It’s here, simple and cost effective. It works on any roof surface. It’s a pad-style snow guard and it’s a pipe-style snow guard. The Fusion-Guard is a hybrid design that should’ve have been invented sooner. A product so revolutionary, I’ve never seen anything like it in the 42 years I’ve been in the roofing business.
For those of you following Alpine SnowGuards and the many articles I’ve written, you already know there’s a huge conflict over the use of snow guards, their design and what they do. If you read any of my previous articles, you also already know that there are basically two types of snow management systems: Pad-Style and Pipe-Style.
Over the years, snow guards have been forgotten, overlooked or just plain ignored. There are all sorts of reasons for this – from changes in roofing material, lack of understanding the need to aesthetics.
The Need for an Effective System with Minimal Visual Impact
Throughout my career I’ve had, and still have, many conversations – most of them go something like this:
Building Owner: We have a slate / tile / synthetic shingle / Metal (________ fill in the blank) roof and snow and ice shoot off it like an avalanche. It sounds like a freight train when it lets go. What can we do?
Alpine SnowGuards: We have a snow guard solution for every roof type. Would you prefer a pad-style or a pipe-style system?
Building Owner: Neither, really. We don’t want to change the look of the roof – we just don’t want to get hit by this sliding snow mass. What’s the least expensive, least visible and easiest to install system we can get? Oh, and by the way, we just want to cover the small areas above our doorways.
Alpine SnowGuards: What you’re describing, and you can read more about this on our blog, is one of our pad-style systems. However, we want to make sure you understand that pad-style snow guards are thought of as snow management systems that help to slow the movement of the mass, but snow and ice will still come off the roof. Pipe-style systems, on the other hand, are thought of as barricades meant to hold the mass in place and stop the movement (this will vary with some of the newer synthetic shingle products out there).
Building Owner: But we don’t want to see it, the pipe system sounds more expensive and potentially ugly. We just want something that will work with little or no effort on our part.
This dialogue is a little facetious, I know, and it’s surprisingly very close to the truth.
Introducing the Hybrid Fusion-Guard (Pad & Pipe Style)
With this said, we are eager and excited to introduce to the industry the new FUSION-GUARD snow management system – a system that is exactly what the industry has been begging for, for over 100 years.
The Fusion-Guard is a pad-style snow guard system at its core. It’s compatible with any roof type, utilizing various strap lengths or base configurations. Fusion-Guard can retrofit existing roofs with various approaches, including an optional counter-flashing component. Quite simply, it’s a pad-style snow guard for all roof types with one HUGE difference from anything else made to date. It works as a pad and can be enhanced to function as a pipe-style system without changes to the roof. The game-changer? The face of the pad is designed to allow for the addition of rods / fence during or after installation, as needed.
Now, conversations with building owners, like the one above, take on a different spin: They recognize the need for snow guards on their shingle roof. As pointed out above, they don’t really want them, yet they recognize that they need them. In the end, they choose to install pads at the lesser cost, visual impact, etc. The pad system works well when installed properly, but they would like added protection above doors, driveways, decks, hot tubs, etc.
So, they add rods to the existing pads using the optional rod bracket clips.
The Only Universally Designed System to Work on Any Roof
By using this “hybrid” Fusion-Guard system, pads can be installed and then when, or if, necessary, can be retrofit with a built-in retrofit option. On some of the newer synthetic shingle roofing products, this is a life saver. Industry-wide, the Fusion-Guard is a total game-changer.
For building owners who want minimal visual impact from snow guards, they can now install Fusion-Guard pads. If the pads don’t meet their expectations (and on many synthetic shingle products, they don’t, due to the slippery, waxy surface (Polyolefins), they can add rods wherever, and to whatever degree they choose, to meet their project-specific needs.
This introduction of Fusion-Guard is a “win/win” for roofers, distributors, building owners, shingle manufacturers and yes, also for Alpine.
Fusion-Guard is the only one of its kind, universally-designed to work on any roof. Oh, and did we mention that it just may be the most cost-effective snow guard system on the market?
Samples are available – let us know if you would like one sent your way.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Brian Stearns
President & Founder, Alpine SnowGuards
We keep snow in its place
888.766.4273
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Alpine SnowGuards designs, engineers, and manufactures snow management systems from our facility in Morrisville, VT. We work closely with leading roofing contractors, engineering firms, developers, solar installers and roofing manufacturers to ensure we deliver quality products that do what we say they’ll do. Alpine SnowGuards can help a building qualify for LEED® credits.
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