Snow load damage repair covers what happens when a North Idaho winter asks more of a roof than it was built to carry. Wet spring snow and rain-on-snow events are the worst, because the pack soaks up water and gets heavy fast. Kootenai County sets a design ground snow load for new construction, but plenty of older homes, add-on porches and shops were framed before anyone checked.
Signs we look for: a ridge line that dips, ceiling cracks that showed up in February, interior doors that start sticking, sagging between rafters you can see from the street, and nails pulling out of fascia. Inside the attic we check for cracked or split rafters, trusses with popped gusset plates and purlins that have rolled.
Our crew shores the structure first if needed, then opens the roof and repairs or sisters the damaged framing. After that we replace the sheathing, underlayment and roofing that got torn up. On shops and pole barns with metal roofs, we often find bent purlins and panels that have opened up at the laps.
Safe snow removal is part of prevention. We do not recommend people shovel their own roofs, and we never scrape down to the shingles, which strips granules. If a roof keeps loading up, snow guards or reframing an undersized porch may be the real fix. See also metal roof repair.
