Most Ann Arbor homeowners find out about an ice dam from the inside — a damp patch on a bedroom ceiling, or water tracking down the inside of a window frame. As part of our complete Ann Arbor winter roof services, crews handle roof shoveling across Washtenaw County.
The Washtenaw County Trap: Modest Snow, Constant Cycling
Ann Arbor does not need a blizzard to get an ice dam. A few inches that melts by afternoon and refreezes overnight builds one just as effectively, and it does it over and over through the season.
Because the winters read as mild, the building stock is not built for ice. Attic insulation is thinner, eave details are less considered, and ice barrier is more often absent than present on a roof in Ann Arbor.
Ice-barrier practice in Washtenaw County
The residential code Michigan follows calls for eave ice barrier on new work. Enforcement in Washtenaw County is real but recent, so the age of the roof is what decides whether it is there.
Roof Shoveling in Ann Arbor: How The Work Runs
Shoveling and steaming together
On a roof that already has a dam, shoveling and steaming usually happen in the same visit: the pack comes off first so the crew can see and reach the ice, then the dam gets steamed off the eave. Doing it in that order means less steam time, which usually means a smaller invoice. Ceiling Sagging or Bulging After Snow.
Access when the ground is buried too
Ladder footing is the quiet half of this job. Setting a ladder on a packed drift that is going to soften by noon, or against a gutter already loaded with ice, is how people end up in hospital.
Crews dig and level ladder footings, use standoffs so no weight goes on the gutter, and tie off at the top. Where no safe setting exists, the work goes through a lift instead and that gets said rather than improvised around.
Clearing to let the drains work
On anything flat, the job is not finished when the snow is off. Drains, scuppers and overflow outlets have to be opened so the melt that follows has somewhere to go.
A cleared Ann Arbor deck with blocked drains just ponds and refreezes, and ponded water on a membrane finds seams.
Where hand clearing is the only option
A roof rake reaches the first several feet from the edge and nothing beyond it. Dead valleys between roof planes, the pockets behind dormers and chimneys, low-slope and flat sections, and upper roofs on anything over a story and a half all need someone on the roof with a shovel.
Those are also the places snow collects deepest, because wind deposits it there and nothing sheds it. A Ann Arbor roof can look mostly clear from the street and still be carrying two feet of drifted pack in the valleys.
Flat and low-slope roofs shed nothing
A pitched roof loses some of its load on its own. A flat or low-slope roof does not: whatever falls stays, settles, and gets heavier as it absorbs the next melt.
On Ann Arbor properties with a flat section — a garage, an addition, a porch roof, a whole commercial deck — hand clearing is not optional maintenance, it is the only way the load comes off.
What you get in Ann Arbor
- Plastic blades onlyCut and lifted in layers, never scraped down to the surface
- Drains openedScuppers and outlets cleared so the melt has somewhere to go
- Valleys and dormersThe pockets a rake physically cannot reach get cleared properly
| Local ice-barrier practice | Eave membrane on new work, often absent |
|---|---|
| Typical scope | Steam, 4-8 crew hours typical |
| Coverage area | Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County |
| Documentation | Dated before and after photos, written scope in Xactimate line items |
| Removal method | Low-pressure steam only. No chipping, salt or pressure washing. |
| Pricing model | Billed by the crew hour, rate quoted before dispatch |
| Primary climate stressor | Repeated thaw-freeze cycling |
Ann Arbor Coverage and the Adjoining Communities
Crews working Ann Arbor cover the adjoining communities on the same route — Saline, Dexter, Bridgewater, Whitmore Lake and Hamburg — so a storm week usually means one truck handling several addresses in Washtenaw County rather than separate trips.
Nearest hub towns with their own roof shoveling pages: Ypsilanti, Novi, Westland, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Taylor.
Scheduling for Ann Arbor tightens up during a freeze event, which is exactly when the phone beats the form. Water coming in means a call, not an email.
Most jobs do not stop at one service. Roof Shoveling in Ann Arbor often runs alongside roof snow removal in Ann Arbor, and both get written into one scope rather than billed as separate visits.
Active leak right now? Our 24/7 Ann Arbor steam ice dam removal crews are dispatched first during a freeze event. Call (888) 561-9664.
