Ridgway Colorado Real Estate

Roof Design in Snow Country. Creating interest with roofs is one of the latest design trends. They have evolved from function to form. A good design should be both. Roofs are now "cut up", meaning that what could be, for example, a simple hip roof transforms to one with many valleys and peaks. Drive around any trendy area and you will see roofs rise to different heights, slope in different angles, and face different directions. While visually interesting, a poor design can cause maintenance issues. One of my pet peeves is snow shedding off roofs onto the worst possible spot. That spot might be directly in front of garage doors, onto decks or in front of main entrances. This accumulation demands immediate attention. Snow shed from a roof compresses on impact and becomes heavy and dense and difficult to remove. In front of a garage it becomes an obstacle, especially if you have a vehicle with low ground clearance. When we have warmer periods in the winter we have repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Many times I have seen ice sheets at entrances. They are caused by direct roof drainage, frozen or misdirected downspouts, or piled snow that has melted and refrozen but had nowhere else to drain.Valleys become concentration points for water or snow. In warmer climates, this precipitation can effectively be directed with gutters. In our area, gutters freeze and become a significant maintenance issue. Gutters often get ripped off from snow sliding. Valleys should never be directed toward the entry or front walkway. Valleys shed snow slower than roof faces. This buildup can lead to leaks in a flat roof. Icicles also tend to build up where valleys drain off roofs creating obvious potential for maintenance or damage.Shed roof pitch changes are another trend. A shed roof comes off the main roof at a flatter angle to create enough ceiling height in the room below it. Shed roofs can eliminate the valley problems but creating flat roofs in snow country is poor design. Lower pitched roofs increase the potential for ice damming. When snow melts above the living space and refreezes on the colder eaves, ice builds up. Then, during the next freeze thaw cycle, the snow melt flows to the ice and cannot get by. Eventually it drains into the house, especially if the roof is "cut up" giving the water a wall to back up to. Metal roofing tends to shed snow at shallower angles than composite or shingle roofs. Painted metal is the slipperiest. Still, the manufacturers have minimum pitches required. I would avoid clay tile or the new concrete tile with a similar shape. They don't handle snow and ice impact well nor do they tolerate freeze thaw cycles. Flat roofs are possible with synthetic liners such as EPDM or polyethylene. If you must have a flat roof, perhaps for a commercial building or an adobe style, this is the way to go. Ideally, you will have one continuous liner piece with no seams, for obvious reasons. These materials are used as pond liners so are claimed to be water tight. However, the temperature fluctuations at the bottom of a pond are considerably different than a roof. This stress is accentuated by the material above the liner.Many house plans are available in books or on the internet. A good front or street elevation, with an interesting roof line, can be eye catching. For some reason, many of these designs come from the Southeast U.S. where snow is not an issue. Where snow is not a design factor you can have more valleys, flatter roofs, and different roofing materials. If you are designing a new house, consider your roof design functionally, not just aesthetically.

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