Friday, February 20, 2015

Snowpocalypse



In case you haven't heard, Boston has been suffering from one of the most brutal winters on record, clocking in at 95" of snow so far this year and counting. Technically this is the city's second worst winter on record, but we're only a foot away from topping the list! Not sure that's a title I want us to claim. 

Besides all the snow we have: frigid temperatures, roads that have turned into roller coasters thanks to endless potholes and frost heaves, houses look more like igloos with icicles reaching all the way down the ground, ice dams and roof collapses are an ever-present fear and if you don't have a roof rake, you're pretty much screwed.

Here's what we've been dealing with out in the burbs:






Besides the obvious problem of running out of space to put all this snow, we're dealing with our old friend, the ice dam. We had a small leak in our roof a few years ago so this fall, Mike decided to be proactive and installed a heat trace de-icing kit to the edges of the roof. Its designed to create channels in the snow and ice so that water can flow off the roof and doesn't back up and cause leaks. They seem to be somewhat working on the front and side of our house but the back where the two roofs meet up is the trouble spot and our roof still leaked there. 

At this point we started the search for a roof rake. Of course they were sold out everywhere and we had to order one on Amazon. Once it finally came Mike did what he could with the roof rake but the ice dams were just to intense and we ended up having to call in a roofing team to clear the roof of snow and break up the ice dams. Now at least the roof is much more manageable and we just have to keep up with the roof raking after each storm. 




If you look closely you can see the rope of our tire swing. The snow is almost up to the roof of our shed.




Dale is the only one enjoying the snow. The first thing he does when he goes outside is flop on his back and roll around in it. He just can't get enough! He is great at adding some comic relief to a stressful situation. I just love dogs.




Just wanted to give a glimpse of whats been going on around here lately and why I've been a bit MIA. I know I promised to try to be more positive about winter this year but this endless parade of winter storms is making it difficult!

Send warm thoughts my way!



4 comments:

  1. We can get through this!!! *cries*

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    1. Thanks Kay! I enjoyed reading your post too, living in the city must be such a challenge right now!

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  2. At least the days are getting longer....I hope that means Spring is thinking about heading our way!!!

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  3. That was wise of Mike to take that initiative with the gutters; any way that you can break down the ice so that it flows out of the roof is most welcome. You cannot risk the snow backing up on a spot, enough to create those damaging leaks. It’s too bad that the back area had a problematic spot that causes buildup, but at least it was still manageable to a point. Anyway, I hope that was the last leaky problem you had last winter. Take care!

    Nathan Riley @ Steemer Atlanta

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