In this video master electrician for ask this old house scott caron helps a homeowner install heat cables on his roof to stop ice dams.
Roof coils ice dams.
Install the cables along the roof edge where ice tends to build up.
When it reaches the eaves where the temperature of the roof is colder the water refreezes.
Attached with clips along the roof s edge in a zigzag pattern heated cables help prevent ice dams that lift shingles and cause leaks.
Ice dams result from repeated cycles of thawing and freezing which cause snow and ice to melt then freeze along the roof edge lead photo.
As more and more water melts down the roof and refreezes at these locations ice builds up and forms a blockage or dam.
Anything that melts snow on your roof can cause an ice dam.
Deicing cables heat the roof edge and keep it free of ice.
Heated roof systems offers you our exclusive patented technology that provides a concealed snow melt mat placed under various roofing material to eliminate ice dams.
Our mats can be placed under asphalt shingles synthetic slate and shake and both standing seam and pro panel roofing giving you the continuous look to the roof edge.
They can also cause considerable roof leaks that lead to interior damage.
The cables will create lots of zig zagging channels of melted snow across your roof.
Roof deicing cables get their name from their primary purpose to deice roofs.
Clip in the cable along the same zigzag pattern as the shingle clips.
See below for a shopp.
Heat coils for ice dam prevention are of course the same thing as heat cables.
Ice dams are those beautiful but deadly mounds of ice and icicles that you see along the edge of some roofs.
Heat coils most likely get their name from the fact that the material itself that is the heat cable comes in coils and when installed by a hack is sometimes left in coils on the roof.
Ice dams can pose many problems.
Where does that melted snow go.
Secure shingle clips to roof shingles using a flathead screwdriver making sure to align them in a zigzag pattern.
They form when snow melts in warmer areas of the roof sending water running down toward the edge.
This dam traps water allowing it to work under the shingles.
This solution allows you to equalize your roof s temperature by heating it from the outside instead of blowing in cold air from the inside as we mention next in fast fixes.
The name is a bit of a misnomer however because technically roof deicing cables do not deice the entire.
Once this thick ice forms it prevents melting snow from running off the roof.
An ice dam is a solid ridge of ice that forms along the edges of your roof.
Heat cables for ice dams.
Snow starts to melt in certain areas of the roof which are warmer than others due to heat loss from the attic.
