English
English
Español
Français

Sign Up for Our E-News!

Join over 18,000 other roofers who get the Week in Roofing for a recap of this week's best industry posts!

Sign Up
Sales Assist - Sidebar Ad - Build Present Close
Western Colloid - Sidebar Ad - FAAR Best Practices
Hi Peak SIdebar Ad
Quarrix - Sidebar - ProTect - Dec
SprayFoam Convention 2025 - Side bar - SPFA
Project Map It - Sidebar Ad - Close More Roofing Jobs With Project Map It
English
English
Español
Français

Mindy Dahlquist - Explore Snow Retention Training Opportunities - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Mindy Dahlquist - Explore Snow Retention Training Opportunities - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
January 10, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Mindy Dahlquist of TRA Snow and Sun. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seatbelts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip.

Karen Edwards: Hello and welcome to another episode of Roofing Road Trips from Roofer's Coffee Shop. My name's Karen Edwards, and today I have the privilege of sitting down with Mindy Dahlquist from TRA Snow and Sun to talk all things snow retention. Mindy, welcome.

Mindy Dahlquist: Thank you so much, Karen. Happy to be here.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, it's good to see you. I mean, wow, this topic is so timely. We just entered the new year. We're in the middle of winter. But before we dive into the subject, can you just do a brief introduction to let our listeners know a little bit about you and what you do there?

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely. So my name is Mindy Dahlquist, I am the business development manager at TRA Snow and Sun. I handle all trade show situations, education and just a lot of basically being a liaison between the company and architects and the company and contractors to just understand what snow retention is, how to best utilize it for their business and how it can help potentially save lives.

Karen Edwards: Wow. So if you go to any of the industry trade shows, you've probably seen Mindy there. She's out and about at all of these events. So let's start by talking about the basics of what snow retention is and why it matters.

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely. Well, snow retention is basically the concept of holding back the snow and allowing it to melt off into place instead of allowing it to slough off or slide off of the roof and come down where it's able to create damage along the way, whether it's damage to the roof surface or humans, pets, decks, really anything that's possibly in its way. We're talking hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds of snow coming off of that roof. So it depends on your location obviously for that weight, but it's something that allows it to just be frozen into place and hold it there safely and just allow for it to be retained back. And if you do choose to remove it at that point, you can, but it allows it to be a lot more controlled than something just coming off at random.

Karen Edwards: Wow. Yeah, because you hear a lot when we have big snow storms about people needing to get the snow off of their roof because there's potential for damage. That kind of seems counterproductive to keep it up there, but I understand it allows you to manage it more. Is that the idea behind it?

Mindy Dahlquist: Yeah, so it's a lot more manageable and actually in places where they receive a lot more snow than we do, they actually utilize snow retention as basically just a regular building product. It's something that is included on almost all builds. So it's interesting how mostly in the east side of the country, we've always just wanted to get the snow off of our roof as fast as possible. A lot of that came with the building standards at the time. Anything built prior to the mid-1970s we were not even considering snow loads into how we build our structures at all. Like me being from Ohio, you're I believe in PA, right?

Karen Edwards: Yeah, Pennsylvania.

Mindy Dahlquist: So for us, anything built prior to the mid-1970s, we are worried about that structure. So snow retention is a newer concept to the United States. We've been doing it with TRA for 30 years now, but in European countries and Asian countries, it's something that has been going on for centuries. So a lot of castles, outbuildings of castles, all of those types of things, they actually utilize boulders and big logs on the roof to try to hold the snow back and they would fasten those down or secure those down as much as they could to try to hold that back. And then eventually they modernized and it became more like snow brackets and snow fences. And those of course have changed throughout the years as our building products change. As our roofing materials change, then the snow retention and the accessories have to adjust as well.

Karen Edwards: You'd think that we would not be so far behind, that we've only been talking about this really since the 1970s. It's incredible to me, and I think we had a webinar on this topic that if you want a lot more information than we're going to cover in the podcast, I suggest you go to Roofer's Coffee Shop, go to our read list and watch menu and watch the full webinar. But let's talk a little bit about building codes. You say we're now considering snow loads when we build, but we're not including retention in the codes, right?

