Ice, Snow, and Pesty Critters
This drawing courtesy AMERICAN GUTTER CLEANING, CO.
Tewksbury, MA 01876
American Gutter Cleaning & Installation, INC.
This drawing is an excellent illustration of ice damming and the amount of damage that can be incurred in your home. When a large amount of snow accumulates on the roof of a building the snow will act as an insulator to the outside cold and heat loss from within the building. A lack of enough insulation and poor attic ventilation will warm the roof and thawing will result. When this melted snow runs down the roof and reaches the roof overhang it begins to freeze because there is a lack of heat and freezing begins.
To keep the damming process from forming roof heat tape can be installed in the spring.
A quick short term solution used to stop the process is to take a pantyhose and fill it with rock salt or a deicer product and lay it vertically over the ice dam and into the gutter. This will melt a pathway for the water to drain off the roof and into or over the gutter which will keep the ice dam from building higher.
What do you do when Mr. & Mrs. Robin makes your downspout a base for their home??
If they're already established just leave them alone and let Mother Nature run its course. The world will be a better place to live.
But next spring you can try this trick. Clean away the old nest and clean the downspout, then before they start their nest tie a cord to the soffit and let it down as in the picture.
They do not like anything hanging or swinging over their heads and will find a better place to nest.