Engineering the way to the top

By Emma Peterson. 

How this family owned company’s dedication to finding the correct solution for each project has led to their success in the snow retention sector. 

In Season 6, Episode 55 of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Ben and Terry Anderson, two-thirds of the father and sons trio that runs TRA Snow and Sun. The company has gone on a three-decade long journey to get to the top of the snow retention sector and their dedication to the engineering behind their products is a huge part of how they have gotten there.  

This dedication to engineering is why Terry started TRA in the beginning. He shared, “When I was working as a contractor, I found some problems that really bothered me, especially with snow and ice on tile roofs. I was seeing a lot of breakage in valleys and other areas and penetrations that were getting ripped off.” That began his search for solutions, which was harder than he expected. After asking manufacturer after manufacturer, he realized something: “There was no engineering behind any ‘solution’ they offered. It was just a guess to maybe protect gutters or something else.” This sent him down the path of finding the missing engineering solution and he has worked to keep that spirit alive in the company today. “This is about saving lives. I didn't want to get lost in the middle; I didn't want engineering to be gone,” Terry shared.  

This is something that he sees happen at other places where distributors might just sell the same plastic snow guards to the roofer without looking at the details of the individual scenario and without engineering. He shared, “If that roofer then puts five or six [snow guards] up there over a doorway without engineering properly, it can actually make it worse because it holds some snow and then it fails so you have more snow coming down.” Keeping this focus on engineering not only keeps TRA’s customers safer, but it also helps them stand out amongst competitors. Ben explained, “We're developing solutions for individual customers. We're trying to make processes easier, and we're trying to send people out to do trainings and meeting with contractors and giving them continued education credits and so forth.” Doing all of this helps contractors understand the importance of snow retention and how to find the best system for every project they encounter, whether that’s one of TRA’s standard products or a specialized solution. 

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode for more about finding the right snow retention system for your project!