Weight of ice and snow insurance

Name: Square One Insurance Services
Brand: Square One Insurance
Rating: 4.7 (25764 reviews)

Winter is here. Depending on where you live in that can mean wind and rain or wind and snow. And often, lots of it. That light fluffy snow can become a very weighty problem when it piles up on your roof. That’s why it’s important your home insurance policy covers damage from the weight of ice and snow.

There are many steps you can take to prevent weight of ice and snow damage. That said, the only way to financially protect your family and home against weight of ice and snow damage is to buy home insurance. In North America, most home insurance providers give you the option of adding ice and snow damage insurance to your policy. At Square One Insurance Services, we automatically include weight of ice and snow insurance in all our policies. No paying extra. To learn more about weight of ice and snow insurance, review the information provided below.

Does home insurance cover damage caused by the weight of ice and snow?

Your roof can collapse if ice and snow build up to a dangerous weight. This type of loss is generally covered by your home insurance. However, if your roof is nearing its life expectancy, or is in poor repair, your settlement could be limited. Often home insurance providers will limit coverage to the depreciated value of the roof, rather than the replacement cost.

The resultant damage to the inside of your home will also be covered by most home insurance policies.

Protection against damage caused by the weight of ice and snow is included in all home insurance policies offered by Square One. No paying extra.

And if you have to move out while your home is being repaired, your additional living expense insurance will come into play. This is sometimes included in policies, and other times can be added as an additional rider, allowing you to choose the amount of coverage you need.

At Square One, you get to choose how much additional living expense coverage you need. That means you only pay for what you need.

What can I do to prevent damage occurring?

There are several things you can do to prevent damage from the weight of ice and snow. Here are the top 3:

Keep your roof in good repair. Do some maintenance, particularly in the fall. Clean the gutters. Water can get trapped in clogged gutters and can form ice dams in the winter. This can prevent any melting snow from flowing away, and may cause it to flow into your house instead.
Hire a professional to remove snow piling up on your roof. Snowy roofs are slippery, and you don’t want to end up with an injury from falling off the roof.
Make sure your attic is properly insulated to prevent heat from leaking out through the roof. This will not only keep heating costs down, but it will prevent any accumulated snow from melting too quickly, possibly causing water to enter your home. Or from melting and refreezing, adding additional weight, and causing even more accumulation.

What is the deductible for damage caused by the weight of ice and snow?

Any damage caused by the weight of ice and snow should be subject to your base policy deductible, which usually ranges from $500 to $5,000. This is another good reason to make sure your roof is well maintained, and kept clear of snow. Selecting a high deductible is a great way to keep your premiums low, but it’s also a good incentive to prevent a loss from happening.

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Easiest rental insurance.

I have only ever used Square One for my rental insurance. They have such an easy straightforward way of doing things through their website. It really makes it easy to choose what you need and what you don't. Moving is a breeze, just change your address and your settings are all saved for you. All at an affordable price? Can't go wrong!

Excellent service.

I've been using Square One since I switched from another company in 2019, and I have nothing but positive things to say. Customer service is always excellent, tweaking and updating my policy online is a breeze, and the price is excellent for what I have on my policy.

Happy with Square One.

Thank you for the easy renewal for our home insurance. We have been very happy with Square One and were really happy that upon renewal our home insurance went down. I can not remember the last time, if ever, that upon renewing home insurance our policy for the year was less than the year before.

Process is simple and clear, and help was readily available.

I spent a while looking at options for rental insurance. Even called a local broker. Square One provided, by far, the best process. The online forms clearly indicate what your options are, allow you to weigh the pros and cons of your selections against alternatives, and provide immediate feedback on price. The wording on the policy itself is also clear and easy to understand, and when I requested a callback to ask about coverage limits, I received a call right away, and the fellow I spoke with was super helpful.

Very knowledgeable and helpful agents.

I called various insurance providers to get quotes for my home insurance, but once I spoke to Kayla at Square One, it was clear that she had an in-depth knowledge of Square One products. Kayla had the patience to understand my needs and guide me through the entire process, an exceptionally intuitive approach and she tweaked the policy to my specific needs. I ended up switching home insurance for my other house too which I hadn’t planned. Thanks to Kayla for helping me save money without compromising my core needs.

Easy peasy.

When I phoned, Alaina was super helpful to me as a first-time buyer and patiently explained anything I had questions about. Then I thought it was pretty cool you could customize it and mull it over online before purchasing.

Incredible, from start to finish.

I had the unfortunate experience of navigating a flood shortly after moving into our new apartment. It's supposed to be a pain in the rear to go through the claims process. It's confusing, it even feels a bit embarrassing—but the team at Square One (and their partners) were incredible to deal with. They made a really bad situation good(-ish). Super responsive, sympathetic to what happened, treated me like a human. I'm a customer for life ... if only they offered more than just property insurance!

Efficient and polite.

The people I dealt with were polite, understandable, and especially patient and clear in explaining options or choices. They were never pushy, patronizing or arrogant. It was a pleasure.

So easy and thorough.

I literally set up new rental insurance at my new place in less than 10 minutes online. The questioning was easy, thorough and concise. I had my new policy by email just a minute after completing it online. Pricing was very fair with yearly and monthly payment options. Highly recommend!

Nailed it.

Had 7 minutes to get this done while riding the SkyTrain home and got it completed as I rolled into my stop. Kudos!