My family owns a hangar at Birchwood (Alaska) that has a poor design for shedding snow, and I'm wondering if there are any feasible options for modifying the design to add on an addition that would direct snow/ice elsewhere. I'll try to post a picture later, but the short version is that half of the snow falls off the front right in front of the door. While the obvious answer is to regularly shovel/plow the ever-building berm, the reality is that sometimes that doesn't happen. Right now I've got a 2' solid pile of ice in front of the hangar door, and that's ruining any hope I have of ski flying this spring.

Has anyone modified their hangar to redirect the snow? Any roofers/sheet metal workers in the crowd that can speak to the logistics of doing such a project? It kind of baffles me that so many hangars around the airport have this same poor design, but maybe there's a fix that would be easy enough. For what it's worth, this is an end unit, so directing the snow out to the side would not cause a problem for other hangar owners.

Without seeing pictures it is hard to say what can be done with the roof. I did change the pitch on my house last summer and it helped out by redirecting the ice away from the front door. One thing you might consider is pouring a heated slab in front of the door to melt the snow and ice that does accumulate. That and plowing would probably do the trick.

Interesting idea.

I'll try to get a picture posted this weekend.

Ask around local for a good carpenter, he doesn't need to be a pilot, or an engineer..... he'll be better able to give you some practical (a heated slab re do would be quite expensive, and then more expense would continue in operation, better to solve the problem at it's source) options then a bunch of non builder pilots! You may also have a good truss outfit around there, they usually can cut a guy loose to eyeball a project and give you an idea what they can do to help. Better yet, get the truss guy and the carpenter there at the same time, problem solved.

Post a picture; I like dealing with problems like that

Just to clarify in my mind, this is a nested T-hangar correct? If not, so that there was not a hangar door on the back side of yours, the easy fix would be to convert the roof line to a mono-pitch (shed roof) and let the snow slide off the back. We have the same problem with the hangars I rent from the airport here in northern Michigan, just not so bad.

Tim

Or put snow stoppers on the roof to stop it sliding.

I have the same problem (my hanger is next to Airframes and faces North). The big issue for the rest of the members is this time of year we get some melt off the roof but it will refreeze as soon as it hits the ground. I fly year round so here are my tricks so far. Letting some soft snow build up in Nov-Jan time frame is not so bad. In the Jan warm week the water will freeze on top of the snow and be easy to break free and move. This time of year is is just an issue of spending 1/2 hour or so every week with a spud bar breaking up the ice ridge. I clear snow/ice back 6-8 inches from door so metal won't get dented when I open and only worry about lowering the ice ridge in middle third of door so plane makes it in and out easy. My neighbor has but a electric blanket under tarp to help melt the ridge in the past. This year he went to a smaller electric jack hammer and spent a few days going down to tar. I have seen some guys with a long handle snow rake standing in the back of their truck trying to clear roof. That would help some I would think. I would not do anything to hold the snow up!! Just looking for problems with ice dams and snow load issues. Go look at blue hangers on North end they put heated slabs on the North side of the hangers I have not stopped by to see how they are working. Still lots of good flying this spring so go get a electric jack hammer and a big jug of suck it up this weekend (don't use pointed shaft you will tear up the tar ) If you stay after it it is not that hard.
I have one of the weed burners that I might try, the other thing I looked at is the heated mats for sidewalks. They are not cheep but would do the job.
DENNY

daedaluscan wrote:Or put snow stoppers on the roof to stop it sliding.

That is the answer, the snow stays up there, doesn't slide off the roof.

Steve

My Sis lives in Durango, and they seem to get a lot of snow down there. Many have metal roofs on their homes, and I've seen that many of those have what looks to be an aluminum angle sitting cattywampus on the roof, so that when the snow slides, it redirects it to one side or the other, so that it doesn't slide off onto the porch or doorway. Whether that's practical to keep a whole hangar door clear is unpredictable, but in reality, all you really need is to protect about 12' centered on the door, a little more than the width of your landing gear. A couple of angles 8' long and set in a opposite angles to each other, with the peak of the angles about 5' back from the roof edge and the ends at the roof edge, would keep the bulk of the snow away. The only amount that would slide from the roof directly onto that 12' section of the ramp would be from the triangular section of the roof down from the angles.

Cary

I recently bought this torch from Harbor Freight to annihilate weeds. Works great and fulfills the need of every red-blooded male to have a flame thrower. Mentions melting ice on the package but here in SoCal we have none to try it out. Just have it pointed away from the building when in use. Catches things on fire easily...

