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O.T. Frozen Downspouts

J

Jiles

Well-known Member
I live in N.W. Alabama in a "new to me" home. We have had an unusual event in that we got 11" of snow and it has been below freezing for 4 or 5 days. Now the snow is slowley melting with temperatures in the lower thirties today and expected to be low to mid 40's tomarrow and through the weekend.
I still have a lot of snow on my roof and when it has been melting, the water has frozen in all my north downspouts. Two are frozen solid in the bottom 5 or 6 feet.
I know this is not a serious problem, for now, but I was just wondering what do people do to prevent or correct this situation in areas where this is common.
My concern is all the weight on the gutter system if they can't drain.
 
Actually frozen gutters and downspouts aren't a huge problem. The bigger problem is when ice dams form on roof overhangs. Water backs up behind the dams and gets under shingles and into the house. I have deicing cables on my roof and inside the gutters and downspouts to keep them from freezing.
 
Around here in central NY, we tear them off and leave them off (gutters and downspouts). I DO know a few people that actaully put them back on in the summer, but not me.

No gutters and good metal ice-slides on the eaves if an asphalt roof. Without, a house can get pretty bad ice-dams and roof leaks. Some people also use electric grid heater wires on eaves. Eave-overhangs that are cooler then the roof higher up can give a lot of trouble.
 
A little hot water slowly poured along the outside of
the gutter will help. Try to pour it above a seam. Of
course, if it is still much below freezing this is not
adviseable.
 
Around here we just take them off the house and blow a little hot exhaust through them.

P1010018.jpg
 
1. STOP WHINING!

2. Stop and think what those of us that live on the tundra have to look forward to... exactly what your problem is, and we have to wait until mid-March before Mother Nature solves the problem... I think your problem will melt away LONG before that!

(SORRY, just giving you a little crap, but also telling it like it is!)
 
I'm surprised that they haven't split open at the seams yet. Those ice clogs pretty much destroy the thin aluminum downspouts.
 

You can make de-icing tubes from long socks, with de-icer in them andplace them in the valley og the roof, just above the eve-spout.

You can put some de-icer in the eve-trough and it will find its way down..

Wrap a Heat-Tape around the frozen down-spout..

I have a very long one in the down-spout drain that runs under my drive to keep it open in coldest weather..

Ron..
 
ontario canada here & what you got is a regular thing here
what i do is .......... wait for spring ?
guess thats not too helpfull, but thats all i got
bob
 
if it comes in in small amounts and freezes it expands up instead of out that's why the seems don't often split.Like others said in Canada or almost the arctic to some we just leave em be till spring eventually they thaw out.
 
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