Frozen Gutters Causing Leak
Any counsel much appreciated. I think my downspout may have been partially blocked, causing the whole damn thing to freeze. Now I’ve got a leak into my tenants’ extension. The roof of the extension was a giant sheet of ice – water seems to be flowing down the side of the building and I think…
Any counsel much appreciated. I think my downspout may have been partially blocked, causing the whole damn thing to freeze. Now I’ve got a leak into my tenants’ extension.
The roof of the extension was a giant sheet of ice – water seems to be flowing down the side of the building and I think pooled on the extension roof. We cleared it and I’m trying to “de-ice the gutter with warm water but it’s solid ice. Happy to call a roofer but I’m not sure what can be done until the ice thaws. Ideas to the contrary MUCH appreciated!
Yeah, thanks all.
My contractor told me to put a tarp around the point where the downspout hits the extension. Problem he thought was partly the ice buildup there.
Once the ice has melted of its own volition I’ll snake it t make sure there’s no blockage. Next year it’s getting an electric blanket per above!
The link that I mentioned included both pipe deicing cable (not the right choice) and roof and gutter deicing cable at the bottom of the page. You want the latter.
-SoSlope
so helpful.
thanks
I had exactly this problem a few weeks ago. Here is what I did, although I am no expert, so there may be better ways:
1) Separate the downspout if possible (find a break, melt or chip the exterior ice and remove the 1 or 2 screws holding the sections together. This will allow you to remove the ice inside more easily (some may just drop out of the sections still attached to the house as you melt it).
2) Melt the ice in the down spout with hot water. This will be a lot faster than using a hair dryer or any other device. By the way, even if you have removed all of the ice from the outside, you can be sure that the inside of the downspout is still full of ice. Even if you cannot separate the downspout, you can still melt it with hot water, it will just take more trips carrying pots of hot water up to the roof. If carrying water to the roof gets hold, you could try blowing hot air up from the bottom (the hot air will rise). Just be careful that water does not drip back into the heat gun or hair dryer.
3) Reassemble the gutter.
4) Run a gutter heating cord up the inside of the down spout. Lowes sells these (http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogDisplay?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=easyheat). You do not want to use the elements meant to wrap around pipes to keep them from freezing since they are not meant to be used outside. The heating elements I linked to do not get very hot–just enough to keep the water flowing. The easiest way to thread them through the downspout is either with an electrical snake (is that what it is called?) or a string with a weight.
Since I ran these and turned them on, I have had no issues. The whole process–including melting the downspout–took me about 90 minutes.
I used a roof heating cable from Home Depot. It is secured at the top of the drain (I think it is wrapped around a hook) and run down the inside of the (metal) pipe. It has a sensor near the plug end which turns on when it gets cold enough. Of course, you’ll need an outlet to plug it into. Make sure it has a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) since water and electricity don’t mix. It has been working for 5 years now, correcting a nasty frozen pipe problem by preventing ice dams and leaks.
edifice rex, do you just run one heating cable alongside it, and secure it to it with ties or something? i don’t think i have room to actually wrap it around as directed for use on pipes…
Same here. We just got a new roof put on–literally three weeks ago–yet we had a bad leak from the area around the frozen downspout yesterday. Apparently the ice was so thick it went up above the roofline to where the new roofing material meets the metal flashing. An extraordinary amount of ice. Thankfully, we used a stand-up roofer–Mike from Roofmaster–who came out right away and, with his guys, shoveled some snow, broke up/melted/removed the ice, and resealed the problematic area.
Those heat cables seem like a good solution. Our downspout has frozen over numerous times, so I think I might try those… at least to plug in and turn on in times of extraordinary snow and ice, like right now!
i did use a heat gun to get the ice off the pipe
I had a look in the back lastnight, and my drain pipe is also frozen solid the entire height of the building, its definitely quite icey where the drain meets the extention roof, do you guys think I should be concerned that leak(s) are forming? I do nto see any interior evidence of leaking… but maybe I should look into these cables posted above…