My neighbor puts rock salt in old socks, ties 'em off, and lobs them up there about every 4 foot down the length of the roof... He tries for 18" from the eave.
That's more of an on-going maintenance thing though. Not sure about an immediate need. I'd almost take your garden hose and see if you snake it through the kitchen window, a Gerry rig it to to the sink faucet... Turn on the warm water and it's a 5 minute operation.. although - haha now that I think about it... nah don't do that. Cause the weight before the ice lets go may realize the bigger problem -
My roof is more sloped. I don't know if that's specifically why, but I don't seem to have as much damming issue... uh, that I know of.. heh.
I had a coworking once who didn't realize that the back water behind multiple years of ice damming had been flowing down the inside of his walls unbeknownst .. until the wall/and ceiling catastrophically sagged/partially collapsed... that's an extreme stroke of bad luck though ...
I think they sell something like that though, with with the salt idea ... and it won't corrode shingles.
I did something very similar to this in 2015. I bought an adaptor and a commercial grade hose, attached the hose to an indoor shower, turned it up as hot as I could get it, and snaked it outside to where I was able to climb a ladder to the roof. The first thing I did was clear the downspout so the water had somewhere to go, then I sprayed the hot water on the ice, top, bottom, and sides, in 3-4 foot sections. After that, I could pull them out easily and toss them to the ground. It took me less than 30 minutes to clear 20 feet of gutter of some of the most horrific ice dams you could imagine.
February the climo snow month
in New England
Posted
I did something very similar to this in 2015. I bought an adaptor and a commercial grade hose, attached the hose to an indoor shower, turned it up as hot as I could get it, and snaked it outside to where I was able to climb a ladder to the roof. The first thing I did was clear the downspout so the water had somewhere to go, then I sprayed the hot water on the ice, top, bottom, and sides, in 3-4 foot sections. After that, I could pull them out easily and toss them to the ground. It took me less than 30 minutes to clear 20 feet of gutter of some of the most horrific ice dams you could imagine.