Got soaked fixing a leaky roof on a -30 day in Lethbridge

I was on a quick repair job last January for a flat roof near the old Lethbridge train station. A section had ice dammed up and water was seeping through the membrane right where it met a skylight. I ended up having to chip ice off for 45 minutes in the cold before I could even get a patch to stick. Has anyone else dealt with ice damage on TPO roofs around here?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_foster6d ago

You said "took 45 minutes to chip ice off" like that's some kind of badge of honor. Ive been doing flat roof repairs in southern Alberta for 12 years and chipping ice off a TPO membrane in -30 is just asking for trouble. You probably already punctured the membrane with that ice pick or whatever you were using. The real trick is to stop the ice dam before it forms, not go at it like a polar bear after a seal. Next time hit it with a heat gun from inside the attic if you can, or pour some calcium chloride on it before it freezes solid. That 45 minutes of work could have been 10 minutes of prevention.

logantaylor6d ago

Read that calcium chloride trick works way better than chipping for sure