roof rake? (Eastport: mobile home, live in, dangerous)

[CapeCodder]

Ok...time for another question board.

Is the roof rake for just the edges of your roof or your entire roof?

I also have one of those heater elements on the roof to prevent ice build up, do I need to rake where that's located?

I have gutters...they're useless but I have them...does this make a difference?

You'd never know I'm a native New Englander...I think Cape Cod should be considered the south.

Thank you in advance!

[dmyankee]

You can get a couple of extension poles for your rake.

If you at least remove the snow along the edge, a couple feet up, that will help prevent ice dams at the eaves. When the ice dams up, the water will run up under the shingles.

I've got a couple of leaks I usually don't see until Feb. right now.

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

You can get a couple of extension poles for your rake.

If you at least remove the snow along the edge, a couple feet up, that will help prevent ice dams at the eaves. When the ice dams up, the water will run up under the shingles.

I've got a couple of leaks I usually don't see until Feb. right now.

Ok...I just wasn't sure how far up I should go.

The snow's fluffy right now, but I'm afraid with a rain or some warm weather that might change fast.

Thanks

[Northern Maine Land Man]

If you already have heat tapes on the roof you should not use a snow rake on them. It could break the insulation on the wires.

[BacktoNE]

My DH would usually go almost half way up our roof (we had a cape) with the rake. We didn't have any problems by doing that.

Heat tape scares the cr*p out of me so we never have that.

Gutters are a PITA in Maine. They fill with snow and ice and rip off the house. In the unlikely event they are on a house we purchase, we take them down, and by making sure the grade away from the house is correct, we've never had a problem.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

We lost a house in town just this month because heat tape was coiled up and caught fire. Don't do that. I use heat tape to prevent the pipes in the laundry from freezing. I plug it in when it's forecast to go below zero.

[BacktoNE]

My husband tells me that there is a plug that goes to heat tape sticking out of some insulation in our basement. He recognizes it from back when he had his bachelor mobile home. We have no idea where the heat tape is, and I can guarantee there is no way we are ever going to plug that baby in to find out. Too much of a fire hazard. We are just going to cut the plug, cap it off per code and secure it so it won't ever be an issue now, or when we go to sell in a few months.

[maine4.us]

I have a question. We bought a house in Eastport, and currently we have the heat on low,low,low. Do we need to worry about an ice dam forming? We still live in Florida, so its a long way to rake snow.

Would I be better leaving the heat off as far as ice dam formation, or is it better to leave it on low?

I laughed at the gutter comment on a house. The house has gutters, but I fully expect them to be on the ground when I visit in March.

Comments, suggestions are extremely welcome!

[Bydand]

No heat is worse than low heat. Much worse. Low heat I wouldn't worry too much about Ice dams and ice build-up.

[KiddinAroundFarm]

Now, my question is... do I really HAVE to rake my roof? We've been here for 4 full winters, this is our 5th. We never raked our doublewide's roof, and now we have a cape farmhouse with a much steeper pitch. No gutters, just want to know if we really HAVE to do the raking thing... seems not worth it since we don't have much snow on the roof.

And we have a gambrel barn as well, does that need raking? That does hold snow on the top pitch, but it's VERY hard and dangerous to get up there, esp. in the snow. Forest Beekeeper would know, lol. He and my husband put up black plastic on one side this past fall. The side w/out the plastic gets alot of sun and has hardly any snow on it, and the side w/ the plastic has about 5-6 inches or so on it.

Anyone got thoughts on this one?