Best Of

The snow that slides off the roof over the main doors… um, no. What you will get if that happens is a pile of snow — essentially the entire roof above where it hits — in a dense heap. Much denser than fallen snow. To look at it another way — the equivalent of perhaps 8 to 10 feet of snow in a nice dense pile two or three feet high.

Seen that.

There is a very good reason why barns in snow country are designed to keep snow from sliding off the roof over a door (a door in a side wall). Now there are several ways to do that. A covered area like a low dormer to deflect that roof snow off to the sides is sometimes the simplest. Assuming, of course, that the door has to be in a side wall for some reason (and there are good reasons). Alternatively, brakes of various types and styles (there are a lot — homemade and commercial) to keep the snow on the roof in the first place. They work pretty well — though of course the roof has to be designed and built to take the snow load…

But don't think you are going to melt that heap of snow with a snow melt system. Not in the Adirondacks. Not going to happen. At least not in any reasonable time frame.