There's snow on the roof, who care's

[Oldpath05]

According to the searches on here, no one's cleaning snow off roofs anymore, maybe because of the on going snow drought, but here in the past couple week's we've gotten are fair share. Talk to people at work and lot of guys are clearing off their roofs when they get home, me I'm waiting for the weekend. Until then been looking at some of these snow removal jingle jangles.

What I've noticed is that they all seem to work good but mostly on a 5/12" or steeper roofs, ten ft. off the ground, well yah, course they do, and then they'er mostly going up the roof 4-5', and why bother on a 6/12" + roof. I'ts not the 4' ft. up I worry about, it's the after the 4' on a 12-16' span on a deck/lean-too at a 2-4"/12" pitch roof<<<<where's the snow removal tools for that, I know it's a shovel with no buttons switches and nobs, well that's below my pay grade, I let the wife do it.

I'd say this guy needs his roof cleared and looks like he has a good machine to do it, it has the three key feature, buttons switches and nobs.......
Snowblow your roof instead of shoveling ! How to and what rig to get. - YouTube

 

[Johnny g]

That looks like more work than a shovel but I wouldn't wait for that much snow before I got at it.

 

[oldafretired]

I got a cheap electric blower like that just to help blow snow offs my deck. The problem is that there's no height adjustment so the auger hits the wood and scrapes it up if you don't keep the blower level so I quit using it and just went back to a shovel. It will probably won't be too kind on a roof with shingles.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I use a Minnsnowta roof razer. Works awesome. Its actually fun to use. I bought it when I had 40 inches of snow on the roof a couple of winters ago and we were expecting rain. Leaves 1 inch of snow on the roof so you don't damage the shingles which melts away the next sunny day.

MinnSNOWta Roof Razor(R) - The Titan vs The Dynamo - YouTube

 

[RNeumann]

I'm wondering why it needs to be cleared at all. Builders, truss companies and structural engineers have been designing buildings for snow loads for decades. Ski resorts and other locations in harsh climates even have structures with flat roofs. They aren't up clearing those.
Snow on the roof is a good sign to me. Means my insulation is good and the snow acts as an insulator as well.
Unless I had a design flaw like the snow unloads into my front door or the structure was under-built I see no reason to trek onto the roof.

Good luck and BE SAFE if the need overwhelms you.

 

[oosik]

The county building codes require the roof be able to handle a 48" snow load here. Been here 35 years and the deepest its ever been is 29". No need to clean it off - the snow provides extra insulation and holds the house down if we ever get a tornado :confused2: :laughing:

 

[BoylermanCT]

I thought the same thing until houses and buildings across the state started having their roofs cave in. Each night on the news they would show another group of collapsed roofs. Since I had 40 inches on the roof, and we were expecting 2-3 inches of rain, I figured better be safe than sorry.

The roof razor is very easy to use. Hardest part is wading though 3-4 feet of snow on the ground. I shoveled my roof off one other time with a shovel, and it was a heart attack waiting to happen. That's when I went looking for a better way.

 

[oosik]

The neighbor down the road about three miles had his roof sag between each roof joist under the snow load about six years ago. The contractor used substandard roofing - saved the neighbor a little money - until he had to have his entire roof substructure rebuilt. I shoveled, grunted, cursed and pushed the snow load off one stall of my carport that same winter. I used aluminum roofing with a pebble/waffle texture and the darn snow wouldn't melt/slide off like on the other three stalls.

I ripped that AL roofing off that one stall the following summer - installed "standard" steel roofing and have not had that problem again.

 

[Harvey9]

I thought the same thing until houses and buildings across the state started having their roofs cave in. Each night on the news they would show another group of collapsed roofs. Since I had 40 inches on the roof, and we were expecting 2-3 inches of rain, I figured better be safe than sorry.

The roof razor is very easy to use. Hardest part is wading though 3-4 feet of snow on the ground. I shoveled my roof off one other time with a shovel, and it was a heart attack waiting to happen. That's when I went looking for a better way.

I have a pair of 'Bear Paw' snowshoes. Makes it a lot easier to get around.

 

[coldsteelva]

It is definitely the water load more so than the depth of the snow - Light-powdery snow can pile up to 4/5 feet, but won't be as heavy as 3 feet of snow with high water content or when rain is set to fall on top of it exponentially increasing the weight.