Ice dams are not an Edina problem so much as a Minnesota one, and they show up on the same handful of eaves and valleys year after year. As part of our complete Edina winter roof services, crews handle roof shoveling across Hennepin County.
Snow Bands, Warm Attics and the Edina Eave
What makes Hennepin County roofs dam is not the seasonal total, it is how the snow arrives. Bands dump a heavy, saturated pack in hours, and that pack becomes a water reservoir sitting on a heated surface.
Then the temperature swings. Lake-effect regions cycle hard either side of freezing, and each cycle moves meltwater down to a cold eave and locks it there. The dam grows by a layer every time, and the water behind it rises with it.
Ice-barrier practice in Hennepin County
Lake-belt jurisdictions in Minnesota have enforced eave membrane on re-roof permits for a long time. The roofs that leak are, almost without exception, the ones that have not been touched since before that.
Roof Shoveling in Edina: How The Work Runs
Anchors, rope and why this is not a DIY job
Every crew member on a pitched roof is tied to a rated anchor. On ice over shingle, footing is unreliable in a way that is hard to appreciate from the ground. Ceiling Sagging or Bulging After Snow.
Roof falls are the most common serious winter injury in this trade and they happen to people who have done it for years. A Edina homeowner in work boots on a January roof is taking a risk out of all proportion to the money saved.
What happens to the ground below
Several tons of snow has to land somewhere. Shrubs, railings, air conditioning condensers, downspout extensions, low roofs over porches and anything made of lattice are all easy to flatten with material coming off a roof above.
The drop zones get chosen before the clear starts and anything fragile is either moved or worked around. On a tight Edina lot that sometimes means carrying material to the street rather than dropping it, which costs hours and gets quoted that way.
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.
How crews work without wrecking the roof
Plastic-bladed shovels only, never steel. Snow is cut and lifted in layers rather than scraped, and a cushion layer stays on the surface at all times so the blade never contacts shingle, membrane or seam. Discharge is aimed away from walkways, decks, shrubs and mechanical units.
Everyone on the roof is harnessed to a rated anchor. On an icy pitch that is not a formality — it is the whole reason this is not a homeowner job.
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.
What you get in Edina
- Plastic blades onlyCut and lifted in layers, never scraped down to the surface
- Flat sections includedGarage, porch and addition roofs that shed nothing on their own
- Skylights worked aroundFlagged and avoided rather than cleared over
| Primary climate stressor | Lake-effect bands, wet heavy pack |
|---|---|
| Coverage area | Edina and Hennepin County |
| Removal method | Low-pressure steam only. No chipping, salt or pressure washing. |
| Typical scope | Steam, 6-12 crew hours typical |
| Documentation | Dated before and after photos, written scope in Xactimate line items |
| Pricing model | Billed by the crew hour, rate quoted before dispatch |
| Local ice-barrier practice | Eave membrane expected on re-roofs |
Where We Dispatch Around Edina
Crews working Edina cover the adjoining communities on the same route — Saint Louis Park, Mendota, Wayzata, Navarre and Excelsior — so a storm week usually means one truck handling several addresses in Hennepin County rather than separate trips.
Nearest hub towns with their own roof shoveling pages: St. Louis Park, Richfield, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka.
Crews cover Edina and the surrounding Hennepin County towns through the whole season, and during a freeze event they run from first light until dark.
Most jobs do not stop at one service. Roof Shoveling in Edina often runs alongside roof snow removal in Edina, and both get written into one scope rather than billed as separate visits.
Active leak right now? Our 24/7 Edina steam ice dam removal crews are dispatched first during a freeze event. Call (888) 561-9664.
