# Snow Falling Off Roof?



## NBRam1500 (Nov 22, 2019)

Residential walkway/driveway . 
Mild temps yesterday. Couple clients had all the snow fall off the roof. Buried the front stairs and about 4-5 feet deep. Would you charge extra for this or suck it up and include it. 
Seasonal contracts


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## cjames808 (Dec 18, 2015)

“We were there already, it must have fallen ooff the roof!”

Not free. Fell from the sky.


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## NBRam1500 (Nov 22, 2019)

Very large house, main house and garage meet and come to a valley, valley comes down right over the front door. They had alot of snow on roof. To the point we sent them an offer last week to shovel roof off. They declined. Well now all that snow slid down the metal roof onto the front stairs. Which are 15 stairs 6-8' wide


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## SHAWZER (Feb 29, 2012)

Charge extra .


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## Hydromaster (Jun 11, 2018)

SHAWZER said:


> Charge extra .


X2


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## sota (Jan 31, 2011)

You offered (quoted, i'm assuming) to clear their roof
which means you knew it could be a problem
which means THEY knew it could be a problem
which they declined to have addressed at the time
therefore it's chargeable.


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

NBRam1500 said:


> Very large house, main house and garage meet and come to a valley, valley comes down right over the front door. They had alot of snow on roof. To the point we sent them an offer last week to shovel roof off. They declined. Well now all that snow slid down the metal roof onto the front stairs. Which are 15 stairs 6-8' wide


 You are answering your own question here. You gave them a price before it was all over there steps and walks. Yes you charge them.

I can appreciate trying to take care of your client but not in that way. I don't know anybody that would give the clean up away. The industry don't work that way. Roof snow is not in your contract is it?


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

Get danger pay for working under a metal roof without snow guards.

Related: i used to do an insurance brokerage in the downtown, they had a cedar roof when i started. Some years later they changed to a cedar look metal roof. All walkways and parking lot, as well as the drive into the parking lot were affected, even employees cars were being crushed.( It was a 3 story building) A metal roof without snow guards is a liability waiting to happen.


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

FredG said:


> You are answering your own question here. You gave them a price before it was all over there steps and walks. Yes you charge them.
> 
> I can appreciate trying to take care of your client but not in that way. I don't know anybody that would give the clean up away. The industry don't work that way. Roof snow is not in your contract is it?


What if the wind blows it off the roof...ie drifting.


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## 512high (Jan 18, 2010)

Mr.Markus said:


> Get danger pay for working under a metal roof without snow guards.
> 
> Related: i used to do an insurance brokerage in the downtown, they had a cedar roof when i started. Some years later they changed to a cedar look metal roof. All walkways and parking lot, as well as the drive into the parking lot were affected, even employees cars were being crushed.( It was a 3 story building) A metal roof without snow guards is a liability waiting to happen.


Well said, our shop is a morton building metal roof, near pedestrian door, have ice /snow stoppers, HOWEVER, rest of roof, when the comes down, watch out!


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

Mr.Markus said:


> What if the wind blows it off the roof...ie drifting.


 Well technically it didn't come from the sky but I see what you mean. I probably would still want extra but that's just me.


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## EWSplow (Dec 4, 2012)

We see this all the time with tile roofs, when we get wet heavy snow. We had one that my sidewalk guy would automatically check on his way home, because he wanted to get it cleaned up before it froze. We charged hourly for this clean up. 
I had a driveway the other day. It should have just needed salting. I got there to find the driveway buried with snow from the neighbor's roof. I plowed it. Charged out as another push.


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## jonniesmooth (Dec 5, 2008)

sota said:


> You offered (quoted, i'm assuming) to clear their roof
> which means you knew it could be
> which means THEY knew it could be a problem
> which they declined to have addressed at the time
> therefore it's chargeable.


My contract says " a 2" accumulation within a 24 hour period. The 24 time frame starts when the precipitation starts."

Snow falling off the roof is not precipitation.


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## SHAWZER (Feb 29, 2012)

I fell off a roof once ..... then the snow fell on me . I charged extra for that .