Mindy Dahlquist: Yeah. So basically we are considering ground snow loads and roof loads, so it does have to be considered obviously to have that building structure there. If you have concerns, definitely involve a structural engineer, but the buildings that we're building now are much, much stronger than what we were building in the 1970s. We've moved a lot from just stick framing to engineered trusses, and that is very, very crucial just for the strength of the building. It doesn't have to be involved, but the stick framing that we're doing now, if you've ever seen a garage that was built 35 years ago, you can see a garage that's built now, there's a lot more consideration and a lot more information out there in the industry for not just roofers, but for contractors in general, your GCs to be able to know exactly what needs to be put into this building to make it structurally sound.

So there's a lot more safety factors that we're taking into consideration and all of those things to where the structure is perfectly sound with the snow retention involved as long as it's built for that location. Now, if you're building a building that you think is going to be in Ohio and you put it in Lake Tahoe, California, you go from a 26 pound snow load to a 400 pound snow load, you're going to have problems. So when you're looking at commercialized properties like gas stations, Walmarts, those types of things, definitely make sure that the architect or whoever has designed these properties has those snow loads in their design and that that is a consideration because sometimes when you're talking something that's popping up over and over and over again, they're building the same structure and just blanketing it across the country and we have so many different conditions across the country that there needs to be some other considerations taken.

Karen Edwards: That's a really good point. When you look at a chain location like that that has 400 facilities, you can't build it the same because like you said, east coast is different than the west coast. So what should a contractor do? Because roofing contractors are typically the ones that install snow guards, is that correct?

Mindy Dahlquist: Yes.

Karen Edwards: Okay.

Mindy Dahlquist: So roofing contractors, gutter contractors, things like that are usually the ones that are going to be installing the snow retention. Every now and then you'll have solar contractors, those types of things, but I would say roofers make up 95% of the installers of snow retention.

Karen Edwards: So as a roofing contractor who has got the job to install the roof and says there should probably be some snow retention on here but I don't see it in any of the plans, how do they have that conversation?

Mindy Dahlquist: Definitely contacting the architect is going to be their first move and saying, hey, I noticed that you don't have snow retention involved here. And then sometimes it's an education process. If the architect themselves have never heard of it, or just like the blanket of commercial properties, how I mentioned the pop-ups left and right of similar buildings. You also have architects who are designing in areas that they have never lived in, have never went to, those types of things. You might have an architect in San Francisco designing a property for New York City or vice versa. So it's very important for the contractor to say, listen, this is the area that I live in. I know what these conditions look like. If we don't do something about it, we're going to have problems with X, Y and Z.

Whether it's your deck enclosures or tearing off a penetration that's on the roof like a chimney or something like that, it's very important for them to have that conversation.
And if they're not feeling like they're getting that support back, that's when you involve a manufacturer and say, hey Mindy, I've got some issues going on, this architect's not quite hearing me out. Then I can always either stop in for a visit, give them a phone call, send some training information. Architects really, really like to learn on their own and so it's helpful if you can involve somebody that's able to speak their language and send that information directly to them so they're able to do that on their own and not be taught by a roofer. So I'm more than happy to help in those situations, but it definitely comes up where it's not included or it will be included as just like a little zigzag line across the eave of the roof on the drawings. And that really doesn't include any of the engineering or the information that the roofer would need to install.

Karen Edwards: And that's a service that you guys obviously provide, right?

Mindy Dahlquist: Yeah, for free. We do all of that in-house for free, so that's nice that you know as turning to a manufacturer you have all the information that you could possibly need there.

Karen Edwards: Okay. So let's talk about the educational opportunities that you have for contractors to learn and teach themselves so that they can have those conversations.

