Crews work to remove ice, snow causing leaks in West Bend buildings

 

WEST BEND, Wis. (CBS 58) -- In West Bend Monday, restoration crews have responded to emergency leaks at multiple commercial buildings where ice dams have caused major leaks.

Crews will be working well into the night here because this is just one side of a very large building.

Crews are on the roof of a 15,000-square foot industrial space, with shovels in hand, working hard to get rid of all the snow that's accumulated up here. It's been leaking inside. Outside, ice dams all around the building are a major concern.

"They can do damage to the inside. They can do damage to your insulation where they can create mold and other formations that are going on throughout that," said Jason Stendahl, Total Restoration Services and RemoveMyIceDam.com owner.

Steam's melting enough of it away. The rest falls to the ground. The ice dams are a result of temperatures in the 30s after several days near zero.

"We let that steam work the job because if you start picking at it or putting salt on it and you start banging on it, you could cause some major damage to your roofs," said Stendahl.

Ice dams have been known to loosen shingles and tear apart gutters.

"Once it gets heavy enough, and then the more snow that's sliding down that roof can rip a gutter right off, and once it rips that gutter off, there's a lot of things that come with it: fascia, soffet, shingles, things like that," said Stendahl.

This whole industrial park between Lang and Creek Road has been hit hard by ice dams.

"I believe that it's gonna get worse because I see temperatures up into the 40s, and like tonight I already feel like it's dropping, and so it's gonna be thawing, freezing, thawing, freezing and it's gonna continue this cycle," said Stendahl.

Right across the street from where they're working, the weight of the snow has now built up in this sagging gutter leaving incredible damage.

"So now if you have a five-inch, six-inch, seven-inch gutter, you have that much ice and it builds up, builds up, and it's got nowhere to go, so it starts backing up on your roof," said Stendahl.

Best to get the snow off your roof if you can, at least remove the last three feet using a roof rake. Better would be to shovel the entire roof.

"And obviously not everybody's comfortable going on their roofs, and that's why we're out there to help people," said John Newkirk, senior project manager of Total Restoration Services.

Total Restoration's got 10 roof rakes available for the public to borrow at their West Bend office.