Ice Dam Removal Near Traverse City, Michigan
If you’re having a roof ice dam emergency in Grand Traverse or Leelanau Counties, call the Ice Dam Guys® at 1-800-423-3267 (800-423-3267) for priority scheduling! We’ve removed thousands of ice dams since 1995 and we’re the top-rated ice dam removal company across the country! We are properly licensed, bonded, and insured.
Northern Michigan, specifically the Traverse City area, has some of America’s best attractions! Whether that’s the National Cherry Festival, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, or the Traverse Wine Coast, there’s something memorable and exciting to enjoy year-round. Unfortunately, there are also some challenges that come with living here and as you’re well aware, those hardships most commonly resemble the 100+ inches of snow you receive each winter! Similar to the saying “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” we have one too, but ours goes “where there’s snow, there are ice dams!” Have you experienced something like this monster below?
If your home has something like the photo above, you’ve likely got an ice dam. Ice dams commonly form in areas that are either north-facing where they struggle to receive sunlight or in places where snow melt from different sections of your roof are funneled into one place. In the photo above, we have both! You can see how the two slopes of the roof channel runoff into the same area above the entryway. The porch is also nestled in shade beneath an ever-present canopy of trees. When the snowmelt meets the frozen gutters, it overwhelms them. Some water will trickle over to form those large banks of icicles you see, while the rest will slowly pool behind the gutter and form an ice dam. And you don’t want an ice dam, because they often weigh upwards of 1,000 pounds and can be dangerous. Overhead danger aside, ice dams often create interior water leaks too. Here’s an example of what to look for at your home:
The reason ice dams so frequently produce water leaks is because of how they form. Ice dams form when there are periods of sustained snowfall. However, when the sun pops out for several hours during a nice afternoon, it can actually warm up the surface of your roof enough to encourage thawing. This can also happen when there are attic bypasses that allow heat loss into your attic from the home’s living quarters. Both scenarios allow for snow to thaw and trickle down the warmed face of the roof until it hits a deadend at the frozen eaves. At that point, the snowmelt has nowhere to go and when the temperature drops again that evening, it refreezes to form the dam.
Unlike the majority of the roof, the overhanging eaves and gutters are not insulated like the attic. They’re isolated and remain frozen for longer since they’re surrounded by cold air both above and below. It’s in these areas that they form and where you need to stay alert! If you see your downspout freezing, or a layer of ice forming atop your shingles, you’re forming an ice dam and need our help!
Steam-Only Ice Dam Removal in Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties
At the Ice Dam Guys®, we’ve been fighting ice dams since 1995 and consider ourselves proper pioneers of the industry. When we started out, there weren’t the options we have today for tackling these nuisances. Commonly, homeowners would just call their local roofing contractor and see if they could help. Considering winter is the slow season for most roofers, these contractors would take the job, but most probably shouldn’t have. The reason is that working on a frozen roof during a snowstorm vs working on a roof in summer are completely different ball games. And those roofers didn’t have the proper tools. We’ve seen others try everything from an ice pick to overpowered hot water power washers or even large bags of salt melt. While each of these routes technically could remove ice dams, they would also damage roofs or other areas of the home. Blunt tools can damage your roof and break shingles, power washers easily peel back shingles while putting even more water on your roof, and salt melt produces a corrosive byproduct. None of these methods were consistent and more important, they weren’t safe, so that’s when we invented our in-house steam machine, Steamzilla™!
Using only steam to remove ice dams is the safest removal option for your home! The two most important factors are that it’s ridiculously gentle while being incredibly effective. Our tech will fire up Steamzilla™ and begin slicing the ice dam into smaller and manageable pieces. These are then removed from your roof so you’re left with free-flowing gutters and an ice-free roof. Here’s one of our techs doing this below for a visual aid:
Steam-only ice dam removal has never let us down! Considering we’ve been doing this for 25+ years and across the nation, that’s a good track record! At the end of the day you called us because you were worried about your home – let us gently remove the problem so it stays undamaged!
Ice Dam Guys® Are Lake Michigan’s Ice Dam Removal Experts
Michiganders have trusted the Ice Dam Guys® since the great Ice Storm of 2015 when we saved your butts and thawed your roofs! In addition to a stellar reputation, we’re also licensed and properly insured, and bonded to perform ice dam removal on your home. With a focus on customer service, you can find us hauling our machines through the following Lake Michigan communities:
Acme, Bingham, Cedar, Chums Corner, Elk Rapids, Elmwood Charter Township, Garfield Township, Glen Arbor, Grawn, Honor, Interlochen, Kalkaska, Kewadin, Lake Ann, Lake Leelanau, Leland, Maple City, Mayfield, Northport, Old MIssion, Platte River, Port Oneida, Solon, Suttons Bay, Williamsburg, and Yuba.
Emergency ice dam removal can be costly, but we promise we’re worth it! That said, we know it can be hard to trust what you read online these days, so we recommend that you Google us. Pop in “Ice Dam Guys reviews” and see what you find. Seriously, go to like page 5 or further! All you’ll see are thousands of past customers who are happy with us 🙂
We’re confident we’re the #1 choice for you and your home and we look forward to helping you today!
Call us now at 1-800-423-3267 for same-day / next-day ice dam removal for your Traverse City home.
