Ice Dam & Roof Snow Removal in Wilmington, MA

Wilmington shares a border with Tewksbury, and our shop is about ten minutes away. We've done roofing, siding, and gutter work in Wilmington, and the houses here come in two main generations that ice up for different reasons. This page covers both. For the full rundown on ice dams across every town we serve, see our ice dam & snow removal overview.

Wilmington's Two Building Booms

Census figures put the median Wilmington home at a year built of 1979, and the town grew in two big waves. The 1950s added about one in six of today's homes, a lot of them capes and ranches. The 1990s added more than any other decade, close to one in five. About half the town's homes were built before 1980.

On an older cape, the upstairs rooms sit tight under the roof. Sloped ceilings and short kneewalls leave little space for insulation or for air to move, so heat from those bedrooms goes straight into the roof deck. Snow melts over the warm rooms, runs down to the cold overhang, and freezes there. A ranch from the same years usually has a long eave line and, unless someone has added to it, an attic insulated to a 1950s standard. Our ice dam cutaway shows where that heat gets out.

A 1990s house was built to a tighter standard, and its roof is often the bigger puzzle. If yours has dormers, valleys, or a lower roof that meets a taller wall, snow drifts into those corners and meltwater runs down the valleys, and that's where the dam forms. A 1990s roof still on its original shingles is between 27 and 36 years old, so an ice dam leak is often the first sign it's near the end.

What An Ice Dam Does To A Roof

Heat from the house warms the upper roof and melts the snow on it. The water runs down until it reaches the overhang, where there's no heat underneath, and freezes again. Each thaw adds a layer, until a ridge of ice sits along the eave with a pool of water trapped behind it. Shingles are made to shed water running downhill, and standing water works its way up under the laps and through the nail holes, into the sheathing and the insulation. Inside, it shows up as a ceiling stain or wet window trim, often a few feet from the dam itself. If water is already in the house, our roof repair in Wilmington page covers tracing and fixing the leak.

Snow Load On A Wilmington Roof

The Massachusetts building code's snow-load table lists Wilmington at 50 pounds per square foot, the same as Tewksbury and every other town we serve. A properly framed roof carries a normal winter without complaint, and the trouble comes after a big storm or a run of them. In the February 2013 blizzard, a Wilmington resident reported 29 inches of snow to the National Weather Service. Snow like that drifts into valleys and piles onto lower roofs below taller ones, and an ice dam at the eave adds its weight to the same edge. If the roof sags or creaks, or doors and windows upstairs start to stick, call us. If the roof itself is worn out, our roof replacement in Wilmington page covers that job. For the signs a roof is struggling, see how much snow is too much for a roof.

How We Take An Ice Dam Off

We use low-pressure steam. It cuts a channel through the dam down to the shingles so the trapped water can drain, without chipping shingles, stripping granules, or pushing more water underneath. A hatchet, a pick, or a bag of rock salt can do all three. Steam takes longer, and on an asphalt roof it's the only method we use.

Clearing Snow From The Roof

When snow is adding weight or feeding the next dam, we clear the eaves, the valleys, and the spots where it drifts, using roof-safe tools. We shave it down and leave a couple of inches on the shingles. The state's Department of Public Safety gives homeowners the same advice, because scraping a roof clean puts the shingles at risk.

Stopping The Next One

Steaming a dam off handles this winter, and the work that stops next winter's is best done when it's warm out. On a Wilmington cape or ranch, we start in the attic: how much insulation is up there, and whether air can move from the soffits to the ridge. On a 1990s house, we look hard at the valleys and the flashing where roofs meet walls. Gutters matter too, since a clogged gutter holds water right where the dam wants to grow. Our seamless gutters in Wilmington page covers that side.

Massachusetts requires an ice barrier at every eave: ice-and-water shield from the lowest edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, or 36 inches up the slope on roofs pitched 8:12 or steeper. Every roof we install has it. If an ice dam has finished off an older roof, the re-roof permit comes from the Building Inspector's office at Wilmington Town Hall, and we put the whole package together, asbestos document included.