Raking Snow From Your Roof

[HawgMan]

Get the Roof Razor! Won't harm the shingles & it moves a ton of snow with hardly any effort. It's actually kinda fun to use!! I can honestly say, I'm done doing my complete roof before my neighbors are finished with the first side of there's.

[Steve Foss]

Get the Roof Razor! Won't harm the shingles & it moves a ton of snow with hardly any effort. It's actually kinda fun to use!! I can honestly say, I'm done doing my complete roof before my neighbors are finished with the first side of there's.

Matches my experience, too. You can also get them specifically for metal and vinyl/poly roofs.

[HawgMan]

Steve, Thanks for putting the info on here last winter. They are one slick unit! It used to be many hours of back breaking, shingle scraping, moaning & groaning. Now,it's painless. This thing will cut thru snow like a cheese slicer. I've done some of my neighbors roofs that had to have a good two feet or more on them & had no trouble at all.

Not try'n to make a sales pitch here, the unit just plain works!!

[Dotch]

With a little practice, it's not hard to stay out of the way. I use the Minnsnowta Roof Razor a lot in the handyman business, and have never found anything nearly as effective.

In the interests of full disclosure, they are made here in Ely, and I've built scores of them and shipped hundreds more for the company as an occasional part-time employee. So you may think I'm shilling for the company. But I do know how well they're designed and made, and how well they work up on the roof.

After reading about the product here and watching the video, decided after the last several major accumulations to get one of these. Ordered last Friday and got it yesterday. Did battle this morning and will have to say I was impressed. The only trouble I had was where some of the initial snow was crusted over from some drizzle back on the 9th. It easily took the 2' - 3' off the top of that though and what was left shouldn't be a problem. Easy to use and the stuff really never came close to hitting me. Even Mrs. Cheviot gave it her blessing which ain't all that common.

Thanks for the good advice!

[hanson]

I just got my roof rake in the mail today and its raining down here in the Cities. I was sitting at work thinking I hope that rake comes soon or I won't have any snow left to rake off the roof.

I've never been concerned about snow on the roof before but when we got our near 20" in the Cities a month ago, the south side of my roof was a drift from the peak out to the eave. My roof is probably a 4:12 pitch with gable ends (typical rambler) and it looked like the snow was 4-5' deep along my south eave.

With my architectural background, I'm well aware of dead load, live load, and drift load when structuring a roof. You tell yourself you are OK but its a better safe than sorry scenario. I've never had an ice dam problem, and in fact, my roof holds the snow better than my neighbors roofs so I know I have good ventilation and insulation. Still I wonder about the "what if".

So I got part of the roof cleaned off and will get the rest tomorrow morning when I have light.

I got the Garelick aluminum roof rake w/ the wheels on the bottom (which was mentioned earlier). Seamed to work really well. But in my defense, I hadn't read any of these posts before I ordered so had no idea of the recommendations toward the Roof Razer or I probably would have went that direction.

[Macgyver55]

I'm wondering Dotch, would you be able to do a free demonstration on my home?

[Dotch]

I'm wondering Dotch, would you be able to do a free demonstration on my home?

Only if you come and show me how to fix some of this GM junk I keep accumulating!

[Macgyver55]

Ok, but you first.......

[pike doctor]

Just read on the channel 11 HSOforum that a second guy has died from clearing snow from his roof in the last couple days. You guys need to be very careful up there. I do it for customers once in a while, and I fell twice already this year, but luckily it was only from 8 feet and I landed in big snow piles. BE CAREFUL!

[Steve Foss]

I remember those days of climbing up on roofs with a shovel to get rid of snow. Darn glad, at my age, that it's not necessary anymore except in rare cases. I'd never make a roofer, though I've worked on a few roofing crews. I like my feet on the ground too much.

[mabr]

Funny but scary story.

I'm a carpenter who has my builder’s license. I do Insurance work exclusively so I've been getting ALOT of calls during the last 3 weeks. And beings everyone’s been busy be it my normal roofers or anyone qualified and able to get on a roof is over whelmed I decided I had to get up there to do whatever it takes to get the jobs done.

I go to several losses and me being experienced in any phase of construction and having been there done that, just give me 5 minutes and I'll get my legs as usual. No problem, we do 47 roofs the weekend before so I still have the [PoorWordUsage] and vinegar that these young lads have still at my age of almost 50.

