Engineering and innovating snow retention solutions

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how TRA Snow and Sun is leading the industry towards a safer future. 

TRA Snow and Sun has been a family-owned business since its inception in the 1990s. It started with Terry Anderson, who has worked for more than 45 years in the industry, and his legacy is now continuing with his sons. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth spoke to Terry and his son Ben, about how the business has grown over three decades.  

Terry started the company when he realized that snow retention was not fully engineered in the USA and that peoples’ lives were at risk because of this gap. He has worked hard to keep this at the core of TRA’s operations over the decades, “One thing I've been very pleased about with my boys and what they've been doing is, when I started this, I didn't want to get lost in the middle, to lose track of how important saving lives is. I didn't want engineering to be gone.”  

This is something that Ben and his brother are continuing in their work and cite as something that helps them stand out in the competitive industry. Ben added, “We're definitely not following the trend, of what I feel like the few other competitors and the larger snow retention industry are doing. We are continuing to work very closely with our contractors, work really closely with our wholesalers, trying to get everything put together so we can be a good backing for those people.” An example of the way they do this is how TRA still develops and engineers solutions for individual customers. 

They are also continuing to hit the ground and work  to expand general knowledge of the importance and life-saving capabilities of snow retention systems. Ben shared, “We're trying to make processes easier, and we're trying to send people out, like somebody who's been on the podcast before, Mindy Dalquist. She’s going out and doing trainings and meeting with contractors and giving them continued education credits to try help people see the importance of saving some people's lives, even though it might cost a little bit of money.” Beyond just raising awareness of the existence of snow retention, they are trying to help spread best installation practices as there aren’t currently any standards to follow in the U.S. Terry explained, “We're trying to take an active role in the industry. There are no standards for snow retention in the United States. It's not like roofing products or tile where you have to meet this ASTM standard . There is no ASTM standard for snow retention. But TRA is one of the co-chairs on an ASTM committee trying and trying to create standards for snow retention.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode for more about how TRA Snow and Sun are working to engineer safer snow solutions for the industry.