alcina (138 posts) September 23, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Ice buildup on a glass roof
We moved into a new house last year that has a greenhouse on top of the garage. It’s nice, and very useful. But a few times of the winter, large chunks of ice slid off the roof onto our neighbours’ driveway. It was at the point that they informed us that the previous owners had paid them several times for damage the ice had done to their car. Luckily they weren’t home when this happened last year, and once we heard about it, we just let them park in our drive. But we don’t want to go through that again, and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to prevent the buildup.
So far, the best solution I can find is those plastic ice breaks you can attach to your roof. But I’ve called about a dozen roof repair companies, and none will touch this. We thought about adding a heat strip to the metal framing, but I’m not sure that would help much.
Does anyone here have any ideas? If it helps to see photos, let me know and I’ll post a few.
I got ideas dummie. All of them expensive.
1. Knock out the panes of glass, dummie. No build up will occur then. Buy new panes and replace in the spring.
2. Keep the greenhouse very warm with a fan blowing the heat on the panes so that moisture won't freeze on the glass. That is what the year round greenhouse farms around here do.
3. Have the roof redone so the ice slides somewhere else.
4. Take out the greenhouse.
$500 dollars please. Hey! A guy gotta make a living somehow in this O'conomy.