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-to ... 91037.html

Blue skies,

Tom

I feel your pain. When I lived in Valdez known for the heaviest snowfall in Alaska, I hadn't shoveled so much snow since living at Donner Lake in the Tahoe region. My solution isn't viable for you, I now live at 4200' in southern New Mexico and even the nearby mountains at 7000'+ haven't received any snow so far this year.

TommyN wrote:I recently bought this torch from Harbor Freight to annihilate weeds. Works great and fulfills the need of every red-blooded male to have a flame thrower. Mentions melting ice on the package but here in SoCal we have none to try it out. Just have it pointed away from the building when in use. Catches things on fire easily...

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-to ... 91037.html

Blue skies,

Tom

Up here in the cold country we call these tiger torches. They work great for melting ice and snow, but it would take a while to do a hangar roof. I've never heard of killing weeds with them, but I'm gonna try now! We use them to thaw water lines, heat branding irons, start brush piles, that kind of stuff.

As far as the snow diverting goes, I would try to divert it to the sides, or just put dams up so it can't fall off.

I've seen build-ups of heavy, wet snow cause roofs to collapse,
so I personally wouldn't want a "dam" that keeps snow from sliding off the roof.
And the longer it sits on the roof, the more likely it is to find a loose screw-hole or somewhere to leak through.

It's a real bugger. My guess is that the only affordable, effective solution is what you eluded to in your post...frequent snow removal. And it takes more than the homeowner grade snow blower when the roof dumps a 3 foot berm of wet snow. Maybe someone is plowing at the airport that you could hire to keep you clear?

Snow jacks on the roof can help with the big dumps, but it will plop off there eventually. In fact, a lot of local building codes require them. You'd just have to determine if the structure will withstand the snow load.

gbflyer wrote:It's a real bugger. My guess is that the only affordable, effective solution is what you eluded to in your post...frequent snow removal. And it takes more than the homeowner grade snow blower when the roof dumps a 3 foot berm of wet snow. Maybe someone is plowing at the airport that you could hire to keep you clear?

The problem with hiring somebody to plow it out is that you have to open the hangar door to get all of the snow away, as it builds up within 1' of the door. Left any length of time (or depending on the temps and the water content of the snow), it freezes the door to the ground. If the roof was extended out just a couple more feet, plowing would be all it takes. The general area in front of the hangar is already plowed, but not the couple feet right in front of the door. We have a plow of our own, but sometimes it's just not possible to get out there every few days. It's not always right after a snowfall that the roof sheds. Maybe I need to install some sort of camera system to gauge when I need to get out there and clear it off? Just thinking out loud here...

I'll still work on getting a picture for those who asked.

Snow is not the problem, that is easy to push away by hand for the next time the plow comes. The issue is the snow melting on the roof due to sunlight and freezing hard once it hits the ground. Plow blade won't touch it. Extending the roof will only move the ice berm out, easier to open door but still will have Ice buildup. Dams to hold snow on the roof just means more melt and more ice. South facing hangers have much less problem than the North facing.
DENNY

Well, spring is on its way and the ice berm will be a memory soon enough, but I'd still like to explore options before next winter if there are any real possibilities to address the continual buildup of ice short of living at the hangar and plowing every day. Working full time and having two little ones just makes that more difficult than it should be.

Anyhow, it took me a while to get some pictures, but this is what I'm dealing with. The last picture shows the pitch of the roof as viewed from an end unit that is turned 90 degrees.

Hi; I recommended the flame thrower in a prior post. Don't have any new ideas but I would try with the torch applying to the bottom of the pile -- trying to create a slot to stick a shovel in and pry up to break the iced-up snow. I understand how difficulty it could be chipping away from the top of the crud. From there, push it out and handle however -- with more torch or run over with vehicle or have plowed.

I bought my current ride, N735PX, from an owner in Cedar City, UT and their hangar had a similar problem. The ice was in the shade and stayed and they could not get traction to get the plane back in the hangar. Was really treacherous in that area.

So try the flamethrower, it's really cathartic anyway as long as the Fire Dept. does not get involved. And you can always use it to burn out weeds if it doesn't work for this purpose. And the propane bottle is standard and can be used for a BBQ.

Blue skies,

Tom

Thinking a bit more...

After melting a 6" or more slot on the outside bottom of the pile, I would try inserting one of these types of roller pry lever bar tools. Maybe adapt the bottom end with a longer steel foot, more to your purpose. You can get a lot of leverage and break up a lot of ice with one of these.

http://tinyurl.com/kamdjwr

Hope that this helps...

Blue skies,

Tom