Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
Two questions decide whether your roof needs snow retention. Is the surface smooth enough for snow to slide, which for metal is almost always yes and for asphalt shingles almost always no. And is there anything under those eaves worth protecting: a walkway, a driveway, an entry, a neighbor.
Walk the perimeter of your house and note what sits under every eave a slide could reach.
Roof surface decides whether snow slides, and what is underneath decides whether that matters to you.
Look at what is parked or walked under your roofline in winter.
Snow retention is not really a mountain question in Utah, it is a question about what is standing underneath your eaves when the roof lets go.
Mattie Tueller, Master Roofing
Smooth ones. Metal panel roofs are slick. So accumulated snow slides off them in slabs once the sun or the roof warms the layer touching the panel. Asphalt shingles do the opposite: the granulated surface is sandy and gritty. Snow simply does not move on them. That surface difference is the whole first half of the decision.
If you have a metal roof in Utah and no snow retention on it, that is worth looking at this year rather than after something happens. The surface question is settled the moment you know what your roof is made of.
Walk the perimeter and look up, then look down. A sliding slab of snow is only a problem if it lands on something. So the second half of the decision is entirely about what sits under each eave. Plenty of metal roofs shed harmlessly into a side yard nobody walks through in January.
That walk takes ten minutes and it answers the question more reliably than any general rule about elevation or roof pitch does. You are looking for consequences, not for snow. Do the walk in daylight and think about where people actually go in February, not where they go in June.
No, and assuming so is how people get caught. Snow loads are far heavier on the Wasatch Back and at higher elevation. So the mountains see more of everything. But a slide does not require a mountain's worth of snow, it requires a slick surface and a warm afternoon. The Wasatch Front supplies both several times a winter.
Master Roofing worked on a house down on the Front with a metal section only about four feet wide running across the front of the house, above the driveway. Not much surface area at all. Over Thanksgiving, with the homeowner's cars and relatives' cars parked underneath, that snow let go and dented hoods and broke windows.
Four feet of roof. A valley address. That job was really surprising. It is the reason the perimeter walk matters far more than the elevation on your address. Small roof areas over places people park deserve the same thought as big ones.
You are accepting a risk rather than avoiding a cost, so it is worth deciding deliberately. Some houses really do not need retention, and saying so is honest. What you should not do is skip it by default because nobody raised it. That's how most Utah metal roofs end up without any.
If you do install it, the sizing and layout are their own subject, covered in how much snow retention your roof really needs. Doing it partially or by guesswork causes its own failures. So it is worth doing properly or not at all rather than half way. Deciding either way on purpose is the part that matters.
Master Roofing installs a lot of metal in Utah. My honest opinion is that snow retention should be building code for metal roofs, period. It is really strange to me that it is not. Park City now requires it on commercial buildings. That requirement exists because a woman was killed by snow coming off a four-story hotel.
I understand why it stays optional. It adds cost to a bid, most winters pass without incident. A homeowner comparing quotes has no way to know which line item is the one that matters.
Snow retention is not really a mountain question in Utah, it is a question about what is standing underneath your eaves when the roof lets go. So take the ten-minute walk around your own house before the first storm. If the answer under every eave is bare lawn, you have your answer and it costs you nothing. If the answer is your front door, you also have your answer.
This article is general information about Utah roofs, not an assessment of yours. Every roof is different, and no article can tell you what is actually happening on your specific house. Have a licensed roofing contractor look at it in person before you act on anything here.
Yes, and retrofitting is common, though the attachment method matters enormously. Systems that clamp to standing seams avoid penetrating the panels at all, while others require fasteners driven through the metal. That introduces places water can enter if the work is done poorly. Ask specifically how the system attaches to your panel profile before agreeing to anything on an existing roof.
It holds snow in place, which is the entire point. So the real question becomes whether your attic is letting heat reach the roof deck. A properly ventilated and air-sealed roof stays cold enough that held snow simply sits there harmlessly all winter. A warm attic produces meltwater with or without retention. So fix that separately rather than blaming the retention for it.
Almost never. The granulated surface of an asphalt shingle is rough enough that snow grips it and stays put rather than releasing in a slab. That is precisely why this whole conversation centers on metal and on smoother membrane roofs. If someone is proposing snow retention for a standard shingle roof, ask them to explain specifically what they are seeing.
Some jurisdictions and associations do, especially in mountain communities. Park City requires it on commercial buildings. Requirements are set locally rather than statewide. So your city or county building department and your own HOA documents are the authorities to ask. Check before you finalize a metal roof, since retrofitting later to satisfy a rule always costs more than including it up front.
It varies considerably with the panel profile, the roof size, how much coverage is needed, and whether the system clamps or fastens. Because it depends on those specifics, ask for it as its own itemized line on the estimate rather than bundled into the roof price. That way you can see what you are paying for and compare bids honestly.
We're here to see what's going on with your roof. A real assessment starts with your history and your attic, not a number from the driveway. You'll get a straight answer about what's up there, what it needs, and what it costs. Sometimes the honest answer is: your roof looks great.