Angry About Seeing Ice Chunks in Your Yard? Don’t Be
After we complete an ice dam removal job, we sometimes get an irate phone call from a homeowner who sees huge chunks of ice all over the yard. Because we use the “chunking” method of removing ice dams, the yard can indeed look like a Norse battlefield after we’ve finished our work.
Keep in mind you’ll never see these ice chunks on your walkway, driveway, or sidewalks. We clean every walkway, driveway, and sidewalk. We also salt them if you ask us to. But we do not remove the chunks that are just sitting in your front yard.
Why?
Because it’s winter, for one thing. Your yard is already a mess of ice and snow, and you’re probably not busting out your Adirondack chairs to enjoy a frosty glass of lemonade just yet.
Second, we charge by the hour for as long as we’re at your home. Do you really want to pay several hundred dollars an hour to watch us haul ice chunks away from a snow drift?
Keep in mind that every chunk of ice on your lawn is a chunk of ice we didn’t have to melt on your roof, which means we saved you money. Melting ice takes a lot longer than removing big chunks of ice as they pop off. Think about it… every chunk of ice that you see on your lawn is another $50 in your pocket.
In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that if you once hired another ice dam company that left you with a pristine, ice-chunk-free lawn, you probably got ripped off. Yes, the ice dam remover was doing what looked like work the whole time he was on your roof – but he was doing it in the slowest-possible way imaginable. He melted your entire ice dam from the top down vs. slicing off a giant chunk and then finishing the last few inches of thickness with a gentle steam-bath. More billable hours!
Granted, there are some situations where we can’t chunk-cut the ice away, and where we must melt it all from the top down. For example, if you’ve got delicate patio sets that are frozen into the ground – to the point where they can’t be moved – then of course we’ll want to avoid dropping a giant block of ice (or shovels full of snow) on the thing. The same is true of gas meters, grills, AC units – and one time even a custom-built chicken coop.
But for the most part, the more chunks of ice you see scattered about your yard, the more thoughtful and careful the technician was with your pocketbook.
Why do we remove ice “chunk by chunk” when we can charge you more just to melt it from the top down verrrrry sloooowly? Two reasons: Aside from the fact that we’re honest (which seems to be a growingly more difficult trait to find in a contractor these days), we want you to be happy, and spread the word to your friends, family, and neighbors that we’re good hardworking honest guys! We’d also prefer it if you didn’t have to take out a second mortgage just to pay for our services.
Second, during peak ice dam season, we’ve got hundreds of homeowners waiting for us to help them – in houses that within a few hours could suffer dangerous leaks that could damage everything inside their home.
An ice dam professional who gets out of your hair as quickly as possible is being honest with you…even if your yard looks a little messy after he’s finished.
