Snow melt on metal roof bypassing gutter

[kdrymer]

I have a pole barn type garage (unheated) that has a metal roof on it. This past summer I installed Vinyl gutters on it myself. We've had some snow already this season and I've noticed that the snow melt appears to be sliding down the roof as one large piece and it is bypassing the gutter (sliding over top of it) and it is forming a downward block of snow hanging off the edge of the gutter. I have attached a picture that shows the main issue (after knocking off snow that was hanging down off the gutter).

Do I have the gutters place incorrectly on the facia board? I did have to trim a little bit of the edge of the roof off to allow me to install the gutter hanger fasteners. I have seen these vertical vanes installed on metal roofs to help break up the snow, but I don't know if they would help in this case. Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[oldognewtrick]

Hope this helps.

 

[bud16415]

They look ok to me. I have the same metal roofing on garage and house garage is 3 years and house 2 in terms of winter I think. I don’t have a lot of gutters but the ones I have work just like yours the snow slides down and over them. I think that’s better than putting a load of weight into the gutter and ripping them off.


The Amish put mine on and they gave me a box of the snow stopper things as I told them not to put them on. I would rather have the snow off the roof than building up weight. The house is 10/12 pitch and it keeps clear of snow load pretty good. The garage is 4/12 and last winter there was a good 3’ of snow on it and I was worried. The neighbor bought a snow rake and I was dreading using it as the slopes are 20’ each side (dreading the work) I got lucky and it warmed up and we got a thaw. Some people get on their roof and shovel but with the metal I worry about it taking off while u there and me going along for the ride.

 

[kdrymer]

Thanks for your feedback guys! The problem is that the reason I installed the gutter on the garage was to divert runoff from the roof away from a retaining wall flower bed (you can partially see it in the picture) so that excess water does not build up behind the wall and freeze, and with the snow melt building up down off the edge of the gutter it is dripping into the area behind the wall. I suppose I am more accustomed to an asphalt roof that has more grit to keep the snow on the roof and melt down into the gutter. I'm afraid there is still a lot of weight on the edge of the gutter, especially when the snow starts forming vertically off the edge of the gutter. It sounds like with the metal roof there isn't anything to prevent the entire snow block from moving, the snow guards just break up the snow? I wonder if there's a type of wall I could install on top of the outer edge of the gutter to block snow from continuing to slide past the gutter, similar to the splash shields you see where there are roof valleys...

 

[bud16415]

If you mount the cleats that Oldog’s video shows they will hold the snow from coming off and it will eventually melt and go down the gutters. Lots of people here put them where their stairs or door is and I have seen them to keep snow from driveways etc. Some people do the whole roof also.


We get about 200” of snow in a winter here and even though we get thaws last winter we had one event that was 48” in 24 hours. Last week we got 18” and it was wet and heavy. Over the course of the winter it melts down in height but gets heavier. Depending on where you live and the amount of snowfall you get I can see the cleats working good.


Around here they don’t put the metal straight on the roof they space it away for airflow below with flat 2x4 on 24” spacing. The cleats have to be attached in line with the screws holding the tin. They normally put them 2 or 3 rows on the lower end of the roof.


The people that have them I watch in the winter and they do hold the snow on the roof. I figured I could always add some if I needed them.


Could you put something plastic or something on the ground to take the melt away from the building?

 

[bud16415]

Here is one of two gutters I have.

 

[kdrymer]

Thanks again for the info!