I have an almost flat roof of my home.Puddles form in some
indentations on the roof. Several years age I read(WSJ?) of someone
using a wicking of some kind that was placed in the puddle to drain
the puddle over the edge of the roof. There was no electric pump
involved. What was the wicking material and how was theis done? Where
would I purchase the wicking?

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 26 Dec 2005 11:59 PST

rwp1...

I couldn't locate that article, or any mention of such
a concept, but it occurs to me that you could just put
a batch of swamp cooler padding in the areas where the
puddles form, and the water would simply be wicked up
into the material and evaporate much more quickly. It
seems to me that this would work just as effectively
as trying to wick it sideways to the roof's edge, and 
that you'd end up with less problems due to the water
draining down the side of the building.

Swamp cooler padding is also pretty inexpensive, as
this sale at eBay demonstrates:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5994277570&category=20711

Let me know what you think...

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by rwp1-ga on 26 Dec 2005 20:32 PST

We don't have swamp coolers in here in Michigan. I think my ex uses a
swamp cooler in Colorado, in her home in place of an air conditioner
and a humidifier. It's OK for the water to drain over the edge of the
roof to the ground. There tends to be an ice dam at the roof's edge
which results is the water puddling, instead of going over the edge of
the roof. A sump pump on the roof is overkill. I'm not sure swamp
cooler padding could tolerate both hot and freezing weather.