Ice Dam & Roof Snow Removal in North Andover, MA

If you're looking for ice dam removal or roof snow removal in North Andover, MA, start here. Our shop is at 1150 Main Street in Tewksbury, about 12 miles and 15 minutes up I-495, and we've done roofing work in North Andover. In winter we steam ice dams off and clear roof snow. The rest of the year we do the insulation, ventilation, and ice-barrier work that keeps them from coming back. This page is about North Andover houses in particular. For the rundown across our whole service area, see our ice dam and roof snow removal overview.

Why North Andover Roofs Ice Up

An ice dam starts in the attic. Warm air from the house leaks up and heats the roof deck enough to melt the snow sitting on it. The water runs down to the overhang, where there's no heat underneath, and freezes again. Give that a few days and a ridge of ice builds along the eave, with the next round of meltwater pooling behind it. Shingles are made to shed water running downhill, and they can't hold back a puddle, so the water works up under the laps, into the sheathing and the insulation, and comes out as a stain on a ceiling, sometimes a room away from the dam. If that's already happening, our North Andover roof repair crew finds the leak and fixes it. You can watch it happen in our interactive ice dam cutaway.

1970s and 80s Homes, Townhouses, and Condos

North Andover built more in the 1970s and 80s than in any other stretch. Census housing estimates put about 36% of the town's homes in those two decades. Attics from that era were insulated and vented to the standards of the day, which ask for less than today's code, and that gap is where uneven roof temperatures come from.

The housing mix matters here too. About 46% of North Andover's homes aren't detached single-family houses: they're townhouses, two-families, and condo buildings. On a shared roofline, an ice dam doesn't stop at the unit line, and the water behind it can come through a neighbor's ceiling as well as yours. On an attached roof we clear the section you own, tell you what we see on either side, and give your association what it needs if the fix reaches past one unit.

Older Houses in the Old Center and Machine Shop Village

About 1 in 6 North Andover homes was built before 1940. The North Andover Center Historic District lists 75 properties, Federal and Victorian houses among them, and Machine Shop Village still has double worker cottages on Water Street from 1839. Houses that old went up before attic insulation was standard, so whatever they have was added later, worked in around chimneys, dormers, and framing that was never laid out for it. Those gaps are where heat reaches the roof deck.

If your house is in the Old Center Historic District, the Historic District Commission reviews exterior work there. Steaming a dam off doesn't change the outside of the house. If the lasting fix involves exterior work, like a new roof, we check with the commission first and build its review into the schedule.

Snow Load on North Andover Roofs

Massachusetts code puts North Andover in the 50 psf ground-snow-load column, the same as every town we serve. A soundly framed roof carries a normal winter. The weight that causes trouble is snow drifted into a valley or piled against a wall where a low roof meets a taller one, with a dam adding ice along the same edge. North Andover has seen that weight up close: in February 2011, a Commerce Way building with four businesses inside was evacuated after its ceiling began to sag, and the building inspector judged the roof in danger of collapse. The town's Building Department links the state's roof collapse and snow removal safety guidance from its own page. A roof that sags or creaks under the load is worth a call. And if yours is due anyway, our North Andover roof replacement page covers that job. For the signs a roof is struggling, see how much snow is too much for a roof.

How We Remove an Ice Dam

We use low-pressure steam. It cuts a channel through the dam down to the shingles so the trapped water can drain, and it does that without chipping, prying, or salt. Ice is frozen to the shingle surface, so a hatchet or a pressure washer takes granules and sometimes whole tabs with it. Rock salt eats at shingles, gutters, and fasteners. Steam takes longer, and on an asphalt shingle roof it's the method we use.

Clearing Roof Snow

When snow is adding weight or feeding the next dam, we take it off the eaves, valleys, and drift spots with roof-safe tools and leave a thin layer on the shingles so nothing scrapes them. Thin the snow at the edge and the next dam has less to grow from.

Stopping the Next One

Removal gets you through the week, and the fix that keeps a dam from coming back is warm-weather work. On a 1970s or 80s North Andover house we start in the attic: how deep the insulation is, where air leaks through the top-floor ceiling, and whether the soffit vents are open to the ridge. A roof deck that stays evenly cold doesn't melt snow from below, so nothing refreezes at the eave.

Massachusetts also requires an ice barrier at every eave, ice-and-water shield from the edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, or 36 inches along the slope on roofs pitched 8:12 or steeper. If an ice-damaged roof needs replacing, that barrier is the first layer back on the deck, and when the job needs a permit we file it with the Building Department at 120 Main Street. Gutters count too, since a clogged one holds meltwater right where the dam forms. Our North Andover gutters page covers that side.