From: "Linda" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Gutter Ice Control
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 07:07:37 -0500

"v"  wrote in message
news:401ef773.4967964@news.verizon.net...
> On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 16:29:58 +0000 (UTC), someone wrote:
> >
> >In the US northern interior, depending on weather conditions,
> >ice buildup in gutters can lead to fascia and/or roof damage.
> >
> IMHO gutter ice rarely if ever causes roof damage. I also thik if it
> causes fascia damage, often it was because of some bad detail that let
> waer behind the fascia.  NOT to say that in winter anything like that
> is IM possible.  Just often lamed when really something else.
>
> What causes interior damage is ice dams on the roof itself.  I live in
> the Northeast and one year the gutter ice did build up much higher
> than the actual gutter, well upm onto the roof.  But unlike an actual
> ice dam it was flat on top, so no pool of liquid water behind it.
...
> BTW one of our commercial properties has heating able in the gutter
> itself.  That gutter still gets buildups sometimes.  Makes a tunnel
> right around the cable.  Once wrapped completely, it then builds up as
> if the cable wasn't there at all.


I've thought of having those cables installed in the spring.  The ice dams
on my house are driving me crazy; they keeping forming and cause flooding of
the adjacent walls/ceiling of the house even after we've tried all the usual
remedies--venting the attic really well, adding insulation on attic floor.
But heating cables add significant expensive.  I've heard that some people
just get rid of the gutters altogether.  Is there any significant drawback
to this?

Linda