Roof and gutter de-icing

Roof, gutter and downspout de-icing cable for Edmonton homes and commercial buildings, with proper circuits, snow and moisture controls, and safe installation.

Why ice dams happen here

Edmonton winters are hard on roofs. Heat escaping from the attic melts snow on the upper roof; the water runs down to the cold overhang and refreezes. After a few cycles, often during a chinook followed by a cold snap, you have an ice dam that pushes water under shingles and heavy icicles over the door.

De-icing cable does not melt all the snow on a roof. Its job is to keep a clear path open so meltwater can drain: along the eave, through the gutter and all the way down the downspout to open ground.

The fix starts in the attic

The best long-term cure for ice dams is less heat reaching the roof: better attic insulation, sealing air leaks around pot lights and penetrations, and good ventilation. We will always mention it, because it reduces how much cable you need and how long it runs.

Some buildings will still need cable no matter what: north-facing eaves, valleys, low-slope roofs, entrances where icicles fall on people, and roof drains and scuppers on commercial buildings. That is where de-icing earns its keep.

• Eaves over doors, walkways and stairs
• Valleys and roof-to-wall junctions
• Gutters and downspouts that freeze solid
• Flat-roof drains, scuppers and drain leaders

A proper installation

We use cable designed and listed for roof and gutter use, attached with clips suited to your roofing so nothing pierces the membrane or shingles where it should not. In downspouts, cable runs all the way down and back up or ends below the frost line in a heated drain, so ice cannot plug the bottom.

The cable is fed from a dedicated circuit with ground-fault protection, as the Canadian Electrical Code requires for this kind of heating. Connections are made in weatherproof boxes, not taped splices on the roof.

Commercial roofs and entrances

Commercial buildings have their own trouble spots. Flat roofs rely on internal drains and scuppers that freeze shut, sending water across the roof to find another way out. Entrance canopies and overhangs drop icicles onto sidewalks where customers and staff walk.

We heat drain bodies and the first part of drain leaders, scupper openings and the gutters and downspouts that serve them, and tie the controls into a single snow and moisture controller where possible. For property managers, a controller with an alarm contact can report a fault to the building automation system.

Cable on a roof is also exposed to snow-clearing shovels and foot traffic. We route it to avoid walking paths and mark it where it could be damaged during roof maintenance.

Controls that save energy

A switch on the wall works, but cable left on all winter wastes a lot of energy, and cable left off when it is needed does nothing. We usually recommend an automatic controller with a snow or moisture sensor plus an air temperature range, so the cable runs only when there is moisture and it is cold enough to freeze.

Cost depends on the length of eaves and gutters, the number of downspouts, roof height and access, the distance to your panel and whether it has space, and the controls you pick. We do installations in the fall when roofs are clear, and repairs year round.

Questions we hear