Ice dam busters help a Hudson home

• Icicles hanging with a buildup of ice

Icicles hanging with a buildup of ice behind causing a dam signals possible trouble for a homeowner when the spring thaw arrives. The condition affects many homes in the Hudson area with winter weather that included two feet of snow, rain, thawing and below zero temperatures. Photo by Jon Echternacht
• Wesley Stayberg, left, and Eric Becker of Hustad Ice Dam Removal

Wesley Stayberg, left, and Eric Becker of Hustad Ice Dam Removal in Hudson, apply steam to an ice dam on a building at the corner of Seventh and St. Croix streets Monday afternoon. The project was part of a goodwill mission by the company. Photo by Jon Echternacht

Talk about it

On a gray and uninviting Monday afternoon, members of the Hustad Ice Dam Removal company in Hudson set out to do a good deed for a household that had suffered a recent tragedy.

They converged on a residence at the corner of St. Croix and Seventh streets and voluntarily went to work steaming off ice dams on the edge of the roof.

Eric Becker and Wesley Stayberg of Hudson started applying steam to the ice dams on the northeast corner of the home at about noon. Hustad vice president Allan Dau and right hand man Dave Smith directed operations from the ground.

With milder temperatures around 17 degrees above zero the work was not as unpleasant as it could have been, Smith said.

“It will take about four to five hours to finish the job,” said Dau.

Icicles hanging from the opposite corner of the house and a visible ice dam emphasized a problem that will affect many homeowners this year with heavy snows, then rain, then single digit temps and more snow.

This particular job, however, was to lend a helping hand in a time of need.

The house belonged to the late Jim Flanscha who died on Christmas Eve day, said Dau.

“One of our sales people is a neighbor and noticed the ice dams,” said Dau, “and it’s a way we can give back to the community.”

Dau’s daughter, Renee, attends St. Patrick School with Flanscha’s youngest daughter, Amanda. “It was a real heartbreaking thing,” he said.

James Flanscha was 49 when he died as a result of a heart attack the morning of Dec. 24 at Hudson Hospital, an obituary in the Star-Observer said. He was born in Hudson but raised in River Falls where he went to high school.

Tags: home and garden, lifestyle, home