Springtime is finally here, and after a brutal winter, it’s a major relief and cause for celebration. However, as a homeowner, considering snowmelt protection is a critical step in preparing for the spring season. In real terms, this means making sure that you are prepared for the transition from the cold and snow-packed winter months to the warmer temperatures of spring by inspecting your home, reinforcing certain areas, and generally watching out for potential damage caused by melting snow.
Fortunately, you can start taking several steps right now to protect your home from snowmelt damage from top to bottom. Additionally, it’s important to purchase the type of homeowner’s insurance you need to make sure you are ready if any unavoidable damage occurs.
Start at the Top: Roofs, Gutters, and Drain Pathways
It’s important to start preventing snowmelt damage from the topmost portions of your home and then work your way down. The roof, gutters, and drainage system should all be monitored.
Roofs
For most homes, the roof is the first concern in terms of snowmelt, especially during years of large storms with heavy accumulation. While there is no way to anticipate the volume of snow in any given season, you should implement a plan to remove snow from roof surfaces when clearing the surfaces around your home, such as driveways and sidewalks.
A snow rake, available at most hardware and home improvement stores, is an excellent and inexpensive tool for clearing the snow from your roof to avoid water damage.
Gutters
Similarly, the gutters surrounding your roof are among the most important areas to protect and clear to avoid damage from snow. The ideal scenario starts with cleaning gutters each fall to rid them of dirt and debris, such as falling leaves, that can cause clogs.
Not only can debris buildup create pooling water that may leak into the home, but ice dams can also form when temperatures drop. Ice dams, which are ridges of ice that form on the side of a roof, prevent the majority of snow or water from draining. When temperatures drop (usually at night), large dams can form, exponentially increasing the likelihood of roof damage.
Drainage Systems
Finally, maintaining the pathways of your gutters, or the drainage system, helps to further reduce the amount of damage caused by melting snow. This starts with checking the downspout of gutter drains, especially when melt rates pick up during the daytime. If possible, make sure the spout points away from the home and toward a street or other drainage system, like a ditch.
If necessary, add a splash block, another item commonly found in home improvement stores. These longer drainage systems can help divert water even further away from the home.
Finally, check the flow of other drainage systems, such as sewers and roadside drain systems, ensuring nothing like debris or ice is causing backups. Like gutters, this can cause water to accumulate and potentially seep back toward your home.
Check the Foundation
Protecting your home from snowmelt starts at the top by preventing the water from melting snow from gaining access to your home. However, it’s equally important to consider the lower levels of the home. If unavoidable circumstances, such as an immense amount of melting snow and ice, cause water to pool in those areas, it must be addressed immediately. Specifically, this means being conscious of clearing snow away from your home’s foundation as well as maintaining your sump pump.
Keep the Foundation Clear
To truly prevent damage from snowmelt, it’s important to make sure the spaces surrounding your home are clear of snow. This requires more than maintaining sidewalks and driveways, although those steps matter. Consider maintaining at least a foot of space between the line of snow and the sides of your home to prevent snowmelt from seeping in through the foundation of your home, especially around cracks and spaces of egress, such as a basement door.
What’s more, consider spaces like decks and patios that could leave the foundational areas of your home vulnerable to wet soil. Finally, be aware of your environment. An inch of snow spread across an acre of land equals more than 10,000 gallons of water. In other words, the more snow that accumulates over the course of the winter, the more space you need to leave between that snow line and your home.
Check Your Sump Pump
No matter how hard you work to prevent water from entering your home, sometimes the volume of snowfall and the rate of snowmelt is just too much to manage. In these cases, your last line of defense is a sump pump installed in your basement to help pump standing water out of the basement and into a ditch. Rising water levels activate the pump, preventing water from getting too close to important basement systems, such as boilers and water heaters, and causing more damage.
Regular sump pump maintenance is essential. Schedule formal seasonal checks to make sure the pump is in good working order as well as periodic visual inspections throughout the winter. Should you notice anything wrong, even just a small leak, service your sump pump right away before the next blizzard or major warm front moves through your area.
Insurance Offers an Added Layer of Protection
Maintaining your home from top to bottom to prevent and mitigate damage from melting snow is an important aspect of living in a northern climate. However, even the best preventative measures cannot guarantee that accidents and extreme conditions will not happen. In such cases, the smartest homeowners are those who insure against the types of environmental damage caused by snowmelt.
Check your homeowners’ policy to see if snowmelt damage is included in your coverage.
You can compare rates online today to find the right policy for you. HRCCU Insurance Agency is happy to review your current policy as well as help you locate an affordable option that provides the type of coverage that you need.
