Water damage restoration in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Ice dams pushing meltwater back under the shingles, pipes splitting in outside walls during a deep freeze, and spring thaw arriving against a foundation that has been frozen since November. Tell us the ZIP code and the request goes to a Twin Cities crew.
- Hennepin, Dakota and the west metro, one request
- Free to use. Restoration companies pay us, property owners never do
- One local crew, not a panel of firms racing to your phone
Minnesota is the only kind of market where the cold itself is the cause rather than the weather around it. Water damage here is mostly a story about ice, and about what happens when four months of it starts to melt.
The housing stock makes it worse in a specific way. Older Twin Cities homes have full basements, steep roofs and attic insulation that was added rather than designed, which is exactly the recipe for an ice dam.
Why Minneapolis properties take water damage
Six failures account for most of what crews attend across this market.
Ice dams
Heat escaping into the attic melts snow on the roof, the meltwater refreezes at the cold eave, and the dam pushes water back up under the shingles and into the wall. The stain appears inside while the roof still looks fine from the street.
Frozen and burst pipes
Lines in outside walls, unheated porches and rim joist areas split when the temperature drops far enough for long enough. The leak shows itself on the thaw.
Spring thaw against the foundation
Snowmelt hits ground that is still frozen, so it cannot soak in and runs at the house instead. Basements that were dry all winter take water in a week.
Sump pump failure and power cuts
During thaw or a heavy rain the pump runs constantly. A failure, or a power cut during a storm, fills a basement quickly.
Sewer backup
Older Minneapolis and Saint Paul neighbourhoods have combined or aging lines. Heavy melt or rain pushes water back through floor drains, and what comes up is Category 3.
Supply lines and water heaters
The ordinary failures, with one local twist: a basement water heater failing means the whole tank ends up in a finished lower level rather than a garage.
The ice dam nobody sees until it is inside
An ice dam does not look like a plumbing failure and it does not present like one. The water enters at the roof edge, travels down inside the wall cavity, and shows up as a stain on a ceiling or at the top of a wall several feet from the actual entry point.
By the time it is visible, insulation is wet, the wall cavity is wet and the exterior sheathing may be too. Chipping the ice off the gutter stops more water arriving but does nothing about what is already in the assembly, which is why these jobs are so often underestimated.
The underlying cause is almost always attic heat loss and ventilation rather than the roof itself. A crew that dries the ceiling and says nothing about the attic has fixed the symptom and left the cause in place for next winter.
Ask about the attic, not just the ceiling
Heat loss and ventilation are what create the dam. Air sealing and insulation are the actual fix, and they are a different trade from the drying.
Finished basements change the scope
A lot of Twin Cities lower levels are finished. Wet carpet over concrete, wall cavities at the bottom plate, and anything stored down there all need handling separately.
What to do first
Safety, then documentation, then drying.
Shut the water off
The main is usually near the street side of the property. Stopping the supply also stops the meter, which is how a suspected hidden leak gets confirmed.
Work out whether it came from the roof or a pipe
A stain at the top of a wall or on a ceiling near an outside edge points at an ice dam. A stain low down points at plumbing or at the basement. The two are handled very differently.
Make it electrically safe
In a freeze burst the water usually arrives in a basement or garage, which is exactly where the breaker panel tends to be. If you cannot reach it without standing in water, leave it and call the utility.
Photograph before the thaw finishes
Ice and water move as the property warms up, so what you can see at eight in the morning is not what the adjuster sees at four. Wide shots of every room, the split itself if you can reach it, and the damaged contents.
Report it the same day
Freeze events generate claims in bulk and insurers triage them in order. Getting a claim number early matters more in a regional freeze than at any other time.
Get heat back into the space
Before drying equipment can do anything useful, the structure needs to be above freezing. If the heating is out, say so on the first call because it changes what the crew brings.
Keep every receipt
Space heaters, a hotel if the property is not habitable, and anything else the freeze forced you to spend. Claims reimburse what you can evidence.
How Minnesota insurance treats it
The question that decides most claims is whether the water arrived suddenly or built up over time.
Usually covered
- Ice dam damage, which most policies treat as a covered sudden loss
- A pipe that froze and burst in a heated, maintained property
- A supply line, water heater or appliance failing suddenly
- Sewer backup, where the endorsement is on the policy
Usually excluded
- Surface water, snowmelt flooding and runoff, which needs flood cover
- Groundwater seeping through a basement wall
- A freeze burst in a property left unheated and unattended
- The cost of fixing attic insulation and ventilation, which is usually maintenance
Two endorsements worth checking before winter
Sewer and drain backup is normally an add on rather than part of the base policy, and in older Twin Cities neighbourhoods it is the difference between a covered loss and a very expensive one. Check whether you carry it.
Ice dam damage is generally covered, but the repair to the attic that stops it happening again generally is not, because that is treated as maintenance. Budget for the fix separately. Nothing here is a coverage determination on your policy.
Areas we cover
One request covers the whole market, which spans 100 ZIP codes and roughly 1.8 million residents across Hennepin, Dakota, Wright and Stearns.
Postal codes are how restoration coverage is actually drawn, which is why the form asks for one rather than a city. Outside the covered area we say so instead of passing your details on.
Minneapolis questions
Is ice dam damage covered by insurance?
Should I chip the ice off my gutters?
My pipes froze while I was away. Am I covered?
Is spring thaw water in my basement covered?
Do I need sewer backup cover in an older neighbourhood?
Which areas does this cover?
Often needed after a water loss here
Mold removal
Where water sat before anyone found it, remediation usually follows the dry out. Mold removal and remediation
Sewage and biohazard
Backups and contaminated water run under containment rules. Biohazard and trauma cleanup