Carport?

Come share your ideas for sprucing up your property.

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Annie410
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:05 am

I'm thinking about adding a carport to my home. My question is, given I am in central NY and winter will be cold and snowy, will I be giving up any heat by shading 22 feet of the side where the sun beats all day. There are no windows where the carport would be located, and after some thinking about the roof, I went with black, given the northeast cold lasts much longer than the warmth of summer. I know this is a personal choice, I'd just like thoughts/feedback from others.
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Greg
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I doubt that you really get much heat through the wall in the winter. where you are, You will tend to get Lake effect snow that will turn the roof white anyway. Remember to keep the roofs clear of snow or you may run into bigger problems than a cold wall. You should expect around 200 inches of snow if we have a normal winter. :shock:

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
Annie410
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:05 am

200 inches of snow? I guess that means I need to keep the roof rake close at hand. I knew it would be worse here, but that's almost more than I bargained for! Thank you, Greg!
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Greg
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Syracuse has 116" average. Where you are is on the South western edge of the snow belt and it's anyone's guess how much you will get. Here is an article I found about the Snow belt, You will have to live here to understand it. It can be clear and sunny on one side of town, and the other side is snowed in. I don't mean to scare you, but I do want you to understand what you COULD be up against.

Greg

Deb and Edward Monteith said goodbye to summer Sept. 29, the day they cranked up their snowmobiles to make sure they still run.
The next day, they put the cover on the swimming pool.
"We're ready for snow,'' said Deb Monteith, secretary of the Redfield Snowmobile Club. "It's in our blood, I guess.''
The Monteiths live in the right place. Redfield is one of the snowiest locales in the state, maybe the snowiest.
While the National Weather Service and the National Climatic Data Center don't take snow measurements in Redfield, they say the snowiest place they measure -- the Lewis County hamlet of Hooker -- isn't far from there.
Hooker -- about 20 miles from Redfield on the rural, forested Tug Hill Plateau -- got 279 inches of snow during the 1995-96 season, according to weather authorities.
But Redfield folks say they got way more than that.
Carol Yerdon, Redfield weather watcher for The Syracuse Newspapers and WIXT-TV (Channel 9), swears she measured 356 inches of snow -- almost 30 feet -- in the 1995-96 winter. That's 77 inches -- more than 6 feet -- more than Hooker.
Syracuse -- ranked the snowiest metropolitan area in the nation -- got a relatively measly 170 inches, or 14 feet, that winter.
State climatologist Keith Eggleston of Cornell University said 30 feet in Redfield sounds high to him. He questioned Yerdon's measurements. But, as Yerdon noted, Eggleston doesn't live there.
Redfield Highway Superintendent Francis Adams thinks Yerdon erred on the low side.
"I don't think she counted the snow we got on Mother's Day,'' he said. She did, though. Five inches on May 12.
Adams said it took 4,500 tons of sand -- mixed with 1-percent salt -- to clear 27 miles of town roads and 28 miles of county roads in and around Redfield on the 129 days it snowed last winter.
He said the winter of 1994-95, when Yerdon measured 204 inches of snow, was nothing compared to last year.
Deb Monteith said last winter was a good one for snowmobilers, who flocked to Redfield. The Redfield Snowmobile Club boasts 333 members from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey, she said. A hundred are from Redfield, population 560.
"You've got to do something here in the winter or you go nuts,'' she said.
Eggleston said the Tug Hill Plateau does receives inordinate amounts of snow.
The three places that hold state records for the most snow in one winter, the most snow in one month and the most snow in one day are all on the plateau, and all within 20 miles of Redfield.
For the record, they are:

Hooker, with 466.9 inches the winter of 1976-77;
Bennett Bridges, south of Orwell, with 192 inches in January 1978, and
Barnes Corners in the Jefferson County town of Adams, with 54 inches on Jan. 9, 1976. Update: After this story was published, a one-day record was set in Montague, also on the Tug Hill. From 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, 1997, to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, 1997, Bill Ottoshavett, a snow spotter for the National Weather Service, measured a total of 77 inches. Officials at the weather service in Buffalo certified Ottoshavett's measurements, and said Montague had also broken the New York record for total snowfall in a single storm. From Friday night, Jan. 10, through early Tuesday, Jan. 14. 1997, Ottoshavett measured a total of 95 inches. That trounces the old record for a single storm, which was set Jan. 18 to 22, 1940, in Watertown, with 69 inches.
Eggleston said the Tug Hill Plateau gets so much snow thanks to Lake Ontario's lake-effect snow machine and the plateau's elevation, which is 2,100 feet at its highest point, Gomer Hill near Snow Ridge ski area in Turin.
"Lake Ontario is so big that it doesn't freeze over,'' Eggleston explained. "In Buffalo, they get lake-effect from Lake Erie, but it freezes over around January, so their lake-effect stops. But Lake Ontario gives a constant supply of moisture all winter.
"When the wind is blowing west to east, there's plenty of time for it to pick up moisture over the lake, and when it hits that rapid rise in elevation over the Tug Hill, that's when it freezes and falls to the ground,'' he said.
Dave Zembec, an official with the Tug Hill Commission, said the 2,000-square-mile Tug Hill Plateau is known as "the snowiest place east of the Rockies.''
He guessed Redfield got 400 inches last year. "It's amazing how much they get. People can't fathom it,'' he said. "The snowbanks are up to the telephone wires.''
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
Annie410
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:05 am

I watched the weather here most of last winter. I'm definitely used to snow. After the Valentine's day blizzard in 2007, when they finally managed to get the streets clear, snowbanks were piled to the roof of my front porch. The town had to put snow in dump trucks and haul it out of town because there was nowhere left to put it in town. The person plowing my driveway had to bring a bobcat in and move snow to the other side of my home. I did notice where my daughter lives near Lee had more warnings for lake effect and I was there a couple times when it came out of nowhere, it seemed.

Any suggestions for a good roof rake? I found a few that have rollers to protect the shingles. I was leaning toward the Snow Joe. My daughter's partner will be coming over to help keep the roof clear, but if something happens they are snowed in, I need to be able to tackle it on my own.

Let the adventure begin!

Thanks Greg!
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Greg
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Since they're near Lee, if they are snowed in you will most likely be also. I just use a basic roof rake with snap together handles and keep up with it. If we do get a heavy snow I just use a shovel and spend the day doing sections at a time.

Lake effect snow can come out of nowhere, that is what makes the area one of the only places in the world that it happens. After you live here for a year or two you get used to it. Blame Lake Ontario It sets up it's own Eco system around it.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
Annie410
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:05 am

I'll be getting my roof rake soon, I don't want to be caught without one, but there is no way I am getting on the roof, so I need to find someone in the event they are snowed in and I need the roof cleared.

As long as there isn't a snowstorm when I get the call my daughter is in labor..the rest of the winter, I don't care. Hopefully Lake Ontario will cooperate with the baby's arrival..ha.
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Greg
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You SHOULD be far enough West that you won't catch the brunt of Lake Effect. Be thankful you don't live along I 81 between Syracuse & Watertown.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
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Aiden4584
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2019 5:42 am

I lived in a similar area. My morning after breakfast began almost always snow removal. In the beginning, it upset me very much, but then I looked at it from the other side. This is the morning exercises! And my mood also increased when I warm up so well in the morning :)
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