Best Snow Guards for the New Generation of Synthetic Roofing Shingles

The best snow guards on the market to manage snow on synthetic roofing shingles, at least for residential applications, are Alpine SnowGuards’ Fusion-Guard and Alpine SnowGuards’ Snow Bird. There are other pipe-style snow guard options that are perfect for barricading large amounts of snow over the point of egress. To see more options, search snow Keep reading . . .

6 Slate Roof Maintenance Tips for Spring

Brian Stearns, the President & Founder of Alpine SnowGuards, wrote the below back in the Spring of 2006. Brian’s deep roots in the slate roofing industry (he began his career as a slate roofer in the 1970’s) has given him a wealth of knowledge and experience that’s honestly too valuable NOT to share (and re-share). Keep reading . . .

How It All Began

Brian Stearns, the President and Owner of Alpine SnowGuards, has been diligently writing blogs and conducting in-depth technical research of our new testing facility, announced to the public just after the 1st of the year. His passion for all things roof-related dates back to his youth in the 1970’s, as illustrated in the below editorial Keep reading . . .

Slate Roofing: Will History Repeat Itself?

A reprint of an article published by Brian Stearns, the president & founder of Alpine SnowGuards, in Slate Roof Quarterly. Will History Repeat Itself? Back during the early 1970’s a sharp rise in oil prices sent a wave of fear and frustration through the U.S. consumer base. That “Oil Crisis” had a huge impact on Keep reading . . .

Slate Roofs & the Importance of “Attic Stock”

A reprint of an article about Slate Roofs & the Importance of “Attic Stock” published by Brian Stearns, the president & founder of Alpine SnowGuards, in Slate Roof Quarterly. The term “Attic Stock” is recognized by too few people in the slate industry. Attic stock is a reserve supply of roofing slate that is left Keep reading . . .

The Significance of Snow Guard Layout: Pipe-Style

In my last blog I talked about the significance and importance of snow guard layout for pad-style. Pad-style snow guards perform better evenly distributed over the entire roof surface versus as individual tiers with open roof space between. Picture a composition shingle band that’s 24” wide across a roof. You have eight feet of frictionless Keep reading . . .

Snow Guard Evolution from 1981-1985: Part 1

Up until about 1980, my involvement with the hard roofing industry was primarily with the salvage, sales and distribution of “used roofing slate”. For those of you who are interested, you can read more about our history on the About Us page on the Alpine SnowGuards website. In the early 1980’s, my salvaged slate customers Keep reading . . .

From the Archives: Slate Roofing & Quality Control

Last week I found myself looking through the archives of Slate Roof Quarterly, the print newsletter that was in circulation between 1999 and 2006. Written by Alpine’s President & founder, Brian Stearns, who began his career as a slate roofing contractor.  In Volume 6.4, in the Spring of 2005, Brian dug into the quality control aspect Keep reading . . .

From the Archives: The 3 Grades of Classification for Roofing Slates

This blog features a Slate Roof Quarterly editorial from June 2000 about the testing and classifying of roofing slates. It was written by our President & founder, Brian Stearns, who, besides being the owner of Alpine SnowGuards, got his start as a slate roofing contractor. He even consulted on slate roofing jobs in Japan! That’s Keep reading . . .