The thing cascades and makes more water which dissolves more CaCl2. The more water the more CaCl2 dissolved the lower the freezing point which causes more ice to melt.

I am confused, doesn't the solid calcium chloride generate heat untill it becomes liquid when exposed to water, either solid or liquid?

Stay confused, sometimes we are better off that way!:rotf2:


Point 1: yes when adding solid/dry CaCl2 to water it will get warmer. The more CaCl2 the warmer it gets. The mixing is "exothermic".

Point 2: CaCl2 in water will lower the freezing point of that water. Again, up until 30% (w/v) that freezing point depression will eventually reach -50C. (Question: anyone know how cold -50C is? DAMN COLD!)

When determining the freezing point (or eutectic point) of a given solution of CaCl2 in water it doesn't matter at what temperature the CaCl2/water solution starts from, it is not a measure of how many BTU's to cool only at what point does the solution freeze. So if I take room temperature water, add CaCl2 depending upon how much CaCl2 it may get detectably warm (to the hands or see movie above), then cool it down to freezing it will still have the same measured freezing point whether I start from room temperature water, warm/hot water, or even cold water. The graph attached earlier takes 20 or more different solutions of CaCl2 in water and measures the freezing point of each solution.


Side point: Car antifreeze, ethylene glycol, if you mix 2 parts anitfreeze with 1 part water you get a solution that freezes at ~70C. Don't mix ratios in any greater as the freezing point rapidly rises!