What time is it? Snow retention time!

By Emma Peterson.

Learn how to determine if snow retention is necessary, and how to engineer it properly!

Snow retention can be the difference between life and death, but how do you know whether it’s necessary for your customer’s roof? Even more so, do you know what their roof needs? To answer those questions and more, Mindy Dahlquist of TRA Snow and Sun stopped by for an episode of MetalTalk™! Mindy, who is TRA’s business development manager, emphasized that the first step to determining if snow retention is needed is reaching out to a manufacturer. She explained, “I would definitely recommend working closely with a manufacturer on snow retention.” Working with a manufacturer is important because they are the true experts in snow retention, especially as there are not currently building codes or regulations to use as guides.  

One of the ways that TRA supports their contractors who come asking about snow retention is through free engineering. Mindy elaborated, “We run through all of the information from your project to just determine how much snow retention we would recommend and if that's something that you would like to do as an owner or as an installer.” This engineering is as crucial as the presence of snow retention in the first place. Mindy explained, “We as a manufacturer test every single product that we have. We create the environment that is occurring on the roof, the best of our abilities, and test.”  

But this is not always the case. Some manufacturers do not put their products through the same level of tests, leading to dangerous and even deadly failures. Mindy gave an example, saying, “I was talking to an architect in Colorado, and they had shared with me the story of a recent death of a child due to snow fall from a roof. It had snow retention on the roof but it was one tiny little piece over a doorway that was forgotten...” When she asked around about the engineering process that went into this roof, Mindy realized they hadn’t had the support of anyone who knew about snow retention. She elaborated, “A roofer is going to know the roofing product, what sheathing, what fastener they're using, but they often just don’t have the knowledge of the other details of the snow retention, like what amount of weight it can hold back or what does happen if this fails.” And it’s not a fault of the roofer, snow retention is not necessarily something they do every day. That’s why it’s so important to work with a trusted manufacturer when it comes to choosing and engineering a snow retention system.

Read the transcript, Listen to the conversation or Watch the video for more information about the importance of snow retention!