Residential driveway plowing
Seasonal plowing for homes in Springfield and the nearby towns, on a route that runs through the storm and again after it ends. Driveways get pushed, walks and steps get cleared by hand where they are part of the agreement, and the pile goes where you want it and not against the garage door or the neighbor's fence. I take a limited number of driveways so the route can be done properly in a big storm rather than promised and missed.
Springfield averages somewhere around four feet of snow in a normal winter, and the bad ones bring a lot more. The plan has to work on the bad ones.
Roof snow raking
This is the part of winter work that comes from being a roofer. After a storm drops a foot or more, the first few feet of snow above the eaves should come off with a roof rake from the ground, because that is the snow that feeds the ice dam. Removing it stops the meltwater from having anywhere to refreeze. I rake the eaves, the valleys, and the low-slope porch roofs, from the ground or from a ladder, without walking on the shingles or scraping the granules off.
Raking a roof properly in cold weather is a skill. Done badly it breaks shingles and tears gutters off, and the damage shows up in April.
Ice dam removal
When a dam has already formed and water is coming into the house, the emergency answer is steam. Low-pressure steam cuts channels through the ice without damaging the shingles, and it is the only method I use on a roof I will be asked to repair later. Hammers, chisels, and salt spread on the roof all cause damage that costs more than the leak did.
After the dam is gone, the conversation turns to why it formed. Almost always it is attic heat loss and blocked ventilation, and fixing that in the spring is a roofing and carpentry job I can do.
Snow load on flat roofs and porches
The flat rubber roofs over porches, bays, and additions do not shed snow. After a heavy wet storm or a mid-winter rain on top of deep snow, the weight on those roofs can reach a point the framing was never meant to carry. I clear low-slope roofs by hand with plastic shovels, leaving a couple of inches so the membrane is not scraped, and I look at the framing from below while I am there. A porch roof that has sagged under snow once will sag worse the next time.
Why a roofer plows
Winter is the season when I see the most roofs, from the ground, in the conditions that cause the damage. A driveway customer with icicles the size of a person hanging off the eave is a homeowner about to have a ceiling leak, and I can tell them before it happens. The plowing keeps the crew working, and the roofing work I find in February fills the calendar for May.
Where the plow route runs
The route is built around Springfield's neighborhoods and the closest towns: Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Ludlow, Chicopee, and the parts of West Springfield and Agawam that fit the loop. Roof raking and ice dam work go wherever the roofing work goes.