Thaw

So, during the Open House party I held on Saturday, water was running off the overflow scupper on the south side of the house. That scupper is about 3” above the main roof level (which slopes, of course). Even the scupper from the entry porch roof on the north side of the house was running. I was able to install a copper rain chain under the front scupper, but not under the back scupper, and that chain length is a bit more than the standard 8.5 feet. I wanted to measure it before I order it, but not by standing in the mud.I thought, “Maybe I better get a length of heat tape and install it so that it melts the ice on the south scupper and creates a channel for that water to run into the drain. Turns out that all the heat tapes sold in Taos are not recommended for a rubber roof or a flat roof, and I have (essentially) both. So this afternoon I wrote an Email to the roofing company that installed the EPDM rubber roof asking their advice.

Today we had a grand flurry of graupel snow and a lot of wind. It snowed about 6” in about as many hours. The temperature has not plunged, but it is below freezing and expected to get colder for several days and remain below freezing until Friday. That will give me time to get a mail-order heat tape delivered, if I can find out which one to buy.

Of course this thaw means that we have a lot of mud. The soil thaws for two or three inches, but the foot of soil beneath that is still frozen, so the water cannot drain away unless the ground slopes. And our roads are not well crowned, so they turn into shallow mud holes. In places the mud is much deeper. My back yard is very muddy, because we did not have time to install the sandstone paving before the ground froze and we could properly grade it.

Another effect of the thaw is that some melted snow water runs down the roof drain. This drain pipe goes into the garage, where it collects in tall tanks.

Melted snow water is just above freezing. Any moisture in the air of the garage will condense on this cold water pipe. I have had a lot of water condensing on the pipe (either that or my plumbing has a leak). I finally rigged a pail to catch the water before it got onto the floor.

I have dumped a gallon of water morning and night from this pail for two days. That is four gallons of water. I suspect that is more than has just evaporated. I have not found the leak yet. I do have about 200 gallons of water stored in my tanks, though.

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