Icy fun on the Roof

About 2 weeks ago just after one of our thaws, I had front row seats to a real life version of a 'Red Green' episode play out in my back yard. Imagine an old cottage with a large crust of ice along its roof edges, building high above the shingles as it tends to do over a winter. The roof isn’t steep, but it’s not shallow either. And you can safely assume that the insulation isn’t that great in the attic, hence the ice buildup. That's the house that backs onto ours.

So it was with great amusement that I watched an older fellow setting up a ladder in the snow and lean it against those shingles…I’ve never seen him before so he’s not one of the tenants living there.  Since this cottage has been for sale perhaps this new person showing up is actually the new owner, here to make a show of setting something right…Which would be fitting, except for what he did next.

Up went the ladder, up went the gent, and with him a rather large wood axe. Now, some of you might be as alarmed as I was. What was a guy going to do but hurt himself by climbing a ladder in these inclement conditions? And what on earth was he going to do with a wood axe? He wasn’t going to try chopping away the ice was he? Yes, that’s what he did…

While I was contemplating his doom with my phone dialed with 9-1 in my hand I watched as chunk after large chunk of ice fell off the roof and scattered in various directions, narrowly missing the ladder. This man was taking full swings at his roof with abandon. He did this until all that icebuild up was gone. I thought he was done but then he climbed onto the roof with a snow shovel and chopped at the rest of the dense snow cap. Several hours later I looked out to find him still on top of the roof, his pace slowed somewhat by the odd sitting spell. The last I saw of him he had retrieved some road salt and was spreading that on the newly bare but still frozen shingles.

I hope his work solved whatever problem was going on inside the house..... But those shingles are not designed to withstand the kind of treatment they received. Frozen shingles crack and split when hit with blunt force, salt with artificially age them.  I really hope that roof is getting reshingled this summer.