Snow on the Roof: What to Do (Buffalo: new house, buy)

[geekinchief]

As you know, we're having an epic storm here on Long Island. My new house (new to me, but actually very old) has an old roof that probably should be replaced in the spring or so the home inspectors told me when we bought the home.

I'm worried that the amount of snow we're getting will cause something bad to happen. Is there someone I can or should call for roof snow removal? Is there anything I should be doing during the storm to protect the roof? I don't have a roof rake, but I can lean out the second floor windows and use my regular snow shovel to push some snow off the lower level overhang but not the second floor roof. Any advice?

[hotkarl]

As long as it has decent pitch you should be ok.
If it's a flat roof or poor pitch you're screwed.

[geekinchief]

It's not flat; it's pretty slanted, but we have 3 skylights. I read somewhere that anything over 6 inches of snow is dangerous.

[peconic117]

This is light powdery snow and most of it is blowing off the roofs so far from the wind. I would not worry about it. Also weather channel right now saying 8-12 inches now. We'll see

[hotkarl]

If it has decent pitch it should be ok. Push off whatever you can and throw some ice melt onto it from wherever you can to help it along.

[twingles]

You're not going to have a problem from one snowstorm. Put Buffalo and their 7 feet of wet snow in 1 day out of your mind.

[lubby]

Not to derail the thread but if you have a heated driveway I will assume it would not be able to keep up with snow amounts this big? I don't have a heated driveway but was wondering about this.

[ebbe]

I recommend a snow rake if you can reach your roof with it. You can buy these online.

[ovi8]

luckily everything is being blown off the roofs. Roofs of cars barely have anything either.