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Toronto has experienced a year’s worth of snow in the last six weeks, according to the city’s superintendent of road operations, Mark Mills. Last Wednesday (February 27) brought another 17 to 24cm of snow, forcing Toronto’s snow removal crews to spend $15 million of the city’s 2019 winter budget of about $87 million. As Mills put it: “this has been a challenging winter.”
Toronto’s infrastructure woes aside, there are many heavy snow-related property risks that Canadians need to be wary of. One of the most common issues following a large snowfall is structural collapse caused by the physical weight of the snow. This usually relates to properties with flat roofs or low-slope roofs where snow accumulates rather than sliding off as it would on a sloped roof.
Thunder Bay, ON-based brokerage Jones and Associates Insurance recently sent out an alert to insureds, warning them to “take a look at their roof structure, and additional buildings on the property – sheds and garages and such.” The firm’s president Jeff Jones told CBC News they had seen structural collapses because of large accumulations of snow, and he advised property owners who are worried about snow and ice build-up on their roofs to call in professionals to assess the situation.
“One of the not so commonly thought of issues that arises from heavy snow fall is ice damming,” said Nathan Normoyle, vice president – national operations, Access Restoration Services. “This occurs when you have a large accumulation of snow and temperatures that fluctuate between slightly above and below freezing. The top layer of snow starts to act as an insulator for any heat that’s omitted from the building, causing the underlayer of snow to melt and then re-freeze when the temperature cools again.
“When the underlayer of snow melts, the water can make its way into small crevices or little nooks in the building materials (that could be the roof system itself or something like a vent that comes out of the roof) where it then freezes and causes damage to those openings. When the temperature fluctuates and the ice melts again, this can cause water damage and leakage to the inside of a property.”
Ice damming is notoriously difficult to spot because the top layer of snow often remains intact. The resulting damage of ice damming within a structure is heavily dependent on the weather pattern, Normoyle explained. Sometimes property owners will not notice any damage until well into the spring, when temperatures are sustained above freezing.
One red flag that property owners can look out for is icicles, according to Jim Mandeville, senior project manager of Large Loss North America, at FirstOnSite Restoration. If a neighbourhood has lots of icicles, there will inevitably be properties suffering from ice damming, he noted.
“It’s important to manage the debris in your gutters, which is a big contributor to ice damming, as well as the insulation in your attic and the amount of heat loss from within your building,” Mandeville told Insurance Business. “When we have a lot of snow like this and we have temperatures that fluctuate between slightly above and below zero, we can get that build-up of ice on the eave – and that’s detected by the presence of large icicles. Those icicles may look pretty, but unfortunately that water might end up in your living room.
“Ice damming unfortunately can be a very complicated problem as to the causes and effects. It’s usually a very slow, small leak, which doesn’t grab a property owner’s attention for some weeks or months. Normally, it’s just enough water to moisten the dry wall or the plaster of a ceiling, which might then cause some staining and eventually some microbial growth and/or structural damage.”
The most proactive approach for preventing ice damming is to clear large accumulations of snow from flat, low-sloped or vulnerable roofs. In the spring months, when the weather fluctuates more dramatically, keeping eaves troughs clear to allow proper drainage is also very important. If a property owner knows their property is susceptible to ice damming, they can also manage the risk by adding heat trace cables to their roof, using alternative roofing materials, and making sure the insulation in their attic and the vapor barrier between the interior and exterior of the building are both well-maintained and updated regularly.
“It’s always important to have a plan,” Mandeville added. “If your property has had problems in the past, it’s important in the spring and the summer to take the advice of a restoration partner, a roofing partner or an insurance broker to look at solutions for next winter and to get any mitigation measures done. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of solution at the end of the day, and having a good restoration partner available to you who’s familiar with your facility can really be critical in a quick restoration after an event.”
