Gutters/downspout major ice issues


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Old 12-09-08, 08:12 PM
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Exclamation Gutters/downspout major ice issues

Hope this is the right place to turn. I own a rental property that I once lived in. It is a 2 story duplex. The gutters on the side on the house where the side walk is get an over abundance of icicles. And the down spout is covered in ice from top to bottom like 20'. The downspout goes into the ground to the city sewer.



The side walk then becomes a thick layer of ice that is impossible to keep up with. It was hard when I live there and now I live across town. I was going through like half a dozen bags of salt a season.

Is it possible the downspout is plugged up? I had a person check my gutters 2 years back because of this issue and they said they seemed fine. They were not clogged (no trees anywhere close) and they were attached fine. And if anyone asked I never paid attention if it carried water well when it rained.

I could consider cutting of the base of the downspout then running an elbow to run it away from the house. Then capping off the sewer.

Any opinions?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Old 12-09-08, 08:25 PM
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downspouts should never run to a city sewer, to a storm drain that is ok, but not sewer. I would install a elbow and drain it to the street or a storm drain if available. do your best to make sure the water doesn't run onto the sidewalk,
hopefully someone with more cold weather experience will chime in, we don't usually get that much freezing weather here in central ok.

life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies
 
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Old 12-09-08, 08:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Speedwrench
downspouts should never run to a city sewer, to a storm drain that is ok, but not sewer. I would install a elbow and drain it to the street or a storm drain if available. do your best to make sure the water doesn't run onto the sidewalk,
hopefully someone with more cold weather experience will chime in, we don't usually get that much freezing weather here in central ok.

life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies
Storm drain sewer, not sure, point being the downspout goes into a cast iron pipe into the ground.
 
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Old 12-10-08, 02:08 PM
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I haven't found a gutter system yet that doesn't ice up, up here in the north. I even saw one that was an open design that ended up looking like one of those ice walls the climbers like. The key is to prevent the snow from melting and that aint easy. The one exception, and I hate to mention it, are the homes with little or no insulation. When I run around at night with my Infrared camera, the real defination of a "hot roof" can be seen. And guess what, no snow and no ice. Of course it probably cost those homes a couple of thousand per year to not deal with ice. The reason I mention this, is when a home like that insulates and air seals only half way, they end up right where you are

I read your post on the other thread, but you most likely need to do more air sealing and insulating and make sure you have enough venting. Post pictures if you want. The other source of heat is solar. A southern exposure can warm the shinges right through the snow. Unfortunately light colored shingles are the only solution for that.

One more comment, years ago I rented a space in an old flat roof building. I guess I never thought about how they get rid of the rain and snow. The first good rain, I found out. It sounded like a waterfall. They had an 8" iron pipe running down through the center of the building. They also had very little insulation so they melted the snow, but the key was having the drain pipe inside. It couldn't freeze up. I have never figured out how we could do that on a traditional building, but it sure worked well.

Good luck,
Aint being a landlord fun.
Bud
 
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Old 12-10-08, 03:48 PM
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Thanks. I will explain this quickly since dinner is waiting on the table for me.

The 2 pictures are very rudimentary drawings front and side.

All RED is controlled climate.

All GRAY is ventalated outside temp.

All BLUE is Corbond foam insulation.

All GREEN is bat (ceiling is like R38 with vapor barrier) Floors are whatever the 108 year old house has.

Mind you this issue was there before I did this renovation.
My neighbors house is identicle and his never dams up...i am jealous. Also I should add that the other side of the house doesn't seem to have an issue.



 

Last edited by tjlmbklr; 12-10-08 at 04:10 PM.
 

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