If you are in Yonkers watching icicles grow along the gutter line, what you are really watching is water that no longer has anywhere to drain. As part of our complete Yonkers winter roof services, crews handle commercial ice dam removal across Westchester County.
Older Housing, Heavy Snow: The Westchester County Case
A nor'easter can load a roof in Yonkers with heavy, wet snow overnight. Coastal air then swings the temperature either side of freezing for days, which is the exact condition that builds ice fastest.
Retrofits often made it worse rather than better. Insulation laid on an attic floor without sealing the bypasses underneath it keeps the living space warm and sends the same warm air straight to the roof deck.
Ice-barrier practice in Westchester County
Coastal New York jurisdictions generally require the membrane to extend past the interior wall line. On a house in Yonkers with a deep overhang that is further up the roof than a single course.
Commercial Ice Dam Removal in Yonkers: How The Work Runs
Internal drains fail differently from gutters
A residential gutter overflows when it blocks. An internal roof drain just stops, and the water stays on the deck at depth until it finds a seam, a flashing detail or a pitch pocket.
Crews open the drain throat and then confirm flow in the leader below before calling it clear. An open drain over a frozen leader is not an open drain, and on a Yonkers building that distinction shows up as a tenant ceiling two floors down.
Insulation above the deck changes the melt pattern
A modern commercial assembly puts most of its insulation above the deck, so very little building heat reaches the membrane. That is good for energy and it means the snow that lands mostly stays - the roof does not self-clear the way an under-insulated one does.
Where dams do form on those roofs it is almost always at a thermal bridge: a parapet, a curb, a drain bowl or a line of fasteners. Those are the spots crews work first.
Built for property managers
One contact, one scheduled window, one invoice coded the way your accounting needs it. Crews work around tenant hours where that matters, and the condition report goes to whoever has to show the board or the owner what was spent and why.
Membrane-safe means something specific
EPDM, TPO and modified bitumen all tolerate steam at low pressure and none of them tolerate chipping, scraping or a pressure washer. Crews steam the drains and scuppers open first to restore flow, then work the ponded ice, and they stay off seams and flashing details with the lance.
Mechanical units, conduit runs, solar racking and safety railing all get worked around rather than over.
Flat roofs fail differently
A pitched residential roof dams at the eave. A commercial deck dams at its drainage: frozen scuppers, iced-over internal drains, and ponding that refreezes into a sheet across the low spots. Water then sits on the membrane at depth, finds a seam or a flashing detail, and comes through into the tenant space below.
Parapet walls make it worse by holding the melt on the deck instead of letting it run off an edge. By the time it shows up as a ceiling tile stain in a Yonkers unit, there is usually standing water up there.
What you get in Yonkers
- Tenant-hours schedulingWork windows set around occupancy and access
- Overnight windows availableWork scheduled outside occupancy where access demands it
- Drains and scuppers firstFlow restored before the ponded ice is worked
| Documentation | Dated before and after photos, written scope in Xactimate line items |
|---|---|
| Local ice-barrier practice | Eave membrane standard on re-roofs |
| Removal method | Low-pressure steam only. No chipping, salt or pressure washing. |
| Coverage area | Yonkers and Westchester County |
| Pricing model | Billed by the crew hour, rate quoted before dispatch |
| Service | Commercial Ice Dam Removal in Yonkers, NY |
| Typical scope | Steam, 4-10 crew hours typical |
Where We Dispatch Around Yonkers
Crews working Yonkers cover the adjoining communities on the same route — Bronxville, Hastings On Hudson, Tuckahoe, Eastchester and Pelham — so a storm week usually means one truck handling several addresses in Westchester County rather than separate trips.
Nearest hub towns with their own commercial ice dams pages: Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, New York City, Glen Cove, Ossining.
Coverage runs across Yonkers and the nearby towns all winter, and capacity is surged into whichever New York market the storm actually hits.
Most jobs do not stop at one service. Commercial Ice Dams in Yonkers often runs alongside commercial roof snow removal in Yonkers, and both get written into one scope rather than billed as separate visits.
Active leak right now? Our 24/7 Yonkers steam ice dam removal crews are dispatched first during a freeze event. Call (888) 561-9664.
