How do I remove an ice dam from my roof?

Safety first: what not to do

This Old House warns that hacking at the ice with a hammer or chisel harms the roof and you. Travelers, the insurer, warns that a ladder in snow and ice is dangerous, so skip it, hose work included. Skip rock salt too.

How to remove roof ice from the ground

The steps Travelers and This Old House give:

• Rake the snow off the lower 3 to 4 feet of the roof. Stand well back, because snow can slide off at once.
• Fill a nylon stocking with calcium chloride ice melt and lay it up and down across the dam, so it melts a channel.
• If you cannot place it safely from the ground, call a roofing contractor.

Why ice dams come back

University of Minnesota Extension traces ice dams to heat leaking into the attic. The snow melts and refreezes at the cold edge. Air sealing and insulation by a weatherization contractor fix the cause.

Where gutter guards fit

A guard neither stops nor causes an ice dam. It keeps leaves out, so meltwater has an open path. See whether gutter guards cause ice dams and gutter guards in winter.

Call to install: every step

Three ways to start

• Call (617) 401-9301. It is answered any hour, and a missed call gets called back.
• Send the short form on the home page with your street address, and your number lands in your inbox.
• Text or chat through the chat window on this site.

1. 01

   Understand what you actually need

   About fifteen minutes on the phone: the length of the roofline, the number of stories and the trees around the house. The roofline is measured remotely, so nobody comes to the house to sell. You get your price the same day, from the published per-foot rates.

   • Gutters still in good shape: Gutter Clean Pro goes over the gutters you already have, from $18/ft.
   • Gutters that need replacing: new gutters with the guard built in. T-Rex (continuous hanger) from $25/ft, or DoublePro (two filtration layers) from $30/ft.
   • Fascia that cannot be drilled: Hover Pro, quoted for your house.
   • Complex rooflines, third stories and copper are quoted separately, and we say so on the call, never after arrival.
2. 02

   Your plan, in writing

   You get a written quote and your StormRail plan: photos of your house, the system, the gutter size and your color choices. The certified installer works from that same plan, so you and the installer are never on different pages.

3. 03

   A deposit capped at one third

   Massachusetts law caps a home-improvement deposit at one third of the contract. We hold to that in every state we work in. Your quote names the exact figure before you pay anything.

4. 04

   Material ordered and confirmed

   Your Alu-Rex system is ordered through the Alu-Rex distributor and confirmed before an install date is set, so the date you get is one the material can meet.

5. 05

   Scheduled with a certified installer in your county

   A certified Alu-Rex installer working in your area takes the job, and you get the date without chasing anyone. In season we're typically booking four to six weeks out. We'd rather tell you that now than promise you Tuesday and send whoever happened to be free. Emergency work — a collapsed run, active water in the basement — gets triaged ahead of the queue.

6. 06

   Installed

   The installer fits the system on the plan you already approved. Any balance is due as your quote states.

7. 07

   After the install

   We check in after the job is done. Each system carries its own written Alu-Rex warranty:

   • Gutter Clean Pro: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance lifetime limited, including coniferous areas
   • T-Rex: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance 25-year prorated limited
   • DoublePro: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance lifetime limited, including coniferous areas

Questions homeowners ask

Compare the systems before you call: all gutter guards, Gutter Clean Pro, T-Rex, DoublePro, and the full price list.