DAMN DAMS:

Breaking the Ice: Landscapers Can't Keep Up With Demand to Get Dams Off Roofs (Omar Sacirbey, 1/14/903, Valley News)

Decked out in heavy black overalls, a gray sweatshirt and a thick knit cap, Keith Daniels swung his ax. Chunks of ice slid down Cornish Elementary School's standing seam roof, sounding like dominos falling to the floor as they hit the frozen ground.

"It's been bad. This has been the worst one for a few winters, anyways," said Daniels, who works for Meriden-based Mak's Landscaping and Maintenance. [...]

Ice dams form when melting snow runs down a roof but then freezes at its usually uninsulated eaves and valleys. The result is a dam that blocks the remaining snowmelt. That snowmelt, however, usually doesn't freeze because it's on a part of the roof that is above an insulated part of the house that allows heat to rise. Unable to flow down, the snowmelt can seep through porous roofs and into homes. [...]

"The roof of choice--in the North Country--is standing seam metal," Jourdan said. Such roofs, if they are standing seam and especially if they have a decent pitch -- which he considers to be 6 inches for every 12 inches of roof -- can withstand several feet of snow.

We know how he feels. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 14, 2003 12:14 PM