Snow, ice woes mean busy times for home repair crews

Central Oregon has seen an early, heavy winter, and the extra snow is building up.

“The snow doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop for us,” Matt Carley, manager of Central Oregon Roofing, said Tuesday.

The snowfall is bringing business to repair companies and headaches to homeowners.

Roofers said ice dams on roofs are a problem this year. They’re caused by melting and quick freezing. The water freezes before it can get off the roof, forming a dam. The dam then pushes water up underneath the roofing.

“Pretty much all the roofers in town are busy right now, which is a good thing,” Carley said. “We’ll keep taking care of every customer as fast as possible.”

Despite the frigid conditions, businesses are feeling the heat. They’re working hard to keep their operations dry and safe.

“The owner and I have been going outside and scraping out the ice, and shoveling all the water away like once an hour,” said Zachary Weishaupt, events manager for Mountain Air Indoor Trampoline Park.

The new indoor trampoline facility said it is working hard to keep the mountain conditions outside, but their building is not cooperating with the weather.

“There’s a sheet of ice, and it’s coming down. So with the downspouts being frozen and also melting and freezing and melting, it’s kind of flooding out there,” Weishaupt said.

The business is keeping the water away from customers by containing it in a small room, and by drying the floor before it can spread.

Mountain Air plans to fix the problem. They’re just waiting for it to be safe to get on the roof. Weishaupt said the sheet of ice on the roof is about 50 to 60 feet off the ground.

There are a few things you can do to keep your home safe.

“You can get up there — just be gentle, don’t get up there and start hitting with a hammer, basically,” Carley said. “You can shovel off the snow first, to see what you’re dealing with. And then, like I said, chip away a little bit at a time, to where you’re not just going full bore and damaging your roof more than it needs to be.”

He noted that if you have a flat roof, be sure to keep the drains clear, so the water can get off the roof.