Picture this: a giant icicle hanging off a roof. How big is it in your mind, maybe 5 or 6 feet long? Now imagine an icicle 35 feet long and 4 feet in diameter.
That’s the size of the icicle that I was hired to remove a couple years ago. After a grueling few hours, I was able to safely remove the icicle.
The next year, I got a phone call from the same client. The icicle was back for more. Needless to say, I told my client that this would be the last time I would risk my life knocking down a one ton chunk of ice!
I also told him that if I was going to do the job, he would have to hire me to discover the source of the icicle. I wanted to stop the problem from returning every season. He agreed to the arrangement, and fortunately for me the icicle fell just before I arrived!
I began to investigate, starting with the attic. I located the area where the icicle was forming, and discovered that a dryer exhaust hose was disconnected from the outside vent. Two different bathroom fans were being vented into the attic, right near the interior roof line. This was creating enough heat to consistently melt all the snow on that portion of the roof, creating the massive icicle along the outside wall below.
I began to formulate a solution. I decided to reroute the 2 dryer to a different outside wall vent. I also installed a ridge vent at the high point of the roof to eliminate any warm air that was collecting in the attic space.
This past winter came and went, and I didn’t get any phone calls about giant icicles. There’s never a dull day in my line of business!