Ice Dams, Pantyhose, Salt

Hey Reuben,

We know all about salt here but nobody put it on their roofs although we have the same problems.

Salt can do damage to the roofing materials themselves.

That may be why the practice was to use them in panty hose. The panty hose would keep excess salt out of unnecessary contact with the roofing but melt any snow/ice it was in contact with.

Picking the panty hose up later would also be a convenient way to clean up. Loose salt has to be flushed away with water, so not as convenient or easy to do. Spring rains may not be soon enough to not let the salt damage occur.

There is one other method for ice removal and channel cutting that I don't recall any earlier discussion about: water.

Anybody else know this one? Gotta run but I'll come back to this.

Ok Here goes the story on water.

There are two ways to go. Both are done only after the loose snow and ice have been removed.

The first requires a mild day, preferably sunny. We all know that a water line will not freeze it there is a constant trickle running in it. So this is what we are using here. The garden hose (kept indoors over night to warm it up) is brought out , connected to the spigot and looped over the roof to where you want a channel cut in the ice dam. You run the water just fast enough to keep it from freezing. You can chip a channel for it to run in. Start it on top of the dam just enough to not pond up behind it.

Once you have it going you leave it letting the relatively warm moving water cut a channel in the ice. Admittedly this is not a professional solution and will take time. If not monitored it could make a mess and the hose has to be removed, drained, and brough it as well as all plumbing lines and valves closed and drained when finished for the day. Results will depend on the weather and water temperature. It's touch and go.

The second is simple. Just pour boiling water right out of a kettle to cut a channel. It works and if you are lucky you won't scald yourself. I saw one home owner plug his ekectric kettle into an extension cord and sit down to wait for it to boil. He was sitting for a long time.

Technically this second way is the same as using steam, just a smaller scale.

I don't recommend either.

You are like some kind of mad scientist with these ice dam experiments :) It's hard to argue with those results.

I don't have to deal wiith snow but if I ever do I will remember this post...great idea!

Who told you to cut the pantyhose? Once cut they are just hose!

The reason you use panty hose, is so you don't have to carry a bag of salt to the roof and pour it while trying to keep your balance and not fall off the roof!

Margaret

I didn't know they still made those panty hose thingy's. We don't have snow and ice that builds like that here in The Texas Hill Country.

I can tell you that I'm not going up a ladder with one hand, and hot tea kettle in the other to pour over an ice dam.  Since most of us winterize out outside spigots to avoid burst pipes, we wouldn't hook up the hose until the spring thaw. 

As for balmy day, WE ARE IN MINNESOTA AND WON'T HAVE A BALMY DAY UNTIL JUNE!  Winter came early, we've had record snowfall and I'm beginning that we will never see green grass again.   I don't think I'll ever see my roof again either. 

I can tell you that I'm not going up a ladder with one hand, and hot tea kettle in the other to pour over an ice dam.  Since most of us winterize out outside spigots to avoid burst pipes, we wouldn't hook up the hose until the spring thaw. 

As for balmy day, WE ARE IN MINNESOTA AND WON'T HAVE A BALMY DAY UNTIL JUNE!  Winter came early, we've had record snowfall and I'm beginning that we will never see green grass again.   I don't think I'll ever see my roof again either. 

Thanks for your timely demonstration. We have a snowy and very cold day in Maryland.

 Life is good!

Hi Reuben, a great experiment with good results.  Now, the next concern is the long term effect of salt application on asphalt shingles.  That sounds like a 15 to 20 year project.  Keep up the great posts!

I just was sent over to this post - I wrote my own on it - we tried the panty hose, did not do anything over 4 days.   We hired a guy to come in this tiny warm spell we had and take all of the snow and ice off of all of our roofs - now we are free of the problems.......

Reuben,

Your experiment makes perfect sense to me. Since you need the surface contact of the salt to create the ion exchange (melting effect). This could be a fun chemistry project, next you try side by side of Salt (Sodium Chloride) vs Calcium Chloride vs Calcium chloride and Calcium magnesium acetate mix.

Salt is hard on vegetation, calcium chloride is the quickest at melting ice, Calcium Magnesium Acetate  is the  safest for concrete & vegetation.

I think many "Ice melts" use a combo of Potassium chloride and sodium chloride