Thursday, December 12, 2024
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Worried About Snow Loads On Your Roofs?

I pulled these tool building and safety tips from a past OP article.

If you’re in one of the areas where snow and ice are accumulating, you may be worrying about all the weight on your barn roof (or on your house for that matter). From a quick search of the internet I found a variety of instructions for DIY roof snow rakes.  Based on these examples, we’re sure you can figure out how to build one with odds and ends you have at your place:

Be safe out there!

In the rush to do something, sometimes we forget that the real rule is “Safety First.”  So please be careful, and keep in mind these 5 Rules of Roof Snow Rakes from Popular Mechanics:

1.  First, inspect.  Beware of loose shingles, flashing and gutters that you might hook your rake on.

2. Beware icicles.  A cubic foot of ice weighs about 62 pounds. Now imagine that falling on you if you knock off an icicle or ice dam. Not a pretty picture!

3. Beware power lines.  Touching them with your ladder or your rake is going to ruin your day. Pay attention to where they’re attached to your barn or house!

4. Falling snow can damage what it hits on the ground. If it’s a person, an animal or a prize shrub, consider what’s going to be buried by the snow as it drops from the roof.

5. Right Back at Ya’!  The steeper the roof, the more rapidly the snow comes off and right at you. This can be good or bad depending on where you’re positioned.

If you’re going to do something silly, be sure you have someone filming it, like this guy:

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Kathy Voth
Kathy Vothhttps://onpasture.com
I am the founder, editor and publisher of On Pasture, now retired. My career spanned 40 years of finding creative solutions to problems, and sharing ideas with people that encouraged them to work together and try new things. From figuring out how to teach livestock to eat weeds, to teaching range management to high schoolers, outdoor ed graduation camping trips with fifty 6th graders at a time, building firebreaks with a 130-goat herd, developing the signs and interpretation for the Storm King Fourteen Memorial trail, receiving the Conservation Service Award for my work building the 150-mile mountain bike trail from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah...well, the list is long so I'll stop with, I've had a great time and I'm very grateful.

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