Frozen Gutters And Downspouts

First resist the urge to go after the ice with a hammer or axe.

Frozen gutters and downspouts. Rain gutters should slope 1 2 inch for every 10 feet. Over time the ice may back up into your gutters themselves thereby creating extra weight on your entire guttering system. Frozen downspouts occur during the winter during or after winter weather occurs. In order to thaw your frozen downspout you must do the following.

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. 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. Use heat tape or a heating panel system.

One recommends whacking the gutter from an upstairs window with a baseball bat. Unfortunately dealing with frozen gutters is rarely simple or inexpensive. The downspout is responsible for taking the water collected by the gutters and dispersing it out and away from the home s foundation. 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.

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. If you live in a colder part of the world you may run into a situation where your downspouts become frozen. Some say just leave it alone. There are a few likely scenarios that can cause ice accumulation in downspouts.

Yet another recommends running electrical heat tape to prevent melting. 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 there is a large amount of snow on the ground that is covering the bottom mouth of the downspout. Others recommend taking ice melt to the gutters see below a few say heat the gutters to clear them.

That allows water to easily flow to the downspout. It will cause your downspouts to freeze. If your gutters sit flat water will just sit in the gutter and freeze. Before winter strikes adjust the slope of your gutters if needed.

Before winter fully sets in it s important to ensure that your gutters and downspouts can handle melting snow and ice.