I roof rake the roof of heated areas to prevent ice dams and non-heated areas to prvide cave-ins (as many other people have said).
Even with roof raking religiously, I had an area where differeing roof pitches met...an area that's also located under a dormer. Sure enough ice built up and we developed a leak. I noticed it quickly and spent the next 5 hours chopping roof ice.
Once this warm weather clears off that section of the roof, I'm going with the heated cords just in that area. This is a 204 year old house with a 17 year old asphalt shingled roof. Will probably drop the big bucks for a metal roof in 4 or 5 years.
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