Frozen Gutters And Downspouts

Make sure your gutters are properly sloped.

Frozen gutters and downspouts.

Highly rated gutter pros tell our team that they see lots of damage in spring from homeowners who tried to remove winter ice with picks shovels or axes. Others recommend taking ice melt to the gutters see below a few say heat the gutters to clear them. Here are some things you can do to prevent ice in gutters and downspouts. On line advice about frozen downspouts varies.

Although calgary has already had a taste of winter there s still time to clear your gutters and downspouts of fall leaves to that they can do their job of moving water runoff away from your home properly. Before winter strikes adjust the slope of your gutters if needed. In order to thaw your frozen downspout you must do the following. Rain gutters should slope 1 2 inch for every 10 feet.

First resist the urge to go after the ice with a hammer or axe. It will cause your downspouts to freeze. Clogged gutters can be a serious hazard and can lead to the formation of ice dams along your roofline accelerating the freezing of your downspouts. Frozen downspouts can cause costly damage however consistently frozen or frozen solid downspouts may require immediate attention especially if weather conditions will be less than ideal for the foreseeable future.

If your gutters sit flat water will just sit in the gutter and freeze. One recommends whacking the gutter from an upstairs window with a baseball bat. When winter storms hit gutters and downspouts sometimes freeze into solid blocks of ice and homeowners understandably worry about gutters pulling away from the roofs or ice dams forming. Use heat tape or a heating panel system.

While frozen gutters and downspouts may lead to water damage from ice dams or from gutters pulling away from the roof the solution can be as bad as the potential problems. Yet another recommends running electrical heat tape to prevent melting. Unfortunately dealing with frozen gutters is rarely simple or inexpensive. There are a few likely scenarios that can cause ice accumulation in downspouts.

Over time the ice may back up into your gutters themselves thereby creating extra weight on your entire guttering system. The downspout is responsible for taking the water collected by the gutters and dispersing it out and away from the home s foundation. If you live in a colder part of the world you may run into a situation where your downspouts become frozen. If there is a large amount of snow on the ground that is covering the bottom mouth of the downspout.

Some say just leave it alone.