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Our weather patterns lately have presented a few inches of snow here and there, and then a few warmer days where that snow melts somewhat, but because that temperature drops below freezing again at night, that melted water doesn’t necessarily run off.
“We had a lot of rain over the last week which made a lot of weight on the roof there, and then a bunch of snow came down on top of that so basically we’re trying to shovel the roofs off and get some of that weight off of they don’t cave in,” said Jeremy Brusso, who is a snow removal specialist with Riutta Contracting.
A lot of that runoff water gets absorbed by the remaining snow making it heavier, and this causes concern for roof failure. Brusso said, “The homeowner would want to get the snow off of the roof so that roof doesn’t cave in on them or the weight of it cracking the trusses or anything like that.”
Just how much weight is on your roof? Jeremy and his crew are on site with a building that is about the size of a moderate house and has 8 inches or so of constant depth on its roof. “The conditions out there, whether it’s a wet heavy snow or just depending on what the type of weather was for it would make it whether it has to be done sooner or later,” said Brusso.
The crew says it adds thousands of pounds for the structure to support. “Snow is kind of heavy. 30 to 40 pounds per scoop load. A couple hundred scoop loads, it adds up pretty fast. Before you know it, there’s a lot of weight, you know?” said Brusso.
This crew stays pretty busy this time of year, moving from one roof top to the next. Brusso said, “We like to do a couple of jobs a day if we can, anyway. We’re happy to be out here in the UP, shoveling snow.”
