Many new homeowners here in Minnesota are caught off guard the first time they get an ice dam. They’ve never really thought about them before or had to deal with them. That always used to be the landlord’s job, so they might never have even heard of ice dams or ice dam removal.
Unfortunately, as soon as they get an ice dam they tend to think that insurance will jump in to foot the bill. This usually means they don’t have much or any money set aside of their own to handle the removal bill.
If you’re a new homeowner, then you’re in luck: you may have stumbled on this article before you got into trouble. It’s important to understand what insurance will and will not cover so that you can engage in a little bit of wintertime financial planning.
Reality #1: Homeowner’s Insurance Does Not Always Cover Ice Dams
If you check your insurance policy, you will typically learn that ice dams are not specifically covered. The damage from an ice dam may be, but this means you would have to wait for the ice dam to grow big enough and nasty enough to send water cascading into your home before insurance is going to kick in.
At that point, it might not be worth it. Your carpets, walls, and belongings be soaked through with cold, nasty roof water. Your belongings (unless listed separately) aren’t going to be covered, so you’ll have to replace all of those out of pocket. You’ll be putting your home at risk for mold, too. There’s also the small matter of the fire hazard that you’ll be creating as water starts flowing in and around your electric wires.
And your insurance company is usually only going to pay for the portion of the ice dam that’s causing the leak. That means you may have to leave a huge chunk of ice on your roof unless you have some way to pay for the remainder. And all of this assumes that they don’t just deny your claim altogether, leaving you in really big trouble.
Caveat: not all insurance companies are alike. Some insurance companies will pay to have the entire ice dam removed, but again, they will usually want to wait until there’s a leak. There are also some magical unicorn insurance companies who will foot the whole bill for ice dam removal before the damage is done, but this isn’t very common. If you’re banking on that you’d best be ready to buy your insurance adjuster and agent a beer!
Of course, you won’t want to rely on the insurance company every year, even if they are very, very nice to you. That’s because you’ll start racking up claims. If you wind up with too many claims, you could end up with a cancelled insurance policy. And as you may or may not know it can be very difficult to get a new insurance policy once even a single company decides that you are “uninsurable.”
Reality #2: You Will Probably Need to Do a Little Winter Work
You need to consider purchasing a roof rake and learning how to use it. Removing the snow from your roof carries two major advantages.
First, it decreases the likelihood that you will get an ice dam. Ice dams are formed when snow melts and re-freezes. No snow? No ice dam. Even if you can’t clear “all” the snow from your roof, removing some is much better than none. Second, it can increase the likelihood that the insurance company will help you out. After all, you’ve taken steps to prevent the damage at that point. You’re not just sitting around hoping someone else will take responsibility for your home.
Roof raking isn’t fun, but it’s more fun than getting an ice dam.
Reality #3: You Should Probably Have Some Money Set Aside
It’s a good idea to put $1000 to $3000 in the bank to make sure that you can pay for ice dam removal out of pocket if you have to. Alternatively, you could keep a line of credit open that’s large enough to cover the potential job.
That’s not to say every job will be that expensive. Your home might be one of the rare homes that takes just two hours to complete. However, you need to plan for the fact that your job could take as many as six hours to complete. If you’re truly unlucky, your home could be an eight-hour home.
This will be impossible to predict until it happens! However, if you catch the ice dam early you may be able to save some money, rather than waiting until you’ve got a big, hairy, three-ton block of ice on your roof.
Remember, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” At some point, almost every Minnesota homeowner faces an ice dam, even if they’re doing everything right. Make sure you have the resources to handle yours.