Roof Rakes for Homeowning Dummies

Roofing terminology, including rake

It's not unusual for one of our staffers to run across freelance content that trips a little alarm somewhere deep in their minds. That's especially likely when they find a content-farm post written well outside the areas of expertise of the freelancer in question. Today's DotD nominee is precisely that: based on her bio at HomeSteady.com, Bridgette Austin is an accomplished buzzword-user, but it's also clear that she knew nothing about a "Roof Rake Definition"¹ before googling it. Our staffer, on the other hand, did...

As is the wont of the eHow.com contributor (where this post resided before Leaf Group niched it at HomeSteady), Austin pounded out some 400 words about the tool that appears at the top of the google search results – even higher than her post! This Angeleno, who's probably never seen more than a quarter inch of snow on her roof, told us a-a-a-all about how,

"People use roof rakes to clear roofs of ice and snow that accumulate over time..."

...which is, in and of itself, pretty crappy writing. Bridgette went on to describe, in loving detail, what (she thought) a roof rake looks like:

"Similar in look to garden rakes, roof rakes have a rectangular piece of aluminum connected to the end of a pole that extends anywhere from 15 to 24 feet..."

Next, Austin shared her vast experience in how to use one:

"...you will want to avoid throwing excess snow onto your driveway or on the front walkway."

We guess the back "walkway" would be OK, eh, Bridgette? And nothing about not piling the snow and ice against the foundation? For shame...

But the greatest shame is that Austin didn't do her research: sure, there's such a thing as a roof rake tool – but it's probably more likely that the OQ was curious about a rake board. That's the outward-facing trim board nailed just below the roofline on a gable, shed, or gambrel roof. For having the unmitigated gall to "explain" some tool to her readers but not have the sense to go past page one of the search results, Bridgette Austin wins the Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_10046097_roof-rake-definition.html

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