Ice Dam & Roof Snow Removal in North Reading, MA

Senco works out of 1150 Main St in Tewksbury, about 13 miles and 18 minutes from North Reading Center by way of Wilmington. We've done roofing, repair, gutter, and siding work in North Reading, and each winter our crews clear ice dams and heavy roof snow around the area with steam and roof-safe tools. Here's how that applies to a North Reading house. For the wider picture, including what's safe to do from the ground, see our ice dam & snow removal overview.

Ice Dams On Every Age Of North Reading House

North Reading grew from 2,886 people in 1940 to 11,264 in 1970, and its houses came in waves. About 43% were built between 1950 and 1979, spread evenly across those three decades, and about 26% more went up between 1980 and 1999. The median home dates to 1975. A 1950s house usually dams up because its attic was insulated and vented to the standards of its day. A newer house can dam up too, from heat leaking through recessed lights, an unsealed attic hatch, or a bath fan venting into the attic instead of outside. The result is the same either way: heat reaches the roof deck, the snow melts, and the water refreezes at the cold eave. The ice dam guide on our blog shows where the heat gets out.

What The Trapped Water Does

A dam holds a pool of meltwater on the roof, and that water backs up under the shingle laps, through nail holes and underlayment seams, into the sheathing and the insulation. The first sign inside is usually a ceiling stain, a damp wall, or a drip at a window, sometimes well away from the ice. When that's already happening, our North Reading roof repair page covers how we find and fix the leak.

Snow Load And North Reading Roofs

North Reading's ground snow load in the Massachusetts building code is 50 psf, the same as every town we serve, and that's plenty for a normal winter on a soundly framed roof. The January 2015 blizzard put 29 inches on North Reading by the National Weather Service's count, and drifting moves snow like that into valleys and up against taller walls. With an ice dam along the eave, the heaviest snow and the trapped water end up on the same edge. If the roof is sagging or groaning, call us. If it was close to replacement anyway, our North Reading roof replacement page covers the next step. We wrote up what a Massachusetts roof is built to carry, and when to worry.

How We Clear The Ice

We clear ice dams with low-pressure steam. It melts a channel through the dam to the shingle surface so the water behind it can drain, and the shingles come through intact. Picks, hammers, and rock salt are how one leak turns into several, by tearing shingle off with the ice or corroding the metal at the eave. Steam takes longer, and it's the only way we'll treat an asphalt shingle roof.

Clearing Roof Snow

When snow is piling weight on the roof or feeding the dam, we take it off the eaves, the valleys, and the drifted spots with tools made for roofs. The aim is less weight on the framing and less snow to melt into the next dam, without dragging anything across the shingles.

When An Ice-Damaged Roof Needs Replacing

If the damage goes past a repair, a new roof in North Reading needs a building permit from the town's own Building Department at Town Hall, 235 North Street (978-357-5240), which is separate from Reading's. Roofing is a named line on its fee schedule, applications go in online through PermitEyes, and we file the permit on every North Reading roof we replace. Homes in the Center Village Historic District, nine buildings in the old center of town, also need the Historic District Commission to approve exterior changes before work starts, and we sort that out first.

Keeping Next Winter's Dam Away

Steam ends the leak in front of you. Preventing the next one is warm-weather work in the attic: insulation brought up where it's thin, and ventilation that moves cold air from the soffits to the ridge so the roof deck stays cold. Massachusetts requires an ice barrier at every eave, from the edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, and 36 inches along the slope on roofs pitched 8:12 or steeper, and every North Reading roof we install gets it. Gutters are part of it too, since a packed gutter holds meltwater at the eave. We've done gutter work in North Reading, and our North Reading gutter page covers it.