When my rain gutters filled with water from yesterday's slight warming trend they failed to drain due to the ice buildup in the down spout. A filled rain gutter is a worthless rain gutter and fails to fulfill the ends of its existence. As a proud homeowner I could not allow this situation tarnish my neighborhood reputation as a home repair expert. My reputation is still nursing a few blemishes from the garage door incident two weeks ago (see On Being Big Morty).
But how to resolve the situation. Heat. Heat is the natural enemy to all things cold, such as ice, snow, slush, and frozen water. My 500,000 BTU laser heater has not worked properly since loaning it to my rich neighbor who actually pays people to come do work on his house, so I had to resort to more primitive means. I saw my World War II surplus flame thrower gathering dust in the corner of the garage. Does wet soffit burn? Unfortunately the flame thrower was out of gas. Where was my acetylene torch? That option seemed much safer than the widespread amount of heat offered by the flame thrower. But would it be enough to do the job efficiently? Yes, concentrated amounts of heat applied to a heat conducting metal is an efficient way of melting whatever is in your rain gutters. You also get the benefit of creating several new exit points for the water, 
thus eliminating the problems caused by a plugged downspout.
Safety tip: If you are standing on the roof melting away the frozen edge of snow that seems to be holding the rest of the snow on the roof--be sure to point torch away from body when riding the avalanche to the ground below.
Monday, February 20, 2006
On Winter Safety
Posted by Big Morty at Monday, February 20, 2006
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2 comments:
So you're the guy...
Hey, about the flame thrower...Can I borrow it? There are a few scores I need to settle...
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