BS: Removal of ice from rooves

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 02:02 PM

You mean....if we have icicles we probably have an ice dam? Hell, every house I've ever lived in has had icicles and no one has ever raked the roof. Nobody ever has in any place I've ever lived. Kansas, New Mexico and now Wyoming.

Until I looked at some pics, I didn't even really know what an ice damn is.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 01:36 PM

it is "roofs" in Britain as well.

"hoof" and "poof" (slang )are the only words ending in " ...oof" that alter to a "v" in the plural as far as I am aware

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: bobad
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 06:37 PM

gnu lives in New Brunswick, dat's the way they talk dere.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 06:02 PM

Pooves? "Most people call gay men 'gay men', but my rude uncle calls them 'pooves'."
Noun proof-prooves, as in, "On the math test, he came up with the right answers but his prooves were crap."
"I can play that tune, but I make a lot of gooves."

It's 'ROOFS'. I can link to several on-line dictionaries. Please link to one that indicates 'rooves' is a real word. Even a British one.

I think the sock-on-a-string works great. You can heave them from the ground (if you can find it) or from an open window.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 05:27 PM

I think there are some silly gooves on this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: bobad
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 04:43 PM

hoof - hooves
roof - rooves

Makes sense to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 04:41 PM

I just checked two dictionaries - it's roofs.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 04:33 PM

uNFORTUANTELY, IN ORDER TO USE THE ROOF RAKE i HAVE TO SHOVEL A FEW FIVE FOOT SNOW DRIFTS (READ iCE pILES) BEFORE i CAN EVEN GET NEAR THE ROOF.
dAMN cAPSLOCK.

On his last trip, Micca was looking out my front window watching a man on a steeply inclined roof trying to remove snow and ice. Like an accident, you just have to look.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Nick
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 02:33 PM

1 Put on sunglasses and a pair of bermuda shorts

2 Pour long cool drink

3 Remove all the insulation from the roof and turn the heating up to full blast and drink the drink as the heat disappears through the roof (along with your money)

Field tested on a dolls house and it seems to work - not sure if it will scale up or not

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 09:19 AM

We just use a "roof rake" made for the job. Works a treat, and no pantyhose required. It's kept the dams from forming, both in terms of snow to ice, and verbally.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: gnu
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 07:47 AM

Ladders that are not properly equipped for ice are dangerous. My bro didn't know what he was doing and learned the hard way. Broke his wrist bad. At the hospital emerg, he met twenty one similarly educated others.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 05:44 PM

My dad used to be my brother's handyman for his rental properties in exchange for free housing. I spent one winter helping him out on weekends. Learned a lot of useful things, many of them in the "what not to do" category. We had a lot of snow that winter and we spent a lot of time up on various roofs removing snow and ice. I have yet to forget the sight of my dad, half-way up the ladder when it slid away from the house. He had this resigned look on his face and if he had been a famous cartoon coyote, would have been holding up a sign that said "Oh, shit!" I did check the ladder to see if it had "Acme" anywhere on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Megan L
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 05:16 PM

She is just being unreasonable lad if it worked in Illinois. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 05:11 PM

We used to get ice dams on the rivers that fed into the Mississippi, back when I was growing (figuratively) up.

They'd dynamite 'em.

But when we got ice dams on the roof in Indiana my wife said no when I told her how we used to deal with 'em in Illinois.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:08 PM

It wasn't fun but it was a good source of fast cash.

Ice Damming by Barry Finn

It's winter in New England and throughout the land
The trucks will start rolling with all available hands
It's a party, a picnic, a past time, a plan
Over mountains of snow they attack the Ice Dams

    Chorus:
    And you hear everywhere the cry Ice Dam
    Down the flue like a fever it spreads through the land
    Man your pickups, your axes, every woman and man
    And answer the call and the cry Ice Dam

Blaze a path round a house in snow that's waist deep
Take a snow rake or shovel, clear up 3 feet
Crawl the edge of a dam on a roof that's too steep
And start pounding on ice and let nobody sleep

On a 40 foot ladder that slides on the ice
Out comes the homeowner who tries to be nice
I like what you're doing but I won't pay you're price
For a few dollars less would you still risk your life
Some shingles may break & the ice will sure fall                                                               But no more will the water run down your walls                                                               So pay us in cash & don't call our hall                                                                               Is it legal to be paid cash to have such a ball
Like ants, like termites we're all over your roof
We sing ice dam and drink 100 proof
It's our tough winter windfall & that's the dam truth
When ice damming is done we're a winter recluse
Copyright, Barry Finn 1996 (winter)

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 03:30 PM

I used to use a 4 foot long piece of 1.5" galvanized pipe. Broke up ice dams, icicles, heads, arms, legs....

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:54 PM

rooves- remember Tolkien and dwarves?

(roove- an obsolete term for rivet)

In high snowfall areas in interior British Columbia, high-pitched sheet metal roofs are often used.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:42 PM

"Removal of ice from rooves"


Spring

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:42 PM

It is not ROOFS. You are from New England.... England.... rooves is right proper I says.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:33 PM

It's roofs.

I seem to remember an earlier thread on ice dams, and Barry Finn wrote a song about the slippery work of getting rid of them. I didn't think about the panty hose. I just filled up a sock, tied a string on, threw it on the roof and pulled it until it was on the ice. I moved it after a while. I've never had any back-up, but the dam I had forming made me think it could happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:32 PM

Fond memories of bottom body halves flung on my roof while the neighbors looked on in horror. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: Megan L
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:21 PM

Emmmmmmmmm remember to tak them aff first lad

Subject: BS: Removal of ice from rooves
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:16 PM

CMHC has a pretty good article here. Even though they can't spell "rooves" correctly.

I speed-read most paragraphs so I don't know if the following was mentioned. Best way I know to alleviate ice damming on an emergency basis is to lay pantyhose with deicer in them ever 1200mm (4ft) or so. Yes, I am serious. And, no, I don't.