The new Genesee Water Treatment Facility in Golden, Colo., is going to be hit with an average of 84 inches of snow annually. To keep employees and the general public safe from falling snow, a snow retention system from S-5! was installed on the metal roofing.

The “Snow Retention Calculator” on the S-5! website helped determine DualGard to be the best system for this project.

“We plugged in the information, the roof surface, slope and dimensions and the allowable load and it spit out what we needed,” says Bret Gellrein, the project manager for RN Civil Construction of Centennial, Colo. “It made the whole process easier. We knew we were going to need something a little beefier in this area, the engineers were pleased with the numbers and it looks great. Everyone is pleased with the result.”

Lori Hanson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, of Eidos Architects in Greenwood Village Colo., says the Snow Retention Calculator is one of the first steps of the design process, including when designing the Genesee Water Treatment Facility.

“When we know we’ll be using snow retention, we start with the calculator,” she says. “It helps us during the bidding process, providing the most accurate information. It lets us know what we’ll need for the project and what our costs will be.”

Jim “J.D.” Davis, project manager for MB Sheet Metal of Commerce City, Colo., installed the standing seam metal roofing as well as the new DualGard snow retention system from S-5!. The roof was 11,500-square-feet of 16-inch double lock 1-1/2-inch standing seam in medium bronze. Panels were formed on site with coil from Sheffield Metals. MB Sheet Metal also installed the flush metal soffit panels.

“This was our first time working with DualGard,” Davis says. “We’ve installed a lot of ColorGard, but this was the first time with DualGard. We found great directions on the S-5! website, so once we got started, it went just fine.”

Four rows of DualGard were installed, 600 linear feet in all, easily meeting snow load requirements for the Denver suburb. Most of the roof is a relatively low-slope 3:12 pitch, while a couple segments are 6:12.

During the first two months after the DualGard was installed, Genesee was hit with three heavy spring snowfalls. The snow retention system is doing its job.