Originally built in the early 1980’s, The Beaver Creek Chapel is an integral part of Beaver Creek Village. Located high in the Colorado Rockies and nestled next to the creek at the bottom of the ski area, the chapel sees 350 inches of annual snowfall each winter.
In 2011 the original concrete tile roof on the chapel was replaced with a new DaVinci synthetic slate roof. Due to budget constraints, the chapel board decided to install snow guards on the 12/12 pitch roof instead of snow fences. The snow fence option was recommended by both the general contractor overseeing the re-roof project and the roofer because of the large number of people that attend regular church services, weddings, and other services held at the Chapel.
After 7 years the congregation had had enough of ducking falling snow and ice and the never-ending job of shoveling snow from the courtyard and slope-side deck. They turned to Rocky Mountain Snow Guards to solve their snow problems.
The design team at Rocky Mountain recommended multiple rows of the NoFlash III – 3 pipe snow fence system to hold the snow on the roof. The best part about the NoFlash snow fence is that it integrates beautifully with the existing shingles and because it is fastened into the decking, additional structural work wasn’t necessary to secure the snow fence brackets. And just like the name implies, when installed, the brackets don’t require any additional flashing to keep the roof watertight. The entire system was powder coated dark bronze to compliment the existing copper flashings and roofing accents on the Chapel.
The system was installed by Plath Construction of Gypsum, Colorado. Plath has over 30 years of roofing experience in the Vail-Beaver Creek area. Installation of the system was completed in November, 2018. Just in time for the 2018-2019 ski season.
