If you have a steep steel roof that has a chimney, with or without braces located more than 3ft off the peak or lower- there is a 50/50 chance if located in Haliburton County it will need everything above the roofline replaced late winter/ early spring. I say 50/50 because depending on the typography, location next to water, predominate direction of snowfall towards the chimney side
of the roof etc. The snow may or may not hang on the roof and transform into an iceberg as it melts. I feel for people that go through this, I really do. But, the only thing worse than having this happen to you is having it happen year after year or every second or third year.
We try a lot harder than most companies to avoid this by adding snow splitters, changing the direction of roof braces to discourage build up etc. But, beyond building a heavy duty dormer above the chimney or moving the chimney to a new location there actually is a solution here.
A different attitude towards your home or cottage. Invest in a person or company that you trust to monitor and remove the snow as required. If a build up of 1 ft of snow is raked off a roof around a chimney before it has hardened up it will not cause a problem. You may even be saving a deck or railing below.
I am sure that a lot of homeowners are just lucky with the prevailing wind direction, angle of roof etc. But there are those exceptional years. We have a 16/12 pitch on our show room steel roof.
Most years it will not get more than 5-6 inches of snow before sliding off. But, one year it piled up 2ft. It was not easy to remove because I let it harden up too long. The snow splitter was crushed- but it did save the chimney! ( I know this is not exciting stuff, but bear with me).
If you procrastinate about it and there is a large build up- you can still save it if you can control the mass by chipping away with a roof rake. It is important to do this before it gets too warm- so it is still stuck tight to the roof. Extreme caution should always be taken with how you protect and position yourself. Snow can be dangerous, be careful! If you have any doubts hire a professional. Snow removal is a service that we do not provide. We deal with assessing and repairing chimneys that are affected.
At this time I would like to remind homeowners that when they are away from their properties for some time, arriving up at the cottage on Friday night for example- Please take a minute and look at the chimney to make sure it all looks good before stoking the fire.