Welden Hardware

Welden Hardware, started by Samuel T. Welden, was the town hardware store, greenhouse and post office.  Over the years it has grown to be a full service hardware store for all your home & garden needs.  From the typical nuts & bolts, to plumbing, paint and power tools.  We have a full shop in our lower level where we work on all types of power equipment, do our screen & window repair and other labor.  We do surprise many new customers on just how diverse our product selection has become.  And if you can't find the item here in our store, we will gladly special order it for you. 

January 20, 2011 - Regina O'Sullivan
I used to think icicles were very pretty. The way they make a house look like a little igloo on the outside, but it is all cozy inside. Now I have a different view of them. In fact, I am beginning to feel a bit like Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining. The pressure of anticipating and preventing home disaster while I am typing away on the lap top; listening to the drip, drip of the melting ice and the groan of the weight on the roof. Jack Nicholson, in the end, didn’t handle it too well.

It seems we are not alone in that we have ice dams. Facebook is alerting me to other people’s unfortunate experiences with ice dams this week. The buckets, the dripping chandeliers, the crazy methods to unfreeze the gutters are all haunting me right now. Ice dams are like trapped frozen puddles of water that and are waiting to melt right into your house and well, ruin things.

So I called up our local hardware store, Welden Hardware in Simsbury. They have been around for over 125 year in the same location, and as usual they were happy to help. Check out their website at www.weldenhardware.com or call them for suggestions or even recommendations for carpenters, roof people, or handymen. They always take time to explain things to me and have given us excellent service.

Scott Plum detailed the basic physics of the situation to me, which I totally missed as my four year old was trying to slice a banana with a knife, but I will direct you to a website that seems helpful too: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/dk1068.html

Here is another web site that offers help: http://www.ehow.com/how_5592977_defrost-frozen-downspout.html

Plum also discussed preventative measures including adding ridge vents, soffit vents, and larger vents in the gables of the house to help improve air flow in the attic and maintain a better temperature. This website may be helpful with prevention ideas: http://www.statefarm.com/learning/loss_prevent/learning_lossprevention_icedams.asp

Additionally Plum talked about adding roof cables or heated wire cables that zigzag on the roof, in the gutter, and down the gutter to help melt the ice and allow water to drain. This can be seen here: http://www.heatersplus.com/easyheat.htm

But, if you haven’t done these things ahead of time, you have two other options that I know of. One is the roof rake. Plum recommended removing as much snow off the roof as possible, but at least getting 3 to 4 feet from the gutter back to the roof eave. This way as the snow continues to melt it will drain right off the house.

Welden Hardware expects a shipment of more roof rakes this Friday morning. I would hurry and claim one as many have been pre-sold to customers already.

My last solution, and this I have done personally, is my favorite because it is inventive. Fill an old pantyhose leg with calcium chloride and place it on your roof perpendicular to the roof line. This melts the ice and makes a channel for the water to flow, as seen here: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/skill-builder/0,,211604,00.htm