Roof Ice Dam Removal Near Spooner, Wisconsin
If you have an ice dam in Spooner, Shell Lake, Siren, or throughout Washburn County WI, call the Ice Dam Guys® at 1-800-423-3267 (800-423-3267) for emergency scheduling. Since 1995, we’ve removed thousands of ice dams to become the top-rated ice dam removal company in the US. We are properly licensed, bonded, and insured.
The towns along Lake Superior and through the Northwoods of Wisconsin are some of the best rural communities the Ice Dam Guys® have had the pleasure of visiting. We’ve even come back to enjoy the Spooner Rodeo a few times in July. Although we’ve been based in Minneapolis since our inception in 1995, we make the 2-hour drive to Washburn County every winter to help our neighbors to the north. In fact, we’re likely already here thanks to the extreme variations in temperatures you experience. While you’re a good 70 miles from Lake Superior, the bordering states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan tend to feel the wrath of the Great Lakes and their notorious microclimates. That also means our states get a lot of ice dams, like the beast you see below:
While not every storm produces ice dams, and not every icicle is a sign one is forming, if your home resembles what you see above, you’ve got an ice dam! You can tell an ice dam has formed on the home due to the large banks of icicles and layered ice on their roof’s eaves and gutters. In this case, the icicles were helpful to alert the homeowner of their new houseguest, but many ice dams form without such theatrics and are more often just a thick layer of ice. Unfortunately, these large quantities of ice can regularly weigh hundreds, if not thousands of pounds and with all the excess weight and moisture camping out, your home can fall victim to an array of property damages.
The most frequent type of property damage homeowners notice from ice dams would be interior water leaks. A common statement we hear is that the homeowner hasn’t had a previous ice dam and they only learned about them when they noticed water leaking from their ceiling. Many of these leaks start small, but if the property is a vacation home or the homeowners have been away for a while, it can certainly lead to more substantial collapses. While those larger ceiling collapses can be doozies, you’ll likely see something like the example below before it gets to that point. In this photo, you can see how the water is staining the ceiling as it travels through the attic’s insulation and soaks the ceiling’s sheetrock. Oftentimes, this can also impact electrical circuits or systems that also share the same space.
The reason ice dams regularly produce interior water leaks is because of how they’re formed, which is when there is a period of unique temperature fluctuations. One way this can happen is if we receive a particularly warm and sunny afternoon in the middle of a days-long freezing snowstorm. In that case, the roof warms on the surface thanks to the sun. Another way is if your roof experiences unnatural warming from below in the form of interior heat loss. This type of heat loss is when your home has a vulnerability somewhere that allows the comfy warm air of your living spaces to escape into the attic. These vulnerabilities will regularly be due to attic bypasses such as HVAC ducts, recessed lighting, attic ceiling doors, and more. No matter which of these scenarios heated your roof, the end result is the same, ice dams.
As the roof warms, the snow resting on the majority of its surface begins to thaw and slowly melts. That snowmelt runs down your roof towards the edge where it would normally find the gutters to be sent away via the downspout. However, the overhanging eaves and gutters of your home are not the same temperature as the majority of your warmer roof and are still frozen. This is because they are not part of your insulated attic and roof space, but they’re isolated and surrounded by the elements from above and below. This makes it so they take longer to thaw, but in this flash warming period, they won’t. What you’re left with is snowmelt pooling behind these frozen gutters which is what leads to those water leaks you noticed. Eventually, when the evening’s freezing temperatures return, that pool of snowmelt will re-freeze and create the ice dam we loathe so much.
There’s a silver lining to this story, however, and it’s that you found us for help!
Safe and Effective Steam-Only Ice Dam Removal in Washburn County, Wisconsin
The Ice Dam Guys® have been fighting ice dams since 1995, which basically makes us the great pioneers of the industry! For comparison, the Ice Dam Guys® have nearly 4 more years of experience than Google has even existed or around the same time that people started using email! Yeah, we weren’t kidding when we said we’re experienced, but the point of this history lesson is to share what we’ve learned.
Steam-only ice dam removal is the only safe and effective option for your home – full stop. We’ve seen people try everything – from hot water power washers and ice picks to blowtorches and truckloads of salt. While each of those methods may have helped they can certainly create new damages to the home versus just having the ice dam.
Hot water power washers regularly peel back and harm shingles. Anything steel and blunt, like an ice pick or steel shovel, can be insta-kills for your gutters or protective underlayment beneath the shingles. Blowtorches or anything flammable just hurts to think about. And salt melt will eventually become a corrosive runoff liquid that can damage your siding and concrete.
Conversely, steam-only ice dam removal is so gentle to your home it’s equivalent to what your girlfriend enjoys at the spa – literally just steam. However, we’re overachievers, so we couldn’t just stop at using steam, no-no, we had to have the best steam. And with that goal in mind, we invented and trademarked our very own line of machines called Steamzilla™. Ol’ Steamy gets the job done and we have thousands of happy customers to prove it!
Our process begins with one of our technicians visiting you at your home for a visual inspection. Once they locate your ice dams and confirm your roof is safe to work on, they head up. They’ll lightly shovel snow from atop your ice dam and then start using Steamzilla™ to create a grid-like pattern. This allows the previously massive ice dam to become manageable handheld pieces. They clear those small pieces from the roof, confirm all ice is gone, and leave you with free-flowing gutters. If you’re visual learners like us, here’s one of our techs doing it.
Aside from being fun to watch, you can see how gentle of an approach this is. While removing the ice dam is our goal, our primary concern is the long-term safety of your home and family. Using only steam to eliminate ice dams achieves this flawlessly!
The Best Ice Dam Removal Experts in Spooner, WI
Wisconsin homeowners have trusted the Ice Dam Guys® for 25+ years, as they should since we’re properly licensed, bonded, and insured with a General Liability policy. This provides you with comprehensive protection against liability while we’re on your icy roof. In addition to Spooner, you can find our teams throughout Washburn County in:
Barronett, Beaver Brook, Birchwood, Chicago Junction, Chittamo, Earl, Lampson, Minong, Nobleton, Sarona, Shell Lake, Siren, Springbrook, Stanberry, Stone Lake, and Trego.
If you’re new to the world of ice dam removal, we’re sure your head is probably spinning. We get it and empathize with you while you’re trying to pick out a credible company to help you with this emergency. That’s why we encourage you to Google “Ice Dam Guys reviews” and see what thousands of past customers say about us. Whether that’s at Google, Facebook, the BBB, Angi, Yelp, Houzz, or elsewhere, you’ll see one thing – our customers love us! While we’re sorry you’re having to call us, we can’t wait to add you to our family of happy clients. We look forward to working with you and helping you today!
Call us now at 1-800-423-3267 for same-day / next-day ice dam removal for your Washburn County home.
