Supporting more than just snow

By Emma Peterson. 

TRA Snow and Sun not only provides high-quality snow retention systems, but they also provide training so that their systems are installed correctly. 

The snowy season might be over for many areas, but that doesn’t mean that snow retention is any less important. In fact, it is actually far better to incorporate snow retention into a roofing project now, before there is the chance for any accidents or damage to occur. In an episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Karen Edwards got the chance to speak with Mindy Dahlquist of TRA Snow and Sun about the importance of snow retention and how contractors can get the training they need to install these systems correctly. 

Snow retention systems come in a variety of types, from spikes to fences and more, but the goal is always the same – to hold snow on a roof so that it can melt in place rather than risk having it slide off the roof and cause dangerous accidents. The key to the success of these systems is proper engineering and installation. There are many factors that must be considered with snow retention. Mindy gave one example, sharing, “You have to consider ground snow loads and roof loads to make sure the building’s structure can properly support the snow on the roof.” 

So, how do you make sure your team is prepared to install snow retention systems that will succeed come wintertime? TRA has an answer and it’s training. Mindy explained, “When it comes to hands-on training, we are doing more of the live seminars that we provided last year, which we had amazing feedback on. I had roofers say, ‘This shows how much you care about the industry because many other manufacturers are not going to offer this kind of training for free.’” 

TRA also hands out their flip books for contractors to reference on their own time. Mindy shared a bit about these, saying, “As you flip through them, there are videos and it kind of shows the whys and the how's and the necessary information about snow retention. Those have been super helpful for contractors to just keep in their truck, pull out when they're talking to a homeowner or maybe a property owner and just say, ‘Hey, this is some information that I have. Let's look through this real fast and see if this is something that works for you.’” 

And if none of these options work for you and your team, TRA sends team members like Mindy out to provide one-on-one training and education for contractors. Mindy elaborated, “I fly all over the place anyways, so I will come to contractors if they have a group that they would like to join. Oftentimes, we all have friends in the industry, so if there are multiple contractors that want to get together, then I'll rent a hotel conference room and just do a pop-up training event. We want to help you.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about TRA and their training offerings.