DIY roof snow shovel
Inspired by the ingenious roof shovel video someone had sent us, we decided to hack a makeshift one out of some PVC pipes/joints and plastic sheeting we had laying around, and clear the roof before the impending ice/rain storm.
The basic idea was to make a rectangle out of some 1″ PVC tubing, four 90º elbows, and a T-joint. The pole is attached to the T-joint so it may be extended to reach the roof. Plastic sheeting was taped to the frame to form a chute so the snow will slide once loosened.
In general, the contraption worked, but there definitely was a lot of room for refinements! The plastic chute worked great, but it did direct the snow right on top of us. We used packing tape to attach the plastic sheeting, but the cold made the adhesion give way after about 10 minutes. Without the plastic chute, the rake loosened the snow, but it did not slide off the roof.
Maneuvering a 12′ pole took a bit of care. Here are a couple of videos of the snow shovel in action…
Some possible refinements:
– Staple the plastic sheeting onto itself instead of using tape
– Put the pole on the bottom of the frame instead of the top
Still, the “shovel” worked well enough for our purposes and it definitely beats paying $150 for a roof shovel just to clear that little patch! BTW, since we didn’t glue the pieces together, everything came apart for “storage.” Priceless!!!
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