Roofing companies: Important to remove heavy snow after storms

Toiture Vincent has cleared off 18 houses since nearly 74 centimetres of snow fell on Montreal last Thursday and on Sunday amid back-to-back snow storms with heavy snow piling up on roofs across the city and much of Quebec.

“I think we need to do it once a year, even more if you feel a difference in your house, and especially when we have a big snowstorm,” said Léa, a homeowner and client of Toiture Vincent Inc.

“The door in the bathroom was starting to have some friction opening and closing it so that was kind of a sign that we needed to call,” she added.

For homeowner Léa, who just moved from the Laurentians and is quite used to large quantities of snow, calling a roofing company to have snow removed from her flat roof was obvious – but when is it recommended to call? 

“Two feet of snow on a roof is starting to be a lot. If you’re not sure what you can do is call a roofing company that can check if your roof needs snow removal. If there is an accumulation of ice and snow we can have a look at that and at that point we can do an estimate to remove what’s dangerous,” said Valérie Guy, project manager for Toiture Vincent Inc.

As an expert with 15 years of experience, Guy explains that when homeowners choose to remove the ice and snow themselves — aside from the risk of falling — they are often unaware that a two to three-inch layer must be left on the roof to prevent damage that could eventually cause leaks.

“It can be very dangerous to leave large accumulations of snow on your roof. It puts a lot of weight on the roof which can damage the integrity of the structure. I’ll give you an example – if the membrane at a certain level is already damaged or weak, the weight and density can create cracks, which will eventually leak – like this roof today which you can see is leaking,” Guy explained.

Houses with large icicles coming down from the roof are a key indicator that leaks have already started and a large accumulation of snow will only cause other problems.

“It’s also important because there are vents on the roof, they cannot be buried by the snow. There’s also drains on the roof that need to be cleared and awnings that also need to be cleared, it’s really important,” said Guy.

“A reasonable delay is about a week. We get a lot of calls, especially in a snowstorm like we had – so a week is a good delay.”

Léa added, “I called them prior to the first snowstorm, ahead of probably the cue of people calling,” said Léa.

“I wanted to be on top of their list and then they came today.”