Here are four reasons salt pucks are bad for your roof.
Salt roof ice.
The roofmelt ice melt is designed to eliminate the need to climb onto roofs while melt snow.
However rock salt is a form of sodium chloride which corrodes metal including the metal nails holding your shingles in place.
Rock salt is common for de icing driveways and paths.
But are they doing more harm than good.
Purchase the salt you d use to melt ice on a sidewalk or driveway from a local hardware or big box store.
The key is to avoid sodium chloride or rock salt.
It should be no surprise then that it is the first thing many people think of to remove ice dams.
You should only use it on roofs in select circumstances like severe cold.
Most salt pucks use calcium chloride to melt ice which can cause numerous issues down the line.
Rock salt can also leave permanent stains on your roof and walls.
Emphasis on the as possible part.
Salt pucks are supposed to eliminate the need to climb onto your roof and are designed to melt snow and ice before ice dams can form.
If it s applied routinely it can damage shingles nails eavestroughs and other fittings.
While safely on the ground toss a roofmelt tablet onto the roof.
But if you ve let your ice dam fester for so long that you can t even get a credible ice dam company to help you because they re booked solid salt may help you emerge from your diy ice dam removal adventure as unscathed as possible.
They work effectively in temperatures down to 25 f.
Sprinkle a chemical deicer on the roof to get rid of large sections of snow.
Again for the most part you don t want to throw any type of ice melt product on your roof.