Fast fixes hacking away at ice dams with a hammer chisel or shovel is bad for your roofing and dangerous for you.
Fix ice damming on roof.
Use calcium chloride or an ice melt product.
5 steps to handling ice dam damage first get rid of any built up snow using a roof rake used for single family homes with pitched roofs or shoveling it.
Illustration by yuko shimizu hacking away at ice dams with a hammer chisel or shovel is bad for your.
We have found that the only way to cure an ice dam and prevent one in the first place is to.
Insulate the living space well enough to prevent conduction and convection of heat.
Seal all points where warm air leaks from the living space into the spaces immediately below the roof sheathing.
This membrane will allow any water that does back up beneath the shingles to be safely drained off the roof.
If you have an ice dam forming you can apply calcium chloride or similar.
A rake with wheels.
As some of these problems such as snow sun and wind are unavoidable the surefire solution to preventing water damage due to ice damming is to include a waterproof membrane below your final roof covering at the bottom edge of the roof.
Fast fixes for ice dam removal blow in cold air.
Use a roof rake after heavy snowfalls.
Chip off the ice.
Pull off snow with a long handled aluminum roof rake while you stand safely on the ground.
Be very careful here you don t want to further damage.
Hosing with tap water on a warm day will do this job.
In an emergency situation where water is flowing into the house structure making channels through the ice dam allows the water behind the dam to drain off the roof.
Next remove the ice dam by breaking it free in small chunks.