MN Ice Dam Removal

We were called to this home because of the ice coming down the siding here. You see how much ice is coming down the siding. That’s a really good indication that the ice dam is causing a problem in your building. You could already have water and ice in that wall cavity. So if you see anything like that on your building, give us a call. We’re going to throw some video in here of us steaming the ice, a little bit of us shoveling, and a little bit of the machine as well, and we’re going to talk about low pressure steam today. So thank you so much for watching this video. I really appreciate it.

Hey everyone, just coming to you with the second part of this job. The second part of this job is three stories in the back. I’ve got my safety harness on, and we’ve got our safety system all set up and in place. We’re gonna to get steaming. We’re going to get up over the roof and onto the back side. It’s pretty steep, but we’re going to be tied off and using all the safety precautions I was trained to use as a roofer.

Basically, again, we’re using low pressure steam. There’s no trigger on this gun, and there’s no colored nozzles. This is the system you’re looking for if you’re going to have ice dams removed from your roof. If you see anything different than this, it’s more than likely a pressure washer, and you shouldn’t let them on your roof.

So we’re going to take a look at the temperature and the pressure that this machine is running at today. We’re running at only 100 PSI, and we’re running at 275 degrees Fahrenheit continuously. The burner on this machine will continue to run the entire day. It doesn’t cycle on and off and on and off. It stays running the entire day, which means a consistent temperature down on your shingles all day long, and a consistent pressure.

If there’s a trigger on the gun, it’s going to control the burner. The burner is going to go on and off and on and off, and that means it’ll go down to water and back to steam, water to steam. That’s not what you’re looking for. You want the guy on the roof to not be able to control the temperature of this machine. The only way we can adjust the temperature of this machine is basically by shutting it off.

So, let’s look at the gauges here. This is the temperature gauge. We’re running at 275. It’s a little over. We can run up to 290 degrees Fahrenheit if we want to. And you can see in the bank there we’re running at 100 PSI. The needle is vibrating a little bit on the machine there, but you can see it’s right at 100 PSI. So that’s a good, safe pressure. A hot pressure washer typically runs at about 1,000 PSI minimum. They can run up to 3,000 PSI, and they typically only use hot water, you know, 180 to 200 degree hot water, and that’s not even boiling water. So you want low pressure, gentle steam.

So we’re going to get all tied up, we’re going to get up there and start steaming. We’ll take a little bit of video up there as I’m steaming and all tied up. You’ll see me from the backyard, three stories up on this building.

If you need an ice dam removed safely with low pressure steam anywhere in Minnesota, please give me a call. I’ve got over 20 years of experience, and we’re fully insured. We’re going to focus on this magnet here for a minute to let you write down our phone number. Please give me a call. You can also text me on that number there. I’ve got more information on ice dam removal than any company in the world. I’ve got 150 or so YouTube videos on steam ice dam removal. So if you’re looking for a good company that truly cares about the condition of your roof after we’re out, please give me a call at 612-919-4185. Thank you so much.

All right, everyone. We’ve got our rope and harness system all set up. We’re on this roof. This is about a 12/12 pitch, and we’re three stories off the ground. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I was a roofer most of my life, and I like to do some of the jobs that nobody else will take on because they’re just too scary or too dangerous. That’s the kind of stuff I like to do.

As you can see right down here, we’ve got a little dryer vent, and that created a little bit of the heat up here. There’s a big ice dam down here, and there’s a very small overhang. There’s about a six inch soffit down here, and so the ice dam on this roof is pretty significant and very, very close to leaking inside the home. As you can see, we’re up here steaming. We’ve pushed some of the snow down. We’ve got a safety edge in front of us here, and I’m going to get right down. I’m not putting too much water up here, basically just enough water to make a path down for me to walk. The snow is soaking up whatever steam I’m creating, and then I’m going to get my way down to the edge, and I’m going to start cutting that ice dam open, and then I’m going to start steaming it off. We’ll have a couple of pictures from the ground just to show you how high we actually are here.

But if you need an ice dam removed anywhere in Minnesota, and you’re looking for someone who cares about your property, please give me a call at 612-919-4185. Thank you so much.

