How bad is it to pile snow against a house with siding?

Question

I have a very old wood-frame house that has siding -- the main part of the house is in vinyl, and a back addition is aluminum.

My lazy idiot neighbor, whose driveway is four feet away from the one side of my house, piles some of his snow up on my property, and against my house. He should be pushing his snow either down to his front lawn or up to his back lawn, but does not do this because, well, he is lazy, and because he stockpiles cars in his drive, and one blocks off his garden.

This has not been a huge issue since we both moved in several years ago, because the winters were not all that snowing, and we had enough melts to prevent to snow from building up. However, this year we got so much snow, and so few warm day, and I now have snow piled up four feet against my house, on one side. And now, we are getting forecasts for super meltdowns and rain. I am now a little concerned.

What problems, if any, are presented by the snow being built up higher than the breeze block foundation and up against the siding?

(Btw, I hope this is never an issue again -- I plan to build a fence on both sides of my property, because both neighbors are idiots, who do not respect private property or privacy. It is just I want to know how concerned I should be about this issue this year.)

Thanks in advance.

John J. S · Accepted Answer

All depends on the vapor barrier condition on your house.  My house would be in deep trouble as that 15# felt is pretty much disintergrated.  Just check the interior of the walls for moisture, probablt be a good idea to shovel it off og your walls.

Mabe · Answer

wow, yes you are right, they should have geared the snow towards the road for the snow plows to take away.  Now you will have more of a problem with standing ground water in that area far longer than the rest, especially if it calls for a quick meltdown, so count on that staying wet much longer, and into the Spring if it starts raining a lot after that, and not getting a real chance to dry out.  A wet rot, might be what you will have a problem with on the grass.  Spotty leaf is what I think it's called.  So, you will want to reseed that area in the spring and try to keep it healthy..otherwise it will spread, and dye out the whole lawn, possibly.  It can't be good for your foundation either, however, it probably did afford you some insulation from the wind, if that was the direction it came from.  Still, if you wanted it there, right?!  It is going to creep in under your crawl space.  Make sure those are vented properly this spring to dry out.  Otherwise mold could begin to form.  Airing it out with screen cover's will prevent this, and not covering them completely again until next fall.  Good luck with the fence on both sides.

Anonymous · Answer

You run the risk of damaging your foundation due to the excessive moisture and the pressure up against it.  If it were only once or twice and the snow didn't last very long, then I would say that it probably doesn't matter.  However, it sounds like the snow has been there for a little while.  and when it melts and then refreezes it can seep into the cracks in your foundation and cause a lot of problems.  remove it as soon as you can and ask him to refrain from doing it again.

Anonymous · Answer

Are you a teacher? When I taught 7th grade, I had my class draw an amusement park on paper and write how people would react, how they would pay for games, what emotion if any would be felt. I chose this as a project because there are a limited few in this story who actually have emotion. Choose different characters and have them write about how that person would react. It shows you/they know the story and the characteristics of everyone. To some people, I got a lot of black and white, plain drawings and the characters with emotion were vibrant and had feeling. Hope this helps you for a creative idea.

? · Answer

take pictures in case it ruins the siding then you can take them to court to repair the house ;)

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How bad is it to pile snow against a house with siding?

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