Eden Prairie gets the full Minnesota range: straight-line winds and hail from summer convective storms, heavy wet snow loads, and the ice dam season that arrives every time a thaw follows a deep freeze. Each produces a different failure, and all of them end the same way — water inside the building.
What we see here
- Wind. Lifted or missing shingles, torn flashing and ridge vents, siding pulled loose, and tree limbs through a roof or window.
- Hail. Bruised shingles that do not leak immediately but have lost their granule protection and will fail early, plus damaged vents, gutters and window wraps.
- Ice dams. Heat escaping into the attic melts snow, the meltwater refreezes at the cold eave, and the dam that forms pushes standing water back up under the shingles and into the wall and ceiling below.
- Heavy rain and runoff. Overwhelmed gutters, saturated ground and window well intrusion, which becomes a lower-level flooding event.
Stop the water first
The first work is temporary: emergency tarping over a compromised roof, board-up of broken windows and openings, and removing the immediate hazard. Until the envelope is closed, every hour of continuing weather adds damage — and in winter, an open building loses heat and puts the plumbing at risk of freezing.
Then treat it as a water loss
Once the building is closed, storm damage restoration is largely water damage work. Water that entered through a roof has travelled down through insulation, along top plates and inside wall cavities, and it is generally well beyond the stained patch on the ceiling. We map the actual extent with meters and thermal imaging, remove saturated insulation — which holds water and loses its R-value permanently — and dry the assembly to a documented standard.
Wet insulation and closed cavities left undried after a storm are one of the most common origins of a mold problem discovered months later.
Documentation for the claim
Storm claims turn on evidence. We photograph the damage and the 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.
Ice dams specifically
Removing a dam addresses this week. The cause is almost always heat loss into the attic combined with inadequate ventilation, so the durable fix is air sealing the attic floor, correcting insulation, and making sure soffit and ridge ventilation actually work. Worth planning before the next freeze-thaw cycle rather than during one.