The contest recognizes exceptional commercial and residential snow retention projects each year from across the nation. The winning home, located in Breckenridge, CO, features a complex roofing system that previously had real cedar shake roofing.
"Cedar shakes are problematic in mountain homes due to wildfire concerns and insurance issues," says Adrian Oliver, owner of Home Grown Roofing & Contracting out of Conifer, CO. "The customer wanted a steel-coated metal roof, but I didn't think that was the best option for him. I introduced him to the realistic-looking composite shake materials from DaVinci Roofscapes® and he was sold."
As the homeowner was selecting the DaVinci Select Shake roofing, Oliver educated him about the slick nature of composite roofing. The material causes snowfall to accumulate and then release in an avalanching method from the roof, potentially harming people, landscaping, and anything else below the roofline. To counteract that, snow retention is used with composite roofing.
"We've been installing products from Rocky Mountain Snow Guards since 2021," says Oliver. "We're a small owner-operated company and we enjoy partnering with other trustworthy and reliable companies to create the organizational structure that enables us to do what we do.
"We used the free layout service with Rocky Mountain Snow Guards to determine which snow retention product to use and where to place it. In this case, it was the first time we'd installed the Yeti 18 snow guards. We couldn't have been more pleased. These are durable aluminum snow guards designed especially for new installation of natural and synthetic roofs in demanding snow situations. Rocky Mountain Snow Guards specified a dark bronze color to complement the Mountain color of the composite shakes and they look great together."
For this winning project, Oliver and his team installed 986 of the Yeti 18 snow guards in soldier row patterns on the many different rooflines of the home.
"Our research shows that, when specifically placed 12 inches apart horizontally, snow guards are most effective in holding snow," according to Brian Cross, production and marketing manager with Rocky Mountain Snow Guards. "Additionally, we've researched the vertical distance between soldier rows.
"Depending on the roof pitch and area snow load, it turns out that those distances can be quite large, as long as the soldier rows have snow guards placed every 12 inches on center horizontally within rows. This is because the close 12-inch spacing acts more like a barrier than the friction of a traditional spread pattern. It's so effective that the Soldier Row pattern is now considered the 'standard' pattern for Rocky Mountain Snow Guards."
Home Grown Roofing & Contracting is the recipient of a $2,000 cash prize as the winner of the Grand Prize in the Residential Projects category in this year's contest. Overall, $10,000 in prizes were awarded to roofing contractors.
"Winning this contest feels like a dream come true," says Oliver. "I've worked my whole life to get to this point with an incredible project like this. Right from the start I knew this project was a winner. The complexity, the number of snow guards installed, and the type of roofing system all combined to make this roofing system a one-of-a-kind winner!"
