Ice buildup on walls IBA....

[jav]

I get an incredible amout of ice build up on my walls during winter, between the weep and just washing for the IBA. Of course the floor is clear, Is there anything you can treat the walls with so the water can get to the floor before it freezes. I get alot of weeks in the winter where the temp never gets above freezing and the walls just keep growing.......

Thanks

 

[DiamondWash]

You need to install an Radiant tube in bay heater.

 

[MEP001]

Can you replace the weep with an air blowdown system? What machine do you have?

 

[ToFarGone20]

wind tunnel

Do you have a door or doors? We went one winter with out doors and that was enough. Just a door on the exit end was a massive improvement. Ours was a roll up type door made from a material similar to what you would find in a meat locker. Clear pastic stuff. It was flexible and and ice had a hard time building on it...when it did we just rolled it up and it all fell off.

 

[Ric]

Are your walls bare concrete block?

 

[jav]

I do have doors but they are the plastic strips so the wind still blow in a bit, but much better than nothing, and the walls are just brick.......I would love to goto an air blowdown, but the only person I knew with one said he went back to weep because it keep freezing on him...anyone here successful with air blowdown? would love some more input on it....Iba is an hydrospray rainmaker.....
thanks

 

[randy64]

I would think you need to either get doors that seal or deal with the ice unfortunately. An air blowout system could fail but so can a weep system (a nearby water main break comes to mind) so use the one you want and maintain it well and you should be OK. I think putting radiant heat in with the doors you have would be very expensive to get the result you want.

 

[Bud]

I have roll up doors at entrance and exit sides. Every so often, depending on how much ice builds up, I will close the doors at night and place a torpedo heater in the bay. By morning it is all gone. The heater I use has a thermostat on it. At one wash I set it at 3 out of 5 and the other wash (very long & high bay) I set it on high. This also comes in handy on long maintainence problems when you must be working in the bay. Again, it depends on the weather here in NE Ohio. At most I would say we have used this 5 or 6 times a Winter. What you DO NOT want is for the ice to build up and get a real warm busy day and have it fall off the walls while a car is being washed.

 

[Ric]

Ice will not buildup on walls that have a covering on them. I've used frp panels in the past. Four years ago I covered the walls of my 5/1 with vertical vinyl siding. The total project cost about the same as doing one bay with Extrutec. I have zero ice build up in my high pressure automatic. It has one door on the exit end and no heat...located in "wintery" west MI.