Warning: Chipping Away At Icicles Can Damage Gutter, Roof

By Eric Mansfield
Channel 3 News Reporter

AKRON -- It's a natural instinct to want to break giant icicles hanging from your home's gutters, but experts say it's a bad idea and can harm your roof.

"The best thing to do is to put calcium, or some type of a mild salt, on top of it to help melt the ice," said Tom Smith, owner of Coppersmith Roofing in Akron.

"When you begin to try to chip or break the ice, you will damage the roof itself or the gutters. In certain extreme cases, we have to take the gutter off of the home, which usually will destroy the gutter at this time of the year."

Smith said this current storm packs enough heavy snow to cause major roof problems once temperatures begin to rise and the snow begins to melt, especially for homes or buildings with a flat roof.

"It's a very dangerous situation of ponding water or it may actually back up on the roof as all this begins to melt," he said.

"(Water) can't exit the roof so the weight will become tremendous on these older structures."