Did you listen and shovel your roof in Ma? (Ware: homes, closing)

[SpringMom3]

hired out a few times and husband raked it a few times but leaking from the sills is still an issue. lots of work to be done on the house this spring. what a mess.

[Soup Nazi]

I recently moved to the Concord-Carlisle area from Vermont, and I am curious as to why no one has standing seam roofs here. So far I have only seen one in Carlisle, but in Vermont it is the roof of choice and is quite common. I had one on my house and never had an issue with ice dams or snow building up on the roof.

Is it simply a question of aesthetics? I am guessing that this year's record snowfall in the Boston area is unusual and metal roofs are not normally ever needed. Am I right?

[mmyk72]

I bet metal roof is much more expensive than shingles roof. I've only seen it used in a This Old House episode

[luvmyhoss]

Originally Posted by brienzi

Nope, as most don't need their roofs shoveled despite what the media says. If your roof hasn't leaked yet it's not going to.

Many factors involved with roofs, which include the pitch, any flat areas where epdm is used (rubber), if u have good venting via ur soffit vents.

Having good soffit vents will help keep ur home cooler in the summer and help prevent ice dams in times like this.

I will say that anyone with a flat roof on their home should consider reducing the load there. You don't have shovel all the snow off, just consider removing maybe half of it. And that's a job a homeowner should be able to do on there own as it's a flat area but an area that is most suspect to cave or fail..

Anyone with a decent pitched roof shouldn't be worrying about their roof failing. Ice dams and water leaking yes, but not total roof collapse. If u do experience water damage call ur insurance agent as conditions like this is why we pay for the protection and from what i understand the only thing not covered is furniture, tv's etc that is located where the water is coming in. So move that stuff if your having a problem.

At this point, good luck getting a roofer to clean off your roof, and if u do one will pay through the ROOF! LOL As i said if it's not leaking now and no problems don't buy into the hype. And too qualify, I've been roofing for years and still do. Good luck all as these are the most extreme conditions; so yes people will have some issues but believe the media isn't helping the situation either.

As you know, ice dams and icicles are caused by heat loss. A way to find where you need to
insulate.

Hope everyone has ice and water shield under your shingles!

[luvmyhoss]

Originally Posted by mdovell

I'm more concerned of where all water is going.

If you haven't bought a sump pump I'd get one asap because this is going to melt for awhile. Water goes to where there is the least resistance. I just spent a fair amount of time with some bare fingers making sure a deck doesn't have dams. If it melts it's melting and going OFF not staying.

You could make paths through the snow if not able to shovel all snow.

Also be sure all roof drains and street drains are open to water runoff.

[luvmyhoss]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I wonder, if you need to replace some interior walls due to water damage is that covered by insurance. Have you called yours yet? I also had water leaking into the house this week through my ceiling/walls. I had a heck of a time trying to find a ladder this week. All my ladders were too short, and every store I went to only had 16 foot ladders in stock. The 4th store I went to finally had a 22 footer in stock. Finally chipped away my ice dams so tomorrow's rain has a path to drain through the ice.

Your insurance should pay. However they are telling you do nothing until company appraisers
Come and evaluate.

Hmmm if I had a leak, don't know how long I'd wait.

[luvmyhoss]

Originally Posted by Soup Nazi

I recently moved to the Concord-Carlisle area from Vermont, and I am curious as to why no one has standing seam roofs here. So far I have only seen one in Carlisle, but in Vermont it is the roof of choice and is quite common. I had one on my house and never had an issue with ice dams or snow building up on the roof.

Is it simply a question of aesthetics? I am guessing that this year's record snowfall in the Boston area is unusual and metal roofs are not normally ever needed. Am I right?

More popular here are the shingle lookalike metal roofs.

You are right.

[MikePRU]

It's wonderful to look out my windows and see the icicles quickly shrinking today. Of course, if all this snow melts too fast that's bad news too but that's not going to happen at these temps.

Originally Posted by Soup Nazi

I recently moved to the Concord-Carlisle area from Vermont, and I am curious as to why no one has standing seam roofs here. So far I have only seen one in Carlisle, but in Vermont it is the roof of choice and is quite common. I had one on my house and never had an issue with ice dams or snow building up on the roof.

Is it simply a question of aesthetics? I am guessing that this year's record snowfall in the Boston area is unusual and metal roofs are not normally ever needed. Am I right?

Typically, when I see a metal roof on a residential home it's copper. Copper is VERY expensive.

Also, it's incredibly unusual to have this much standing snow in the Boston area. This situation is a combination of several unusual circumstances:

1. More large snow storms (1 ft+ of snowfall) than usual
2. All the snow storms coming close together in a 3 week period
3. Consistently low temperatures which prevented any of the snow from melting in between storms

[charolastra00]

My landlord is out of town and while his business partner came by last week, he didn't do anything to the roof. We're the top floor so we're the most nervous about leaking. Not much we can do, though, except hope.

[Soup Nazi]

I was hoping this isn't the norm for Boston! After last winter in Vermont, I was hoping to escape the extreme snow and cold. Hopefully next winter will be better.

Most of the standing seam metal roofs up north are aluminum, but there are steel ones as well. I have done two smaller homes and it wasn't significantly more than shingles but never looked very attractive, especially when the width between the seams is large and out of scale with the size of the house. Now they have some metal roofs that, as one poster mentioned, actually look like shingles but of course I am sure they are far more expensive.