Is your home ready for snowfall? Most areas throughout the Wasatch Front will need heat tape in order to protect your home from snow and ice damage. While you may be tempted to just get a ladder, a shovel, and some salt to clear your roof and keep it that way, there’s an easier, safer, and more effective way to keep snow and ice from building up in the first place: heat tape.
Snow Melt Utah provides heat tape systems that will free your roof of the danger of ice dams. No need to put yourself in danger and potentially damage your roof when you can hire us to come out and install heat tape that you’ll just need to turn on in order to melt away the snow and ice buildup.
Why Install Heat Tape
Heat tape is a protected electrical cord that emits heat when turned on in order to protect your roof from ice buildup. They do this by melting channels through the snow, which can keep ice from developing into an ice dam. They also provide freeze-protection for your pipes and gutters. Heat tape is a key way to keep your home safe and in good condition all winter long.
Prevent Ice Dams
Ice dams form when snow on the warmer areas of your roof melts and then trickles down to your freezing eaves, where it then refreezes and can accumulate into a solid mass of ice, aka, an ice dam. Ice dams can cause serious damage to your home. They can rip off your gutters, cause roof leaks, result in mold growth, and more. Heat tape minimizes the chance of ice dams, as they melt the ice as it freezes.
Protect Your Home
In addition to the damage ice dams can cause, snow and ice buildup as a whole can seriously damage your home. Snow is heavy, and roofs have been known to collapse under the weight of too much of it. Heat tape melts the snow as it falls, which lowers your risk for snow and ice buildup.
Prevent Injuries
Icicles may look cool, but when they break off and fall, they can cause serious injuries. Ice dams aren’t just bad for your home, they’re bad for the safety of your property. You don’t want it to be dangerous to walk around your home. By having Snow Melt Utah install heat tape, you’ll give the ice a way to melt, which can prevent such injuries.
Heat Tape Vs Heat Cable
Something many people get confused about is heat tape vs heat cable. There are conflicting accounts, with some people saying that they are one and the same, while others claim that they’re different. Heat tape is the more widely used term, and is used to encompass the different types of heat cable out there.
Heat tape itself is the more flexible kind of heat cable, making it ideal for odd shapes and tight contours. It tends to come in fixed lengths, and needs controllers in order to keep from overheating. Heat cables can come in two types: self-regulating and constant wattage. Constant wattage is like heat tape in that it can’t control its temperature, while self-regulating heat cables adjust their heat output to the temperature around them.
Heat tape necessitates more care, as it can more easily break down and overheat than other forms of heat cable.
Professional Heat Tape Installation
Utah is full of DIY-ers, but when it comes to projects like installing heat tape, it’s best to leave it to the professionals at Snow Melt Utah. We have decades of experience working on roofs, and will be able to install your heat tape with utmost safety and care. Contact us today to learn more about heat tape and to get a quote for your project!
