A sprinkling of rock salt can nip ice gutter problems in the bud if you notice icicles beginning to form.
Stop iced gutters with rock salt in.
In fact once your gutters are frozen solid your best bet may be to wait it out.
Kxly4 s dave erickson shows us how the strange combination of panty hose and ice melt can help you un freeze those gutters.
Do not use rock salt.
Securely lean a ladder against your house so that you can reach the gutters then gently tap the front of the gutters with a rubber mallet until the ice breaks apart.
If you have them you may have heard of the practice of salting gutters this involves stuffing stockings or socks with rock salt then laying the salt in the gutter or on the dam to help melt the ice.
For many homeowners in cold regions unsightly and damaging ice dams are a problem throughout the winter.
Lay the hose onto the roof so it crosses the ice dam and overhangs the gutter.
Be careful about how hard you re pounding the ice you don t want to tear your gutter off the house.
Just as rock salt will melt ice on your walkways so too will it melt ice in your gutters.
The only time i would even bother trying to touch an ice dam like that is if it s going into the shingles and dripping into the house says joe hennelly owner of hennelly son roofing gutters in quincy massachusetts.
If necessary use a long handled garden rake or hoe to push it into position.
But unless you can somehow run a hose from a hot water source you ll be forced to use pitchers pots or similar containers to repeatedly dump the water where it needs to go which can be cumbersome and time consuming.
Using hot water or steam to thaw icy gutters.
Melt troughs through the ice dam with calcium chloride ice melter.
A third method is to use hot water to melt the ice in and on your gutters.
An ice dam is a wall of ice that forms at the edge of the roof usually at the gutters or soffit.
Again this is ladder work and an easy way to damage either plastic or metal gutters and spouts.
Consider adding rock salt.
Trying to break it up is dangerous and you can damage the gutters.
Even if you do it safely the chunks of ice can take pieces of shingle with them.
Clear out gutters and downspouts.
The calcium chloride will eventually melt through the snow and ice and create a channel for water to flow down into the gutters or off the roof.