St. Louis Park gets the full Minnesota range — straight-line winds and hail from summer convective storms, heavy wet snow loads, and an ice dam season every time a thaw follows a deep freeze. Different failures, same ending: water inside the building.
What we see here
- Wind. Lifted or missing shingles, torn flashing and ridge vents, siding pulled loose.
- Trees. This is a heavily canopied city with mature boulevard and yard trees, many of them older and close to the house. Limb strikes through roofs and windows are a routine part of storm season here in a way they are not in newer, sparser suburbs.
- Hail. Bruised shingles that do not leak immediately but have lost granule protection and will fail early, plus damaged vents, gutters and window wraps.
- Ice dams. Heat escaping into the attic melts snow, meltwater refreezes at the cold eave, and the dam pushes standing water back up under the shingles into the wall and ceiling below.
- Heavy rain and runoff. Overwhelmed gutters, saturated flat ground and window well intrusion, which becomes a basement flooding event.
Stop the water first
The first work is temporary: emergency tarping over a compromised roof, board-up of broken windows and openings, removing the immediate hazard. Until the envelope is closed every hour of weather adds damage — and in winter an open building loses heat and puts the plumbing at risk.
Then treat it as a water loss
Once closed, storm restoration is largely water damage work. Water that entered through a roof has travelled down through insulation, along top plates and inside wall cavities, well beyond the stained patch on the ceiling. We map the extent with meters and thermal imaging, remove saturated insulation — which holds water and permanently loses its R-value — and dry the assembly to a documented standard.
Ice dams and older attics
Ice dams are especially common in this housing stock. Story-and-a-half homes with sloped ceilings and knee walls have very little room for insulation or ventilation at the eave, which is exactly the condition that melts snow and refreezes it at the edge. Removing a dam addresses this week; the durable fix is air sealing the attic floor, correcting insulation and making sure soffit and ridge ventilation actually function. Worth planning between freeze-thaw cycles rather than during one.
Documentation for the claim
Storm claims turn on evidence. We photograph damage and temporary measures before and after, record moisture readings and the drying log, and keep a clear scope of what was removed and why. Keep your own record too, including the date of the storm.