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

EWSplow said:


> We see this all the time with tile roofs, when we get wet heavy snow. We had one that my sidewalk guy would automatically check on his way home, because he wanted to get it cleaned up before it froze. We charged hourly for this clean up.
> I had a driveway the other day. It should have just needed salting. I got there to find the driveway buried with snow from the neighbor's roof. I plowed it. Charged out as another push.


 Hourly is fare to your client and the contractor. It's just a extra like any other job site. Any reasonable person should know this. It's not fresh snow fall, your company is active with overhead, payroll going out.

Some of the bigger guys doing large seasonal commercial may see this differently. They got caps.


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

SHAWZER said:


> I fell off a roof once ..... then the snow fell on me . I charged extra for that .


Someone got A picture of you


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## NBRam1500 (Nov 22, 2019)

We had a 25cm storm last week. And a few mild days and rain since. This stuff came down like concrete when it hit the ground. Cold temps last night . So it all froze. Wasn't as bad as I thought to clean up. 

We had notified the client of the safety issue on Friday. As the valley does gather alot of snow. This is the first year for us and the owner of this property. They just bought this summer. 
We did offer to snow clear the roof for a fee. They declined. They assumed since it fell on the walkway/stairs it should be covered in the contract. After I talked to them this morning they agreed to cover the labour cost and our "on demand" fee as this was not part of a storm system. 


There argument was this.

Well if it snowed last night , that I would have been there to shovel the snow that fell and the snow that fell from roof. 


They are kind of right. 

Let's say it did snow 5 cm last night . 
You get to site and there is 4' of snow on the ground. 
What do you do?


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## 1olddogtwo (Aug 6, 2007)

I'm sorry I disagree with most of the responses on this thread.

You said these are seasonal accounts, right?

Do you have any exclusions in your contract?

Time frames?

Assuming no to the above....

Let's assume the city comes by, plows and throws snow into the driveway before you arrive. Do you not plow it?

Drifting occurs before you plow...... Do you not take care of it?

In both scenarios the the snow fell in a different location than what's in your contract. So what is the difference?

The difference cannot be subjective to your opinion, but as to your agreement with the customer.

Your agreement with the customer dictates how you handle the situation.


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

NBRam1500 said:


> We had a 25cm storm last week. And a few mild days and rain since. This stuff came down like concrete when it hit the ground. Cold temps last night . So it all froze. Wasn't as bad as I thought to clean up.
> 
> We had notified the client of the safety issue on Friday. As the valley does gather alot of snow. This is the first year for us and the owner of this property. They just bought this summer.
> We did offer to snow clear the roof for a fee. They declined. They assumed since it fell on the walkway/stairs it should be covered in the contract. After I talked to them this morning they agreed to cover the labour cost and our "on demand" fee as this was not part of a storm system.
> ...


 Meh there just seeing if they can get you to give. Don't sweat it they know there wrong or would not agree to the extra cost. Nature of the beast better in my pocket then yours.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

Mr.Markus said:


> What if the wind blows it off the roof...ie drifting.


It falls...there's a thing called gravity.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

1olddogtwo said:


> I'm sorry I disagree with most of the responses on this thread.
> 
> You said these are seasonal accounts, right?
> 
> ...


Correct me if I'm wrong...but you don't shovel, do you?


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

Had a customer last year or the year before that called and complained we hadn't cleared right in front of their house and garage. We assured her we had.

She called back and said her husband told her the snow fell off the roof.


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## 1olddogtwo (Aug 6, 2007)

Mark Oomkes said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong...but you don't shovel, do you?


Hell no I don't, shovels are worst tool ever invented why would I want to own one


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

What about the local snow and ice roofers union guys if your cleaning roof falls for nothing? They will picket your site around here. lowred:


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## Hydromaster (Jun 11, 2018)

My seasonal contract state that the sidewalks are extra$$.


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## EWSplow (Dec 4, 2012)

1olddogtwo said:


> I'm sorry I disagree with most of the responses on this thread.
> 
> You said these are seasonal accounts, right?
> 
> ...


I guess I read it wrong. I thought it was a return trip. Also, I should add that the ones I've dealt with are per push, not seasonal.


