Ice-Free Eaves

Apparently having not learned my lessons from [last winter’s leaky roof adventure](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2007/02/13/leaky/), I didn’t quite get around to cleaning the leaves out of the eaves troughs before the snow came. Over the last couple weeks, ice was starting to build up again.

In my defense, there was only about a week between the leaves falling off the trees and the snow starting, and the snow hasn’t let up since. I was hoping the [Looj](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2007/11/05/leaves/) would help me out, but it didn’t fit. I called some maintenance company about an estimate, but haven’t heard back.

So I was pretty much on my own. As I was saying, the it’s been looking pretty grim as the snow hasn’t let up. Until today. A Saturday.

Today, miraculously, the temperature drifted briefly above 0°C. That was my cue, and I sprung into action.

I hooked up the rubber hose to the hot water tap in the garage, got a chisel-like device, climbed up on the ladder and chunk by damp, icy chunk, removed the leaves from the eaves troughs.

They work much better now.

I only did the L-shaped section bordering the back patio. That’s the only part that’s been giving me trouble (the ice really likes to build up in the L-corners of roofs, it seems), and it was most easily accessible by ladder. I ended up very wet by the end, and my hands ended up dyed bluish-black from the gloves I was wearing. The ladder ended up a little bit icy. I’ve put the damn thing away till the spring. I hope I don’t need it again.

I’m really going to have to work on getting someone to help me out with this maintenance stuff, since I can’t seem to keep up with it all. I’m just glad I was able to get this horrible weight off me, especially since I’ll be home in Belleville the next few weekends.

5 thoughts on “Ice-Free Eaves”

  1. Stop!

    You’re making me want a house!

    :-)

    (No, seriously, I want a house. I just shudder at the thought of all the outdoor maintenance.)

    Hopefully we can catch up while you’re in town. I’d think the odds are somewhat in our favour.

  2. I thought you had neighborhood kids? Like, that one that helped you mow? Just hire one of ’em to do the climbing–they love that kind of crap! My own (13 yr) punk thinks it is tres kewl to go climbing around on roofs…she cleaned out the gutters for her grandma just this past summer, and whacked up a bunch of bees’ nests while she was at it. She was happy to do it for FREE, just to get to climb the ladder and hang out on the roof, although grandma insisted on paying her and asked my permission first.

    Seriously–hire kids. It is our duty as adults to 1) help the youth economy by hiring them as cheap labor & 2) allowing them the fun of risking THEIR bodies so that ours remain sound & viable.

    :D

  3. Everybody should get a house! We need to commiserate over our shared stress. :P

    While I agree that it’s far more likely kids will bounce upon hitting the ground, the neighbour kid in question was excited about doing my lawn because I have an electric lawnmower. He’s not allowed to use a gas mower, he says.

    I’m pretty sure his parents might frown on my getting him up on a ladder. In winter. With ice on the roof.

    …Not that I’ve met them…

    That kid doesn’t take instruction very well, either. I’d be half afraid I’d come back to find he’d not only cleaned the gutters but completely removed them from the eaves.

  4. I am near pleasant ridge stor, I have too much ice in my eaves and why does your address talk about belleville with a ca email address?

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