The importance of making roofs winter-ready

By Emma Peterson. 

Not only do snow retention systems protect homeowners, but they also protect contractors’ reputations. 

The goal of snow retention systems is to keep snowpack on a roof, rather than letting it slide off in uncontrolled amounts. This has a multitude of benefits for the homeowner, from as simple as added insulation in the cold months to as important as saving lives from mini avalanches. In this Roofing Road Trips® episode, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Lars Walberg of Rocky Mountain Snow Guards and Nick Piontek of On Point Contracting to talk about the importance of these systems — for both contractors and homeowners.  

Snow retention, while crucial, is often not prioritized properly. Lars explained, “Up in the mountains, I'd say 95% of the new roofs that are going to have snow retention. But down in lower areas like Denver, Colorado, I'd say it might be 25% of the roofs that go on have snow retention, and the rest of the time they don't.” This is problematic, because even though Denver is not in the mountains proper, it still sees around 56.5 inches of snow each winter. 

This is not only detrimental to the homeowners who, without a proper snow retention system, have a safety issue on their hands, but it is also detrimental to the reputations of the contractors putting on those new roofs. Nick, whose team often takes on retrofit tasks for roofs that did not get built with snow retention systems, shared, “When we talked to the homeowners that we're doing retrofit for, they go, ‘Why didn't my last roofer tell me about this?’ And to them, we just shrug. But we know the reason why is that the salesperson was just thinking about that one sale that they're trying to make and not thinking about the future with the type of snow that we get.”  

Read the transcript or Listen to the recording for more on the importance of snow guards for homeowners’ safety and roofers’ reputations.