Keeping your home and family safe during the cold months with snow retention systems

By Emma Peterson. 

Expert Mindy Dahlquist from TRA Snow & Sun explains why holding snow on a roof can save lives. 

As we move out of autumn into winter, weather patterns shift in many regions. With these shifts come intense weather conditions that can damage roofs and threaten the safety of your home. In an episode of Roofing Roadtrips®, host Heidi J. Ellsworth spoke to Mindy Dahlquist, a business development manager for TRA Snow & Sun, about the best practices for protecting your home this winter with snow retention systems.  

When Mindy first broaches the topic of snow retention systems as a crucial safety feature to people, she says that they will often "look at me like I'm crazy and say, ‘Why would I want to hold snow on the roof?’ And it sounds like a sarcastic answer, but it's truly not that it does kill people every single year from that snow shedding off of the roof.” 

It is crucial for homeowners to understand that what Mindy is talking about TRA Snow & Sun’s systems, it is about controlling the retention of snow. As she explained, “Unfortunately, when that snow is held on the roof, it's done so unintentionally very often. And so without snow retention, that snow holds on the roof in heavy snow load areas until then it just randomly slides off, and if you have dogs or children or you're out trying to fix your gutters or any reason for you to be outside, then it can become very, very dangerous.” Heidi witnessed this kind of danger firsthand, mentioning that she saw her neighbor have his entire chimney pulled off his roof by snowfall. 

The snow retention systems that Mindy and TRA Snow & Sun design allow homeowners to control the rate at which snow slides off their roofs — keeping it from being uncontrolled and dangerous. Snow retention systems can come in many forms, some of which have additional benefits beyond simply protecting people outside. For example, staggered brackets help freeze the snow into a blanket so that it won’t slide and will slowly and safely melt in place. This has the added benefit of giving your home more insulation, as Heidi knows, she shared, “We heat by wood and with that snow staying on the roof for us, it helps us throughout this winter not have to burn as much wood.”  

To learn more about TRA Sun & Snow and the different snow retention systems that can keep your home safe this winter, Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast.