A winter of record snowfall totals in Boston means many roofing contractors will be inundated with calls for snow removal services throughout the Commonwealth. Recent media reports on the dangers of roof collapses and incidents happening at horse stables, an ice rink, and some buildings only add to the urgency of getting the weight off of people’s rooftops safely and as quickly as possible.
Though our Newton snowbird client and his wife were enjoying their second home in sunnier Florida (which, by the way, was not that much warmer than Boston these last few weeks), they were very much in tune with the weather drama and endless storms in New England and had tried to get in touch with their own roofing contractor to remove the snow from their Newton home’s roof.
Unfortunately and not surprisingly, no one answered and no one came. But we never stop with a ‘no.’
Yesterday, we reached out to our trusted residential and commercial painting professional with extensive roof and gutter experience and to our delight, they would be able to assist with the snow removal at our Newton client’s home. In fact, we would not need to wait another week; they scheduled us first thing in the morning.
Today, we arrived early and planned for a long day of monitoring the work of the contractors on the roof. On our client’s roof sits four weeks’ worth of heavy snow and icy gutters, with icicles as long as four feet in some areas. The snow in many areas of the roof was as thick as three feet.
Working as a team of two, we watched as the contractors angle their extension ladder by the garage, confidently climb up to the snowy roof and get the OK from their boss to start shoveling. Though they brought roof rakes along, they opted to use regular shovels to remove the snow.
We stayed out of the chilly outdoors and watched the action on and off from several rooms on the second floor. The day’s sunny and dry weather was perfect to get the job done. Instead of wasting energy shoveling in random directions, we watched as the men stood from the highest point and let their shovels push the compact snow down row-by-row, the weight of the snow on top loosening up the snow on the bottom, gradually exposing the roof shingles and letting the sun melt the rest.
For nearly three hours straight, the contractors cleared off more than half of the roof before taking a break for lunch. As they took their break, we ventured out and shoveled out the blocked front entrance. The snow pile at the front door was over five feet tall and because that area needed to be accessible, we shoveled it. After lunch, the contractors continued removing snow for a few more hours as we stood ready to shovel out any blocked entrance.
When the work completed by the fifth hour, we could almost sense the house felt several hundred pounds lighter on the top. And we spared a home from possible damage and costly repairs, not to mention wasted hours by our client waiting and watching the service people work. Just the kind of peace of mind we like to give to our snowbird clients this time of year.
Images credit: Susan Ho
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