As the snow melts off of your roof, it can be nerve wracking to make the first trip up to the top of your house to assess the damage. With snow and ice sliding on and pulling at your roof all winter, there aren’t many homes that make it into the spring time unscathed.

Throughout the winter time you may notice large icicles forming at the edge of your roof or you may even see sheets of snow hanging off of your roof. The pressure that this snow and ice puts on your roof throughout the winter time can be extremely damaging. This spring, take the time to install a system on your roof that will prevent you from making repairs every spring.

Sound too good to be true? Stick with us! With a few tweaks and changes you can have a roof that is able to hold on to the snow throughout the winter. That’s right, hold on to the snow. If the snow stays on your roof, rather than melting, sliding, re-freezing and breaking it will simply act as an insulating layer for your roof. This insulating layer on your roof will slowly melt away without causing damage as it melts.

Let us help you keep make the necessary changes to your roof to ensure that snow sticks around throughout the winter and melts off naturally. With the right ventilation system, the right tiles and the right brackets we can be sure that you never have to make that scary trip up to your roof to assess winter damage again!

If you have ever built a home or worked with your local government on the construction of a building, you understand how intense building codes can be.  There are probably codes out there that you do not even know exist! There seems to be a code for everything.

Putting in a window? Make sure it is up to code!

Installing an oven? Make sure it is up to code!

Building a deck? Make sure it is up to code!

You get the point. These codes, although they may feel like a nuisance, are extremely important in keeping each of us safe. Because of these codes we know that we should be able to open a window without it falling in on us, we know that our oven should not catch fire to the wall behind it and we know that when we stand on a deck it should be able to support us.

Without the building codes, we may not be able to trust our buildings.

Interestingly, there are not building codes related to the way that your roof handles the snow that will build up on it throughout the winter. This snow that is building up can cause serious damage to your roof, your gutters, your home, your yard and even to those that you love. The snow and ice that have slid off of houses in the past have killed those that it comes into contact with. Obviously, this is not safe.

It is important that you understand how to keep yourself, your home, your property and those that you love safe from a very dangerous situation. By working with TRA Snow and Sun, you can be sure that your roof is safe no matter what season it is. Although there may not be code enforced by the government, TRA Snow and Sun will make sure that your roof is going to handle the snow in the safest way possible. Do not hesitate to call or e-mail us today to get started on your way to a safe roof.

TRA Snow and Sun has been in business for over 20 years now, but do you know how we started? Terry Anderson, our President and CEO made a trip to Europe several years ago to study snow retention. What he found was quite shocking. In America, most people tried as hard as they could to get snow off their roofs during the winter while those in Europe did everything they could to keep the snow on. After studying this idea for several years, Terry decided to implement them in America and he started TRA Snow and Sun. Watch the video below to learn more about TRA and our philosophy to snow retention.

The winter months of February and March create an interesting time of year when winter slowly melts into spring during the day and then promptly freezes back into winter at night.  It is this cycle of bright, sunny, and relatively warm days followed by freezing nights that can create a dangerous flow of water and ice emanating from a home’s roof.

Throw in the occasional blinding snow storm as is common in late February and the situation can become extremely dangerous for a homeowner and their property.  Taking precautions, then, will become a priority of all homeowners.

In the mountains, the years’ worth of snow fall accumulates into one giant whole known as the snow pack.  The mountain snow packs are responsible for providing local rivers, streams, and lakes with their water throughout the year and are an indication of the level of water that will be available for the local populace.

But these snow packs can also be extremely dangerous as they melt as they can degrade into perilous avalanche conditions and flash floods. In a similar way, snow packs that have formed on the home’s roof have the ability to come crashing down on to patios, decks, porches, driveways and walkways with the potential to cause great damage and destruction.

This damage can become a threat to people as well.  This is most commonly seen when melting snow during the day falls from the roof or driveway covering to the sidewalks and pathways below only to freeze when the temperature drops at night.

This process creates hazardous black ice conditions that can easily result in a slip and fall for anyone who passes by.  Keeping melting snow and ice on the roof has been proven to be safer for both the property and the homeowner themselves and can be accomplished by our professionally installed systems.

January 11, 2012

While most of the US is still waiting for 2012’s first big snowstorm, TRA-MAGE, Inc. introduces a new solution to snow crashing off roofs – the less expensive and low profile Snow Diamond Clamp-on Snow Fence.

TRA-MAGE, INC. used its decades of experience in designing and engineering roof snow retention devices to create the Snow Diamond Clamp-on Snow Fence – a lower profile, less expensive clamp-on snow fence that will keep hundreds of pounds of snow and ice from crashing off a roof.  A roof avalanche is a very dangerous event which happens when snow and ice start sliding off a roof and end up on people or property below.

Devin Hancock, TRA-MAGE Inside Sales Manager, says, “We’ve made heavy-duty snow fences for years and they work great.  But this new design is ideal for areas where you don’t need an industrial strength and heavy looking snow fence.  Its lower profile is esthetically pleasing and it’s 20% less than the standard snow fence.”

Although the company makes snow fences and brackets for all types of roofs, metal roofs provide a unique challenge.  Nailing or screwing anything through a metal panel is generally not a good idea.  So clamping is the preferred method of attachment.  The new Snow Diamond Clamp-on Snow Fence uses lighter weight bars instead of the usual heavier pipes and the clamp is smaller.

“The best application for the Snow Diamond Clamp-on Snow Fence is a metal panel roof that has a low snowload,” says Hancock.  What if a homeowner doesn’t have any idea what a “snowload” is or what the “slope” of his roof is?  Local building departments can provide the snowload and according to Hancock, “We’ll design a safe system for our customers’ jobs, large or small, at no extra charge.”

TRA-MAGE, Inc. offers Roof Snow Retention Devices, Solar Mounting Systems and Roof Flashing Solutions.   They provide all customers, from the individual homeowner to the big developer, free engineered designs of all their systems.  For more information call Devin Hancock at 800-606-8980 or visit snow.tra-mage.com

At TRA-MAGE, Inc. the engineering makes all the difference.