Flat Roofs and Snow for Dummies

Snow, commercial flat roof

Our staffers select their DotD nominations based on a wide array of criteria, but freelancer failings that most of them cannot abide are a failure of logic and/or just plain missing the point. Today's nominee checks both of those boxes, although it might take some personal knowledge and careful reading to actually notice where eHowian Merle Huerta went off track. She did, however, when she wrote the HomeSteady.com post, "What Can I Use for Snow Melting & Cleaning a Flat Roof?"

We'll point out that Huerta made a couple of points that are of value: first, she said that,

"[If] a flat roof is stressed from the weight of snow and ice, the addition of an adult male could cause roof collapse..."

...and second, she suggested contracting with a professional firm to clear the roof. Of course, that latter was based on what appears to be an advertisement for removing snow from flat roofs in Canada. We won't argue either of those comments, although we aren't all that sure there are commercial services that will clear residential roofs. We could be wrong...

...but those aren't our nominating criteria for Merle's post. No, we wanted to point out some rather questionable content, such as this strange comment:

"If snow is hard-packed or wet, shoveling is not only arduous work, it's dangerous. Snow is heavy; a square foot of wet snow might weigh over 15 lbs."

First, we're curious about how snow on a roof could become "hard-packed." Second, we'd like to point out that the statistic of "over 15 lbs" per "square foot of wet snow" is questionable, mostly because the weight of snow is dependent on its volume, not its area. Of course, those are just quibbles, although one should expect better of a writer with an "M.A. in instructional media and technology", no?

As we said, though, Huerta had a failure of logic in the 140 words she devoted to "Electric Cables." That's where she informed her readers that,

"Snow and ice pack over time can cause ice dams or structural roof damage... According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., cables should be run from the downspout drain to each corner in a criss-cross [sic] pattern. For obstacles such as chimneys, skylights and vents, it should be mounted in a loop."

Besides her poor pronoun agreement, Merle also failed to read her source sufficiently closely. Ice dams don't occur on flat roofs, they are a factor on pitched roofs. Second, the reference was not about melting away the snow, the reference was about keeping channels to the drain(s) open to allow meltwater to escape the roof. She didn't mention that...

We don't know about other people, but our preference is to get information such as this from people who know what they're talking about. Our Dumbass of the Day synthesized information she didn't understand: that's unacceptable.

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