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## jonniesmooth (Dec 5, 2008)

1olddogtwo said:


> Hell no I don't, shovels are worst tool ever invented why would I want to own one


I had a gentleman from Texico (not Texaco) working on my beet pile one year.
He told me quite emphatically, while waving both hands in front of him, " it no good for you" when I tried to hand him a shovel.


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

EWSplow said:


> I guess I read it wrong. I thought it was a return trip. Also, I should add that the ones I've dealt with are per push, not seasonal.


 It was another trip, the OP gave him a price to clean the roof when he seen the issue. Guy refused and the snow come off the roof.


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## EWSplow (Dec 4, 2012)

FredG said:


> It was another trip, the OP gave him a price to clean the roof when he seen the issue. Guy refused and the snow come off the roof.


Should be charged extra , but it all goes back to what's in the contract.


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## NBRam1500 (Nov 22, 2019)

We are contracted to do the walkway
Driveway and infront of garage doors on a seasonal contract. 

We haven't had any snow in the last week. All mild weather. 

This was an " On Demand " call.

Our contracts do state a charge for emergency calls/on demand call. As it was not during a snow event, they neglected to have the snow cleared off the roof. We did charge them a fee and hourly rate to clear the snow. 

Learning curve , we will be editing our contracts to specifically identify snow falling from roof protocols. 

Normally we might get a little snow falling off here and there. This is a very large roof, that comes to a valley over the front entry way.


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## EWSplow (Dec 4, 2012)

NBRam1500 said:


> We are contracted to do the walkway
> Driveway and infront of garage doors on a seasonal contract.
> 
> We haven't had any snow in the last week. All mild weather.
> ...


I think you have every right to charge.


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## EWSplow (Dec 4, 2012)

NBRam1500 said:


> We are contracted to do the walkway
> Driveway and infront of garage doors on a seasonal contract.
> 
> We haven't had any snow in the last week. All mild weather.
> ...


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## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

NBRam1500 said:


> We are contracted to do the walkway
> Driveway and infront of garage doors on a seasonal contract.
> 
> We haven't had any snow in the last week. All mild weather.
> ...


 Be careful how you word that roof thing in your contracts, you don't want to run - scare people away. I think your fine with the emergency and demand thing.

If you run into a problem just treat it like you did this last one.


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## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

NBRam1500 said:


> Very large house, main house and garage meet and come to a valley, valley comes down right over the front door. They had alot of snow on roof. To the point we sent them an offer last week to shovel roof off. They declined. Well now all that snow slid down the metal roof onto the front stairs. Which are 15 stairs 6-8' wide


So they refused to have you clear the roof,then when it comes down now its your responsibility to clear it ! lol. I would have laughed good naturedly and said "nice try". 4-5 feet deep. 15 stairs 6-8 ' wide! 20 cubic yards moved by hand ! That's a triaxle load !


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## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

5 or so years ago we had a similar situation. After weeks of snow one of the flat roofs on one of my accounts was sagging down till it was hitting sprinkler heads!(acres in size) Roof was cleared, I get a call about tenant complaining of snow on their stairs, it was the snow from clearing roof.I spent a day clearing snow around the building, you couldn't get in the entrances ,snow was 10' high. That was an extra charge, bobcat time, shoveler and salt.It didn't matter if it was seasonal or per push,if it doesn't come directly from the clouds to the ground it's an extra .I would charge my own mother in that case !


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## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

Just kidding mom


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## sota (Jan 31, 2011)

My mom "pays" in home made chocolate chip cookies.


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## NBRam1500 (Nov 22, 2019)

sota said:


> My mom "pays" in home made chocolate chip cookies.


We have a few older ladies who always have fresh baked cookie plates for us. One old lady on the other hand, we pass on her cookies to the next homeless guy we see. Not sure what she puts in her cookies. But three of us who ate them all died that night lol .


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## Bighammer (Aug 20, 2003)

I keep thinking about compiling a book of architectural screw-ups. Seems like valleys that dump onto stairs or walkways could be a whole chapter. :hammerhead:


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