Long Winters, Layered Ice: The Grafton County Problem
Lebanon holds snow. In a normal winter the pack that lands in December is still on the roof in February, which means the eave spends months below freezing while the attic underneath stays heated.
Ice built this way is dense and bonded. It is not the brittle shell that comes off a mild-climate roof in one piece - it is layered, hard and locked to the shingle, which is exactly why mechanical removal does so much damage here.
Ice-barrier practice in Grafton County
Because the ice here does not stay near the edge, the New Hampshire requirement generally runs the membrane well up the roof plane. On a house in Lebanon roofed a few decades ago it is frequently missing entirely.
How a Lebanon Steam Call Runs, Start to Finish
Nothing gets touched until the roof has been walked and photographed. The crew finds every dam, locates where water is getting in, shows you, and gives you the crew-hour rate and a time estimate before the equipment comes off the truck.
Removal then works from the worst point outward, so water starts draining early rather than at the end. Gutters and downspouts frozen solid get steamed through in the same visit — leaving them means the eave dams again within days.
Access, ladders and what the crew needs on site
Steam equipment needs somewhere to park within hose reach, and ladders need footing that is not a buried flower bed or a sheet of ice. Clearing a path to the affected eave, moving vehicles off the driveway and unlocking a side gate takes ten minutes and saves considerably more than that on the clock.
Where the only access is through a neighbor's property, that conversation is worth having before the crew is in the street rather than while it waits.
Why a drainage channel is not removal
Cutting a few channels through a dam so water can get past is quick and it is sometimes sold as ice dam removal. It drains the roof for as long as the channels stay open, which in a Lebanon cold snap can be a single night before they close again.
Removing the dam means taking the ice off down to the shingle along the whole affected run, so the eave can drain the way it was built to. It takes longer and it is the only version that holds.
What gets photographed, and why it matters later
Before the lance comes out, the crew shoots the dam from the ground and from the roof, the icicle line, any staining visible inside, and the specific courses where water is tracking under the shingles. Timestamps are on every frame.
That record is the whole case if a claim follows. An adjuster arriving in March sees a dry roof and a stained ceiling; the photographs are what connect the two, and they are what a maintenance-exclusion denial runs into.
| Service | Ice dam removal in Lebanon, NH |
|---|---|
| Dispatch window | Same day to 24 hours |
| Removal method | Low-pressure steam only. No chipping, salt or pressure washing. |
| Local ice-barrier practice | Eave membrane required on new work |
| Primary climate stressor | Sustained sub-freezing, long season |
| Typical scope | Steam, 6-14 crew hours typical |
| Pricing model | Billed by the crew hour, rate quoted before dispatch |
Neighborhoods and Towns We Reach From Lebanon
Crews working Lebanon cover the adjoining communities on the same route — West Lebanon, Etna, Plainfield, Enfield and Meriden — so a storm week usually means one truck handling several addresses in Grafton County rather than separate trips.
Nearest hub towns with their own crew pages: Hanover, Claremont, Franklin, Laconia, Concord, Keene.
Crews cover Lebanon and the surrounding Grafton County towns through the whole season, and during a freeze event they run from first light until dark.
Active leak at an address in Lebanon? (888) 561-9664 reaches dispatch directly. Interior water moves a job to the front of the day.
