Unusually high windchills along with the excessive amounts of snow we’ve received in southern Manitoba this winter have made it a real challenge for outdoor construction crews.

Matt Friesen, with Integrity Roofing, says, “You know, you try to go in every day and then you realize that it's unworkable. Tools are breaking and it's been tough to get the jobs and keep contractors happy.”

Friesen says they have to try and get the work done, not only for the homeowners but to keep their bookkeepers happy as well.

He says their situation isn’t unique, most of the industry is going through the same struggle these days.

“We've got roofs sitting and people are waiting," Friesen says his business is not the only one who is behind on housing projects, because of the extreme cold and snow.

Jon Siemens with Kleefeld Construction - "What working outside in -30 looks like"

Friesen says the biggest struggle for a roofer on most days would be the cold weather, “but then when it is kind of warmer, it comes with a lot of wind or rain or snow, right? So it's just that we haven't had a clean week to get to work every day.”

When it comes to helping his staff make it through the cold days and encouraging them to keep going, Friesen says it’s been difficult. “It is tough to go in and then have to send your guys home in the morning because you can't work. Employees do struggle with the feeling that their day is being wasted.”

He says 2021 was very different than now. Last year roofs didn’t have snow on them while this year some have a foot or two or even three feet of snow and they’re icy.

Meanwhile, Dave Siemens with Kleefeld Construction is having the same struggles as Friesen. “It's an interesting year for sure. Yeah, it's been challenging to say the least. Lots of snow, which isn't the end of the world, but snow combined with cold combined with wind. Then, if we do have a couple of warm days here and there, those days have often been very windy, so we can't do the typical kinds of work outside that we usually do. So it's been a combination of some interesting weather.”


2022 Kleefeld Construction projectWhen it comes to getting behind on the construction of a new residential home, top to bottom build, Siemens echos Friesen’s words. “It’s the cold weather.”

“It's not just that it's too cold to work outside. It's that we have several pre-sold houses to build. We do a lot of bilevels around here because the water table tends to be high we don't want to dig too deep into the ground.”

Siemens continues, “This year we have been shocked by the fact that the frost has gone so deep that when we dig our hole and we're not down to the bottom of the frost, we have to spend many, many hundreds rather thousands of thousands of dollars on heating the ground so that we can dig a basement just to even get one of those five or six homes started right now.”

He says, the depth of the frost this winter has definitely been a setback. Adding that when temperatures hover around –25 degrees their tools nor their team won’t work properly. “It just isn't very efficient.”

The frozen ground issue along with the extreme cold has delayed several of Kleefeld Construction’s projects this winter.

On an optimistic note, Siemens says, “We've gone through this many years in a row and spring is right around the corner. We're ready for it.”