How Does a Roof Snow Shovel Work?

What is a Roof Snow Shovel?

A roof snow shovel is also known as a roof rake. It's essentially a long telescoping pole, at the end of which is a flat steel plate. The bottom half of this plate is bent inward at a 90-degree angle. Attached to this bottom lip is a flexible strip of high-density rubber, similar to a squeegee. It's designed to free a house's roof of snow.

Need for a Roof Snow Shovel

Most northern homes are designed to have slanting roofs. The purpose of this is to prevent the shear weight of a heavy mass of snow from caving it in. Not all houses have a sufficient angle to do this. Houses in temperate and subtropical zones may not have such roofs at all. This necessitates a roof snow shovel if the home's owner wants to keep the roof intact.

Function

Most single floor homes have roofs that are low enough to reach with the pole of a roof snow shovel without climbing a ladder. Some people would need to purchase an extra pole to extend their reach even further. This is important because the user standing at the top of a ladder is a serious hazard. Since the head of the shovel is turned inward, snow is pulled off the roof to land at the user's feet. If the user is on a ladder, the considerable weight of a great deal of snow could hit him once it's dislodged and knock him clean off the ladder to strike the ground below.