Thanks for rectifying my order. It’s a pleasure working with a company with integrity! Ken Moore

Ice Storm of 2008

Posted by Barbara in Wilton, NH on 12/30/2008

I just looked back at the last entry and of course I must have jinxed us, my first sentence said "No stopping us now".  Well the powers that be had other ideas, then came the Ice Storm of 2008.  Our area was one of the hardest hit, and our house was hit pretty hard.  Shortly after midnight on December 12th, a tree came through our roof, and branches took out the skylight (that I was dozing under an hour before).

I am so glad that we chose the construction method that we did.   Had this been a traditional stick-built home, the tree would have been in the middle of the living room, if not through to the basement.  The tree hit the house, broke through the SIP Panel roof, hit one of the beams and cracked it, but stopped there.  It slid back down and came to rest against the side of the house and screen porch.  What an unbelievable mess, we were stunned at the destruction to our beautiful home that we have been pouring our heart, muscle and hard-earned money into.

Not knowing what to do or if we could stay in the house due to structural issues, we called our builder Paul Freeman at 1:00 am and not only did he answer, he promised to be there first thing in the morning to look at the house.  As promised, Paul from Brooks Post and Beam brookspostandbeam.com was there with his camera and assured us that they could fix it and would help us out, no questions asked!!  He was amazed to see that everything held up so well considering the hit it took.  He explained that building an octagon was probably the best thing we could have done.  The energy from the hit was transferred around the complete house and minimized the damage.  I looked and sure enough, every picture that had been hanging on the outside walls of the house had fallen down from the impact.

Believe it our not, our wonderful builders had us repaired like new in time for the holidays.  They came out with the crane the very next week and removed shingles, then the damaged panel sections and carrying beam.  Put a new beam in place, dropped in the new panels, skylight and roofed it again all in one week, in between two major snowstorms.  The crew from Brooks Post & Beam of Lyndeborough, NH are our heroes!!!!

Just an FYI, we have Met Life for insurance and they have been great as well.  They sent an adjuster out the following week while the house was being repaired and settled our claim very quickly.  I highly recommend both these companies.  Oh, and the bank had to extend us another month on the construction loan due to the loss of work time.  We had no electricity for 7 days.

Photos

Glass from the broken skylight in living room	Tree that hit the house	Tree that hit house showing screen porch area where it came to rest
Branches on the deck on the opposite side of the house where the tree hit, it was so huge it left its branches all around the whole house.	ceiling and beam damage - Foard Panels and Brooks Post and Beam make some strong materials!!!	Although unbelievably destructive, you have to admit it is amazingly beautiful as well. Nature in all its sparkling fury!
storm damage and tree that hit house	Silhouette of tree that hit the house	View of destruction from front of the house
Andrew at the crane standing ready with our new panels.	Damaged panels coming off the house with the crane while Mark guides the process.	R&T Electric checks the wiring before the new panels can go back on. The cute smiling one is my son Joshua.
Brooks Post & Beam crew working together like a finely oiled machine : ) Did I tell you they are our heroes?	Our new panel on the crane ready for installation.	The new beam is put in place.
The new panels being lowered into place, that was scary with the chimneys so close, but they did a perfect job.	Done, except for some mudding, sanding and paint, we are as good as new, exactly six days from the day of the ice storm. And the award goes to........Brooks Post & Beam - best builders in southern NH.