Next day same old song more roofs and many able bodies guys to get the job done. Well I get a call on a loss on the opposite side of town and decide sense its only one roof I’ll leave everyone there and go do it myself. I get there and see right ways it’s a high one, but oh well I’ve been on many a high ones before and it’s got to be done. I set my 28 ft ladder up and I’m at the last rung with about 3 ft above the eve. No problem, I go up, proceed to shovel off the areas where the worst daming is occurring. Now we have developed a system where when there’s a lot of snow on the roof, leave where you climb on the roof untouched as far as shoveling so you have a better foot hold and avoid sliding on the ice/snowy shingles coming down off the roof and then either rake off the remainder or shovel if possible from the ladder. Well I get there to descend down to do just that but find my rung is right even with the Ice dam and literally touching the rung. I noticed it when I was climbing up but was able to pretty easily get on the roof without concern and wasn’t the least bit concerned about getting down. WELL try getting on a 1.5” if that step with cold weather boots on, resting on a 10 ice dam with no one there to steady the ladder or lend a hand.

I’ve been doing construction for over 30 years and have none whatsoever fear of heights. But I could not bring myself to get on that ladder. I tried for 30 minutes, Id step back tell myself to calm down but I just couldn’t get on it. The homeowner left while I was doing my calming deal and actually asked me If I needed any help. And me being the professional couldn’t admit to needing help and just said NAW IM FINE JUST TAKING ABREAK TO CATCH MY BREATH. I finally maneuvered the ladder enough where the rung didn’t hit the ice and was able to get down but I’m telling you it made an impression on me BIG time.

First don’t get on a roof alone or without anyone to assist

Second make sure to use a safety system

Know your limitations and when to say NO.

I’m what most would call a professional and as I said heights don’t scare me one bit. BUT this was the exception. Hopefully someone reads this and decides to NOT risk getting up when they know they shouldn’t. You might be that story in the Tribune, I swear I almost was, but thankfully I didn’t take the risk when my gut/fears/age said I shouldn’t.

[deerminator]

I have cleared snow in the past once but since our house is newer and well-insulated, I don't anymore, even if its really deep up there. Our builder said the roof is build to take it and he'd recommend not raking, regardless of whatever tool we'd use as we might do more damage. Like others have said here, ice is the real enemy versus snow, especially in terms of weight. And so if the snow on your roof isn't melting and refreezing regularly, you should be okay.

[Surface Tension]

Dang you mabr ! Thanks for that RUSH... NOT!

Ive been up and down ladders billions times and feel as comfortably as a monkey in a tree on a ladder and roof.

BUT yeah you brought back that feeling from the solar plexus when you know mounting a ladder that is not right.

[mixxedbagg]

Yikes. I definitely DO have a fear of heights and that story doesn't help! I spent a good chunk of yesterday shoveling my dad's roof for him, and I was comfortable most of the time, but I definitely didn't like working close to the edges. Personally, I'm not sure his roof needed cleaning at all, but I knew that if I didn't go over there and do it, HE would climb up there. Now, my dad fell from a ladder while changing a lightbulb in a factory years ago, hit the concrete, and had a skull fracture that severed nerves in his left ear, PERMANENTLY affecting his balance and leaving him deaf on one side. So that's the LAST thing I want to think about...my dad with impaired balance climbing up on his roof and subjecting his 63-year-old ticker (that smoked Marb Reds for 40 of 'em) to a roof covered with a heavy, crusty layer of snow--so, I just plan on doing it whether it needs to be done or not, 'cause it will drive him crazy until he just goes up there. I wonder how long it'll take him to realize there are things he should ask for a hand with once in a while.

I'm really thinking that getting one of those roof razors might be the way to go. Anybody know if there is much of a difference between the 5' cloth and the 10' cloth? Is there a big difference between using the 24" and the 36"? What is the best choice for a flatter pitch roof?

[Tom7227]

I own an old fashioned rake and it was a lot of work to break up the crusted stuff. There was an posting of a video of the roof razor and i thought it looked a little goofy because the snow would bounce down the fabric and sort of get tossed towards the operator. Then I read an article in the Tribune from a few days ago and it started to make more sense. The Razor cuts through the bottom of the snow and loosens it and it slides down the fabric. Wheels on it prevent you from hitting the shingles. I would think that the shorter fabric would get the job done since you don't have to go up more than 3-4 feet to prevent ice dams. The longer fabric would seem to end up getting the stuff to come closer to you when doing the work.

Do the Google and check the company HSOforum - I bet they have a video for both outfits.

[Steve Foss]

Tom, that's an excellent written explanation. On the shorter slides, you are right in theory. Five-foot slides are available and preferred in a few situations. I've found in almost all cases that the 10-foot slides are more practical, partly because almost all the people who have this type of work done, once they see how easy it is, want the whole roof cleared. That's especially true in old homes, where the roof might be a bit weaker with age or wasn't designed for a heavy snow load in the first place.

There also often are problems with snow load forcing leaks when drifting against chimneys, dormers and other architectural elements, so it's not just ice dams at issue.

With the longer slide, when you pull back on the razor, you only pull back far enough so the rear edge of the slide sticks just a bit over the bottom of the roof. That way the snow comes off the roof but doesn't cascade far enough back to hit the user. Of course, this all varies based on the pitch of the roof and whether it's a multi-story home.