How to install gutter heat wire

While visions of snow-covered, icicle-covered homes look pretty in books, the reality is that the ice that looks beautiful is probably damaging your roof and gutters. How can you install gutter heating cables to avoid problems with your gutters and your roof? Gutter heat cables might seem like overkill. They might be fine for a while but, over time, ice dams and gutters clogged with ice cause damage to your home.

Clogged gutters warp and sag and get damaged on the inside. Snow that lands on your warm roof, turns to water, and then turns to ice when it hits your gutters can turn into the dreaded ice dam. Water backs up behind the ice in your gutters, seeping under your shingles.

As it freezes and thaws and pushes its way in, it can cause leaks that damage the inside of your home. Every gutter heating cable has its own specific instructions. What follows below is a general guide for installation, but since your product might be different, be sure to install your heating cable after looking at the specific instructions for your product.

If you find the idea of standing on a ladder installing electrical cables to be overwhelming or you just want to ensure that the project will be done correctly, consider talking to a gutter expert.

By working with a gutter company, you can ensure that your product will work with the other elements of your roof such as a new gutter or gutter cover. You can find your local gutter experts here at Harry Helmet. Let us bring our decades of experience to your gutter heat cable installation project. Schedule a free estimate today. Skip to content. There are several ways to do this, but homeowners seeking the greatest protection often opt to install de-icing cables along the roofline.

Ice dams form in winter, in the days and weeks following heavy snowstorms. Warmed by heat rising up from below, accumulated snow on the roof begins to melt. Before the melted snow runs off the roof, however, it refreezes right near the edge, over the eaves. After repeated freeze-thaw cycles over the course of the season, a thick barrier of ice forms along the roof overhang.

Once this dam has formed, any snow melting on the roof collects and puddles behind it. Eventually, this trapped, standing water works its way beneath the shingles, causing leaks and, in many cases, extensive and expensive damage.

Once bitten, twice shy: Indeed, the homeowners most likely to take measures against ice dams are those who ignored the risk in the past and wound up paying the price. We will run of heat wire inside the downspout and then back up the downspout. If the downspout ends underground, our designs will extend the heating cable into a heated area or below the frost line.

We will consider a design to run the heating cable down the valley. If a valley exists in a problem area of your roof, you must route cable up and back down the valley a minimum of 3 feet.

For Volt cables, the cable is designed to be directly connected into an appropriate electrical outlet box supplied by ground fault protected circuit. Part of our installation process includes our company electrician coming on site to complete the necessary electrical work. Since it will be necessary to remove power from the cable from time to time, such as in summer, we always connect the cable to an appropriate double-pole electrical switch.

It is recommend to shut the heat wire off when temperatures get below this temperature. Heat wires also keep your gutter system properly flowing throughout the winter by heating up and consistently melting the ice inside your gutter and downspout system. Without heat wire, snow melts and drips down to your gutter system where it then freezes over. Having nowhere to drain, the newly melted snow stays on top of your gutter system and then refreezes. This can cause damage to both your home and your gutter system.

Only on roofs with slopes. This is to help create channels for snow to melt from the roofs into the gutters and away from the foundation. We will have our certified electrician come out to complete any electrical work needed from and to the electrical box. Multiply 48 by your electricity rate.

If you feel uneasy about this, don't tempt fate. A roofing specialist or professional handyperson can do this work at an affordable price. Professional heat cable installation is also a good thing to consider if you are already having new gutters or new roofing installed.

The first step is to determine how much heat cable you need. There are several steps and calculations in this process. Begin by measuring the length of your roofline. Next, measure the depth of the eave overhang from the edge of the roof not the gutter straight back to the outside wall.

If the eave overhang is 12 inches deep, multiply the roof-line measurement by 4. If the eave is between 12 and 24 inches deep, multiply the roof-line measurement by 5. If the eave depth is between 24 and 36 inches, multiply the roof-line measurement by 6. Now, measure the length of each downspout and add this measurement to the previous computation.

If a downspout is not at the end of a cable run, double its measurement here—the cable will need to go all the way down then back up inside the downspout. Lastly, measure the distance between the edge of the roof, where you will start the heat cable, and the electrical outlet where you will plug in the cable. Add up all of these dimensions. This is the length of the heat cable you will need.

Route the cable from the electrical outlet to the starting point on the roof. Clip the starting point of the cable to a shingle that is slightly further up the roof than the outside wall. This will ensure that the cable will completely cover the roof overhang. Secure the cable to the shingle with one of the provided cable clips.

The best time to do heat cable installation is on a dry, windless day when it is comfortably warm. Attaching clips to warm, pliable shingles is easier than with brittle cold shingles.