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely. Well, I have a lot going on coming up here, Karen. Actually next week, this coming week I'll be at Montana for their trade show for the Roofing association and then next week I kick off all of my training. So I will start at the Colorado Roofing Association Trade Show. They do little 30 minute quick in and out trainings, and so I'm going to be doing one of those. We'll have raffle prizes and stuff available for that. It'll be very fun. It's going to be very high energy, very much question and answer kind of situation because 30 minutes just really doesn't allot for that much time to sit down and do hands-on training. But then when it comes to hands-on training and more serious things, we are doing more of the live seminars that we provided last year, which we had amazing feedback on.

I had roofers that were just like, this shows how much you care about the industry because many other manufacturers are not going to offer this kind of training for free and just bring us in and feed us and take care of us. And we did all kinds of raffle prizes that were crazy. I wanted to win them. But we will be doing two more of those live seminars. One will be in Grand Junction, Colorado, the other one will be in Whistler and I know all of those dates and things. I'll mention them, but they're provided through Roofer's Coffee Shop as well. February 4th will be our Grand Junction time, and then April 21st we will be in Whistler. And then another exciting event, because I apparently just can't stop planning things, March 6th, we are doing a roofing road show, so we're joining together with Western States Roofing Contractors Association and Utah Roofing Contractors Association and TRA Snow and Sun.

So we are hosting an in-house, a live tour through our location, which we've done on very small levels, but nothing to this level before and just really opening our doors to not only the community, but surrounding communities as well. It's going to be a different kind of training. It's going to be more focused on owners and operators of the roofing contractors so that they are able to come in and get some legal advice from a lovely attorney that is partnered with Western States, and then also some advice on financial situations and how to move forward and how to grow their companies productively. We'll do a crash course on snow retention just so we can keep it relevant to our business and to what they're walking around and seeing. So if they're not familiar with snow retention, they'll know, oh, this is what they're actually making here, those types of things.

But it's a very quick day. I think we finish by noon, have lunch and everything provided for you and a lot of raffle prizes and things on the way out. But I am excited to see where all of this goes. I think it's a great opportunity for everyone to come out, get some additional education and all of these events will be completely free. So that's really cool.

Karen Edwards: Wow. So the road show, that is at your manufacturing location. Where is that?

Mindy Dahlquist: That's in American Fork, Utah. So obviously if anyone is local to Utah, they're welcome to come. For our last live seminar, we had people come from as far as Wyoming, Montana, Colorado. So we will more than happily host anyone from out of town, and if you need to go to dinner later that night, you just let us know and we'll take care of that. So it's nice to just be able to spend some time with those contractors and help to educate and help to all work together for the common good really.

Karen Edwards: That's exciting. Yeah, I hope that you have a great turnout. I'm hoping that I could maybe work my way out there. That would be really fun to see and experience.

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely.

Karen Edwards: But we'll see. There's so many things happening this time of year, so it's cool that you guys are doing this and partnering. So you mentioned opportunities at the Colorado show, that's January 25th do you think?

Mindy Dahlquist: 23rd. Yeah, I think so.

Karen Edwards: 23rd. Okay. So that's soon. We're recording this in mid-January, so we'll try to have this turned around and out there for you. And then you guys are going to be exhibiting, I'm sure. Are you with the International Roofing Expo?

Mindy Dahlquist: I actually will not be exhibiting just because it doesn't snow too often in Texas, but I will be down there for national [inaudible 00:14:41] roofing days.

Karen Edwards: Excellent.

Mindy Dahlquist: And as you know, I just try to stay as involved as I can. And then I am pretty involved with Western States Roofing Contractors Association with their board, and then I've been added to the Utah Roofing Contractors Association Board. So between all of it, they keep me pretty busy and you definitely will see my face a lot this year.

Karen Edwards: Wow. Yeah, that sounds like it. You are just going to be earning those frequent flyer miles and hotel stays, I'm sure. Okay. So if somebody is not able to make any of these events, I mentioned that we had a webinar that goes a little more in depth, but where can you point them? Should they just go to your website, try to get a meeting set up with you? What does that look like?

