A house call in Boardman Thursday was just one of dozens workers with National Fire Repair have handled this week alone. The homeowner said he's had a problem with snow and ice melt working its way from the roof down through a sliding glass door into his kitchen.
"This is the first time since we've lived in the house that its actually come inside," said Leon Cox. "But we've always had build-ups of ice on the outside of the house."
The first task is to remove all that piled up snow and ice using a shovel and a hammer to chisel away at the excess that eventually works its way inside once the melting begins.
National Fire Repair owner Paul Clouser referred to the problem as "ice damming," where snow and ice thaws on the roof and then refreezes in gutters, eventually backing up, either in the form of icicles or inside the home.
He said while it's tempting for homeowners to try and attack the problem on their own by knocking down the icicles, the work may be best left to experts.
Clouser said the last time he remembers problems being this bad was back in the mid-1990s. But they could translate into a lot of extra business for his company and others like it.
"I'm essentially thinking that we are going to see a repeat of 1996, where we had literally, just our company alone did several thousands of these," Clouser said.
Clouser said while the average repair job could be between $2,500 and $3,500 dollars, it could easily run much higher depending on the extent of damage.
Fortunately, he added, more often than not, it's covered by insurance.
