Roof Snow Removal in Council Bluffs, Iowa

Pottawattamie County's Building Safety Division lists its design criteria with the State of Iowa building codes it maintains, including the 2015 International Residential Code as adopted by Iowa Administrative Rule 661-301: a ground snow load of 30 pounds per square foot, a winter design temperature of minus 5 degrees F, and a frost line 42 inches down (January 2023).

Those are the county's numbers. Inside Council Bluffs, ask the City of Council Bluffs which values it uses; either way they are Iowa's, not Omaha's 25 psf.

The oldest on our list. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2019 to 2023 five-year estimates) puts the median year Council Bluffs housing was built at 1964. About 27 percent of the city's homes were built before 1940, about 55 percent before 1970 and about 67 percent before 1980.

That is a lot of attics to check before a heavy winter, because the University of Minnesota Extension says heat leaking from the house into the attic is what starts an ice dam. It is also a lot of roofs whose capacity depends on their condition: the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety's figure of about 20 pounds per square foot assumes a structure that is not damaged or decayed. The signs a roof has gone past what it can carry are in the warning signs guide.

NOAA publishes no 1991 to 2020 snowfall normal in Council Bluffs itself. Its Underwood, Iowa, station averages 27.3 inches a year, with 9.7 in February, and Eppley Airfield on the Omaha side averages 27.1. February is the heaviest month at both.

What a roof carries depends on the snow more than the inches: FEMA puts a foot of heavy, wet snow at about seven times the weight of a foot of light, dry snow, and the IBHS says two feet of old snow under two feet of new can reach 60 pounds per square foot.

Our crews steam ice dams off the eaves and out of the gutters the same way in Iowa as in Nebraska, so the water behind the dam drains and nothing is chipped off an older roof. The ice dam removal page covers the steaming, a leak tonight and how to stop the next dam.

Not the work: our crews remove snow and ice by hand, from our Omaha headquarters at 5634 S 85th Cir Ste 204, and the roof snow removal page explains it. What changes is the rules: Iowa's contractor rules are on our Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota page, and an insurance claim here follows Iowa law, not Nebraska's.

Office hours are 9 to 5, and during storms and emergencies we take night and weekend calls. Call us at (402) 291-8888. The roof check after the snow is free: roof, gutters and siding in one visit, with photos and a free estimate in writing. The Council Bluffs page covers our year round work in the city, from the historic blocks near downtown to Lake Manawa.