How to Get Your Roof Ready for a Minnesota Winter

Every January we get the same phone call. Water is coming through a ceiling in the back bedroom, there is a row of icicles hanging off the eave, and nobody knows where the leak is coming from. Almost none of those calls are really January problems. They are October problems that nobody got to.

Minnesota does not ease into winter. We go from raking leaves to a hard freeze in about three weeks, and once the snow sits on a roof you cannot see anything, fix anything, or safely walk anything. Fall is the window. Here is what we tell homeowners in Minnetonka, Wayzata, Excelsior, and the rest of the west metro to look at before the first real snow.

Start with the gutters, not the shingles

This is the single biggest one, and it is the one people put off. A gutter full of wet leaves cannot move melting snow away from the house. That water sits at the eave, freezes overnight, and builds into an ice dam. The dam then backs meltwater up under the bottom courses of shingles, which is how you end up with a wet ceiling in a room that has nothing wrong with it.

Around Lake Minnetonka the tree cover makes this worse. Deephaven, Shorewood, and Orono homes with mature oaks can fill a gutter run twice in one fall. Clean them out after the leaves finish dropping, not in the middle of it, and then run a hose to make sure water actually reaches the downspout and gets carried away from the foundation.

• Clear every run, including the short ones over garage doors and entries.
• Check that hangers are tight and the gutter has not pulled away from the fascia.
• Make sure downspouts discharge several feet from the house, not right at the wall.
• Look for sagging sections, which usually means the pitch is off and water is pooling.

If your gutters are undersized, rusted at the seams, or pulling loose, fall is a fine time to replace them. Our gutter systems page covers what we install and how we size a run for a steep roof.

Walk the yard and look up

You do not need to get on the roof. Most of what matters is visible from the ground with a decent pair of eyes, and a phone camera zoomed in will tell you more than you think.

• Shingles that are curled, cupped, cracked, or missing entirely.
• Dark patches where the granules have worn off, which is the shingle losing its protection.
• A sagging line along the ridge or between rafters, which points at a decking or structural issue.
• Rust streaks or lifted metal around the chimney, vents, and any wall the roof runs into.
• Granules collecting at the bottom of downspouts, which is a sign the roof is aging out.

Flashing is worth extra attention. The places roofs leak are almost never the open field of shingles. They are the transitions: chimneys, skylights, valleys, and where a dormer meets the main roof. Sealant cracks over a few winters, and once it lets go the water goes somewhere you cannot see.

The attic tells you more than the roof does

Pick a cold morning, grab a flashlight, and put your head up in the attic. You are looking for three things: daylight coming through anywhere it should not, dark staining on the underside of the decking, and damp or matted insulation.

You are also checking whether air can move. A Minnesota attic needs to stay close to the outside temperature. When warm air from the house leaks up into it, the snow on the roof melts from underneath, runs down to the cold eave, and refreezes. That is an ice dam being built from the inside. Blocked soffit vents, insulation stuffed into the eaves, and a bathroom fan venting into the attic instead of outside are the usual culprits, and all three are fixable before winter.

Deal with storm damage now, not in spring

If your neighborhood took hail or a straight line wind event this summer, do not wait until spring to sort it out. A bruised shingle that looks fine in September can fail once it goes through a few dozen freeze and thaw cycles, and insurance carriers have deadlines for filing after a storm date.

We inspect, document what we find with photos, and work directly with your adjuster so the approved scope matches what is actually on the roof. Our roof replacement and repair page walks through how that process goes.

Trim the branches

Limbs that overhang the roof do two things in winter. They drop debris that keeps the surface damp, and when they load up with ice they come down. Getting anything that touches or hangs directly over the roof cut back is cheap insurance, especially on the older tree lined streets in Excelsior, Hopkins, and St. Louis Park.

When it makes sense to just replace it

Sometimes the honest answer is that a patch is throwing money at a roof that is done. If your roof is past twenty years, if you are repairing a different spot every year, or if the decking is soft in places, a replacement before winter costs less than a winter of leaks and interior repairs.

We will tell you either way. Owen walks the roof personally before writing anything up, and if a repair will hold you another few seasons, that is what we will say. You can read more about how he runs the business on our about page.

Get on the schedule before the freeze

Fall books up fast in the west metro. Everyone has the same realization at the same time, usually the week of the first frost warning. If you want eyes on your roof before the snow flies, call Owen at 952.649.6449 or request a fast quote and we will get out to you.

We are based in Minnetonka and work across Minnetrista, Wayzata, Excelsior, Mound, Orono, Deephaven, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Chanhassen, Long Lake, Plymouth, and Hopkins. Free evaluation, straight answers, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the work.