snow

[dorothyinak]

Snow is days away here....it's cold enough, but luckily it's been dry for the last few days.

We have our subfloor up and painted with some sort of deck paint, and first floor walls are going up this weekend (thank you, permanent fund dividend!).

So my question is, how can I eliminate/minimize damage from snow and wetness?  Tarps sound like they can create more problems than they solve...

Is it really so bad if we have to shovel off the house everyday?

[Daddymem]

Wow, no snow yet?  The year I went up we got snow the first week of September, wonder if that was a fluke or the norm for Fairbanks...  Do you have that super dry snow like Fairbanks?  Would it be easy to sweep that stuff off before it condenses and ices?
Just thinking outside of the box...what if you use roll roofing like in this Backwoods home article and either put your final floor over that or keep it if you like it?  http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lee92.html

[saxfordalaska]

Snow is much better than rain.  Try to shovel/sweep deck as soon after snow as possible to avoid frost buildup.  I'm working on my addition in Anderson, and am still putting floor joists in!  I use a weed burner on stubborn acumulations of ice, but you've got to be real careful it you don't want your paint to blister.  Sometimes I use visqueen and wood scraps where my plates are going to go.  Choose your chore; life in Alaska!

[marty]

Like saxfordalaska said "snow is better than rain".  I plan to build my cabin during the winter.  At least with snow, you can get most of it off.  Rain is a lot harder to take care of.  

As long as it is built right, it'll dry out.  Don't trap the moisture in with your construction method.  

[Daddymem]

"Snow is much better than rain."
Wish that were true here.  Sometimes we get a really wet snow that is definitely not better than rain.

[dorothyinak]

I'm in Homer, and right now we're having freezing in the morning, thaw during the day.  If it snowed over night, sweeping might be easiest in the AM, before it turned slushy, or before it melted and re-froze.  Once we get our coal/wood stove in, I think drying out any residual moisture will be pretty fast..

"Choose your chore; life in Alaska!"

No Kidding!!!  

[Jimmy C.]

Snow? What's that?

It is all the way down 86 degrees here in Texas...

Send blankets...

We are freezing!

[Amanda_931]

Daddymem, thanks for posting that painted roll roofing link.  I'd been thinking about using it for a project.

I think the average first (killing?) frost is around the middle of October around here.  We're not going to do that this year.

But I had fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving a year or two when I lived in Nashville.

and down in the minus degrees F. the first week in December a time or two too.

[Daddymem]

Great!  Send pictures of before, during and after.  I was thinking this stuff would make some nice area rugs for wet places, wouldn't it?  I think a nice cloth edge, but would it want to always roll up?