So as you can see, we’ve got a safety edge created down here with the snow. In the roofing union, we were taught to create a safety edge of snow on the edge of the roof, and you’re never supposed to stand where that safety edge has been removed. So we use this safety edge for our safety. We never stand on an open roof and risk sliding down. This edge of snow here is my safety. It’s not going anywhere. If I slip on this roof, I’m not going to slide off this roof. I’m going to be caught by the snow, and that’s why we call it our safety edge. Its very important.

Okay, so as you can see, I can just walk along the safety edge. I’m going to do a little more shoveling. You’re never supposed to shovel up on a roof or sideways, but when you have as much experience as I do doing this, you can do it, but you’ve got to be careful of your shovel angle okay. So as you can see, I can go ahead and get some of that snow and let it slide right down. Get some of this snow, let it slide down. Basically, I’m making my safety edge. I’m not pushing this snow off the roof. I’m actually making this roof safe for me to walk on okay. So again, you’re never supposed to shovel sideways, but when you’ve got as much experience as I do on a roof, that’s okay. So that safety edge is real nice.

There’s a heat vent right here somewhere. I’m trying to leave that right there okay. I’ll take my shovel and put it behind me. I’m going to give myself a little bit more rope here, and I’m going to get over to the edge and start dealing with the ice dam okay. So I’m going to go ahead and get it cut open here. I’m just gonna spray the steam down here along the thickest part of the ice first and get it cut open.

Before we drop any of this ice on the ground, we’re going to have someone on the ground identifying anything in the way of the ice falling off, like air conditioners and things like that. We’ll get them protected with plywood if necessary, and then we can drop the ice off the roof safely without hurting anything on the ground.

We don’t wanna start pump too much water up here, and creating to much ice and snow melting and then it comes into the home. So you’ve got to open up the ice dam first. We put just enough steam up here to walk down safely. The snow soaks it up, and it doesn’t sit behind the ice dam and come in the home. So you’ve got to be careful who you hire to do this. If they’re making a path down the roof before they open up the ice dam, they’re putting too much steam up here, creating too much melting that could cause a leak inside your home.

We’ve been doing this 20 years, and if you need a good company to remove your ice dams, please give me a call. We use the best low pressure steam equipment in the industry today. We run temperature and pressure gauges on our machine at all times. We’re highly against pressure washers on roofs. It’s very dangerous. Never allow a trigger gun or a colored plastic nozzle on your roof, ever. We’ll give you some pictures from the ground as well, just to show you how high I am off the ground here. And like I said before, there’s not a lot of companies that would consider doing a job like this. We’ve been doing this 20 years, and these are the kind of jobs I enjoy. I kinda get bored sometimes with the flatter pitch roofs and real simple stuff. I like this. So if you have any properties that you need ice dams removed from, please give me a call. Thank you so much.

I want to just talk about one more thing here that you need to look out for when you’re hiring a company to remove your ice dams. Look at their feet. Make sure they’re not wearing any cleats or metal spikes on the bottom of their feet. There are a couple of companies that I know of right now that are fairly big. They run a lot of guys and a lot of machines, and they require their guys to wear spikes or cleats on their feet. That’s very, very bad. You do not ever, ever want to let someone wear metal spikes or cleats on the bottom of their boots, ever, on your roof. It will shorten the lifespan of your roof, it’ll void your warranty, and cause premature roof failure at the very least. Your roof will end up being curled up and dried up because the limestone has been removed from the shingles. So the whole goal of what we’re doing here today is trying not to remove limestone from the shingles. That’s very, very important. You never want to remove limestone from the shingles, not even a little bit, from the bottom of your boots with spikes on there. It’s very, very bad, and so just look at their feet.

Now, as you can see here today, there’s absolutely nothing on the bottom of my boots. They’re just regular rubber boots. These are from Cabela’s. There’s nothing special about them other than they’re really warm. So that’s what you’re looking for, just normal boots. So watch out for that. Thank you so much.

Everyone, as you can see, we got this job done safely. Both sides are completed. We did not need to use any cleats or metal spikes on the bottom of our boots to be safe up here. This is about a 10/12, possibly even a 12/12 here, so it’s very steep in most circumstances for most people. But as you can see, we do not need to use cleats or spikes on the bottom of our boots. These are just rubber boots. I want to emphasize this again, any company that wants to wear cleats or spikes on the bottom of their boots on your roof should never be allowed on any roof, ever again. So look for a company that wears just rubber boots, like us. If you’d like to hire us, please give us a call at 612-919-4185. Thank you.