How To Safely Remove Icicles From Gutters

After snow falls use a roof rake to remove all snow and ice as soon as you can.

How to safely remove icicles from gutters.

The long handle on the rake allows you to remove icicles and. Before proceeding you should know what risks come with removing icicles from your gutter yourself. This article will explain what ice dams are how they form and the best methods for removing them safely. Icicles may be pretty but they can tear off gutters loosen shingles and cause water to back up into your house.

While standing safely on the ground hold a long handled aluminum rake and use it to scrape the snow and icicles off your roof. An ice dam is a wall of ice that forms at the edge of the roof usually at the gutters or soffit. Large icicles can weigh quite a bit and hitting them can cause pieces to crash all around or break off new pieces that can strike from above you. The icicles dripping from gutters across the region aren t going away anytime soon since the weather forecast calls for sub zero temperatures for the next few days.

Whether for safety reasons to prevent strain on gutters or even for the satisfaction of knocking them down many of us are tempted to remove icicles ourselves. To prevent icicles from forming in the first place clean out gutters before freezing temps hit to keep items like leaves from clogging the downspouts and allowing water to build up says jason miller a merchandising director for lowe s. For small icicles less than a foot long and an inch wide you can remove them yourself with something like a telescoping snow rake available at hardware stores. What is an ice dam.