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Yes Randy,

This is a good source of income for us up here in Pa. during the slow season. Not very many people offering this service. Usually we get calls for this once it starts to leak in the house.

Thanks Barry,
It is Kim R, eventually Randy will be on the forum more often, he is not the most computer savvy kind but I am going to get him up and running soon.

Phil,

Once it gets to the point of leaking into the house, The only effective way that we found over the years to remove this ice is a claw hammer, floor chisel, etc. The first thing you want to do is brush away any snow that is laying on the ice. By removing the snow you allow the sun to beat down on the ice melting it from the roof surface out, once it starts melting underneath, you can simply bust out in sections with the head of the hammer. While waiting for the ice dam to start melting from underneath we usually chip away at the ice in the gutters with the chisels or hammer claw. This has to be done very carefully for obvious reasons.

The important part is trying to get it to melt from the roof surface first, by doing this the ice dettaches from the shingle granules so it limits damage to the shingle. Once the sun starts beating down on the ice, the ice acts as a magnifying glass and starts the melting proccess from the inside out.

Be sure to remove the complete ice dam, the leaks could be coming in from sometimes 3' up the roof edge. ( the water under the ice dam, as it melts, actually travels up the roof and under the shingle)

We have tried torches and heat before with no luck! I never tried steam.

From reading that article, it seems like ice dam removal could be a risky add on for a newbie. I think next year I might start early for ice dam prevention and give some heat tape a shot.