Mindy Dahlquist: I would come directly to me because if there is anything that's local to them, I would be able to point them in that direction. If there's not, I provide one-on-one webinars. I fly all over the place anyways, so I will come to contractors if they have a group that they would like to join up. Oftentimes, we all have friends in the industry, so if there's multiple contractors that want to get together, then I'll rent a hotel conference room and just do a pop-up kind of thing. I do a lot of architectural trainings that I provide webinars for, so I can send just kind of that information out. It doesn't help as much with installation, but it really dives deep into the engineering side of things and so those can be available.

And then we also have... I don't know that we've talked about this before, but we also have these books available that are just flip-open books that you can go through and they're educational. As you flip through them, there are videos and it kind of shows the whys and the hows and the necessary information of snow retention. Those have been super helpful for contractors to just keep in their truck, pull out when they're talking to a homeowner or maybe a property owner and just be like, hey, this is some information that I have. Let's look through this real fast and see if this is something that works for you. That's been a very beneficial tool without wasting a whole lot of time, giving them much more information that's necessary.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that's a great idea. Because adding snow retention adds cost to the job, and so owners and managers don't always... I don't want to pay that much more money for this project, but having that information available to help educate them I think is key.

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely.

Karen Edwards: I do want to ask one last question. We're talking about education and learning, but you mentioned installation. So do you guys offer that as well for contractors as part of these classes?

Mindy Dahlquist: Absolutely. So the installation of our product is pretty simple for the most part, but when it comes to measuring it out and how they need to be installed, those types of things, that's always included in my conversation. And if it's not fully understood at the time, maybe I just don't dive deep enough for that contractor or they're really curious about fasteners for specific products... Because we have a large variety of products. Since there's so many roofing materials out there, I think we have 120 products.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Mindy Dahlquist: So I don't go into detail on how to install every single one because most of them are going in with a fastener. So many of us have used drills, we've used hammers. At some point, some of that becomes common sense, but there are different products that can be a little bit trickier when you're talking about getting under the hem, underneath the seam there of a standing seam panel, those types of things. So I try to focus really on the more complex products and how those are installed and kind of shy away from what we have as a H bracket where you're putting two screws into it and that's it.

So there's definitely installation information provided, and then we also offer that. I mean, I have an outside sales guy that I've seen him personally fly to a job site to go be on the roof all day with an installer because they have questions about a custom product and how they need to get it installed and those types of things. So if we're going into blocking and we're going into different types of products, then we definitely have no problem jumping in and helping out extra. When we're doing a simple job that's from point A to point B, then usually there's not really that many questions or concerns. Usually we can be answered over a quick Zoom call or something like that.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Yeah, or a FaceTime video from the roof. Hey, how's this look? Yeah. Well, TRA Snow and Sun is doing amazing things in educating the industry, in hosting these events and sending Mindy all around the US and probably Canada too.

Mindy Dahlquist: And Canada too. Yeah.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. So I want to thank you for being here today. I want to thank everybody for listening. If you want to get the information on these events, go to rooferscoffeeshop.com. We have them listed under our events section so you can get dates, times, locations and whatnot and TAI Snow and Sun does have a full directory on there that has contact information from Mindy and news and information about what's going on at the company. So please check that out, and we hope to see you on a future episode of Roofing Road Trips. Thanks, Mindy.

Mindy Dahlquist: Thanks, Karen.

Karen Edwards: Bye everyone.

Outro: If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on the next Roofing Road Trip.
 



Recommended For You


Comments

There are currently no comments here.

Leave a Reply

Commenting is only accessible to RCS users.

Have an account? Login to leave a comment!


Sign In
SOPREMA -   Banner Ad - The Right Coatings for the Right Roofs (RLW on-demand) New Design
English
English
Español
Français

Sign Up for Our E-News!

Join over 18,000 other roofers who get the Week in Roofing for a recap of this week's best industry posts!

Sign Up
SprayFoam Convention 2025 - Side bar - SPFA
Exceptional Metals - Sidebar Ad - Master your craft
ServiceCon - Sidebar - Sep
IRE - Sidebar - IRE 2025 Spanish _ 11.21.24
Service First Solutions -Haz crecer tu servicio de techado- sidebear
IRE - Sidebar - IRE _ 11.21.24