But are they doing more harm than good.
Salt to melt roof ice.
The big five include.
If you are going to.
If there are heavy rains and you already put ice melting socks on the roof the rock salt will dissolve by water and will run down into your gutters so it s best to put them up when it becomes cold.
Gently toss the tied off pantyhose onto the edge of your roof to begin melting the snow.
Sodium chloride or rock salt is highly corrosive.
The roofmelt ice melt is designed to eliminate the need to climb onto roofs while melt snow.
Here are four reasons salt pucks are bad for your roof.
Apply 1 tablet on every sqft of problem area.
It melts ice faster than sodium chloride does works at lower temperatures than sodium chloride and also melts larger volumes of ice.
Place this vertically on your roof near the edge so it will melt a section of snow and ice creating an area where the water can leak off.
Comes in a 14 lb pail and is an estimated 60 pucks per container.
It is not as likely to stain or cause corrosion as sodium chloride but it can damage wooden gutters.
Salt socks work on the principle that the ice melting compound is contained in a linear form which when laid across an ice dam will melt a channel through the ice.
Contains 95 percent of calcium chloride and works down to 20 degrees f.
Most salt pucks use calcium chloride to melt ice which can cause numerous issues down the line.
Roofmelt tablet then melts its way down and settles on the roofs surface.
That path would then presumably be used as an escape route for water that may tend to get trapped behind the ice dam.
Urea ammonium sulfate glycols formates etc they are not easily obtainable nor are they widely used.
Although there are others e g.
Begins working within 1 hour of application.
Use roof melt tablets to reduce snow and ice buildup that occurs on your roof typically on the eaves and in gutters.
There are five commonly used types of ice melt a k a.
Calcium chloride is the best salt to use on ice dams according to handyman glenn haege.
Purchase sidewalk salt also called calcium chloride from your local hardware or big box store.
The tablets are specially formulated with calcium chloride so they won t harm your exterior like products such as rock salt which could rust your gutters and damage shingles.
If you must use salt at least choose the right type of salt.