The idea, I think is to keep the gutters from filling with ice. If raked a warm day will clear the gutters and allow normal flow to prevent backup. When my gutters in front of the garage fill with ice they drip on the driveway and make a mess that I then have to salt and that is bad for the blacktop. Anyway that is why I bought it. I could be wrong. Next step if this doesn't work are gutter covers. Around 700 dollars. Rake 39.99. .??

I remember looking at this house and saying to the realtor that it didn't have gutters - and she said no one does (they won't stay up here in VT). So, no one has them.

From what I can see about raking is to watch out that you don't rake halfway up the roof (you'll just get the dams up higher on the roof than if you hadn't raked). But take that in stride, too......I've never raked a roof!

If you have a slate roof and snow piles up you will have ice dams. Any heat leaking out that warms the snow underneath will cause it to melt and drip inside. Then freeze, then drip, then freeze.

Trust me on this, get the snow off before it can do the melt/freeze thing.

that suggest you don't need to (at least not often)
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2013/02/13/why-you-should-never-rake-pitched-roof/r64kiHHXSU9MZvi2jXMprI/story.html

That's where I got the 'exceptional' event from. I do know that a few years ago everyone here in the NE was raking or suffering dire consequences. So, I understand your warning.

Heat escaping from the heated space of the house melts snow drips down to the unheated eaves and refreezes. If enough ice builds, then you eventually have no slope to the roof at the eaves and the melted water pools up behind the ice dam. That water will find a way through the roofing and into the house.

If your house creates ice dams, adding insulation/ventilation to prevent the ice dams is the best route. Roof raking should be to prevent a heavy snow load from collapsing the roof.

Your uninsulated garage is actually at less risk for ice dams, as there isn't much heat to melt snow.

The garage is sort of a box.....it was probably built after the house --at some point. And there's not much to it. (Though I'm glad to have it, I'd hate to have to scrape the car every morning)

TY - it's good to know the garage is less of a worry.

about that. I would imagine that might be a good way to get to know yer neighbors. Wouldn't you think after having lived there for years and many winters ,they would know about yer questions ?

I have tried to meet one or two, but we don't live on that kind of a block. (It's a main street, not really a neighborhood. Where we used to live, I knew everyone - we had neighborhood parties once a month and once a month potlucks). This is really not like that.

OTOH, I've gotten to know some folks in the area, through volunteering and the like. I should start asking around

Your concern is something people that have live in the area know about. Now than if somebody tells you they have been living there for years and never shoveled the roof or thought about it ,that says something. Somebody else might recall a really bad winter one year ,so on.
Somebody might point out areas or potential weak spots ,areas of the roof you might look at and perhaps make corrections. I grew up in western NY Buffalo where it snows and it snows and snows some more,even blizzards. I never saw anybody up on a pitched roof with a shovel. Now, you want to talk about a flat roof, that's a different story !On a side note ,I really don't like snow ! We don't get much of that here, and that's the way we like it !

insufficient pitch. When we lived in PA, we had a rather flat porch roof which could cause leaks if we didn't get the snow off if there was a great deal of snow. I well remember hubs insisting on climbing on the roof with a broken foot to clean it off. I have lived in many snow areas and some not so snowy, but I have never had an issue with a roof with a good pitch.

I don't know how much snow we got - maybe 8 inches total? Perhaps a bit more. But the roof to the house cleared (that's slate). The garage (not slate) hasn't budged one bit.

We have a wood stove that has a pipe that shares a wall with the house and the garage - but I don't have wood right now (he's delivering next week. So, when that is heated a bit? perhaps it will slide off.

I'm not worried at this point (not enough snow up there to worry about) - but we'll get more soon --and it's so cold that it doesn't melt quickly (4 degrees right now!).

I don't trust that garage......

The pitch on the garage is fine, but I'd sure feel better if something slid down.

is the weight of the snow on a roof with an improper pitch for the area that causes trouble...this is what our contractor told us...and our snow does not melt on the roof...here in our Ohio house, and we have not have issues. Good luck.

has seen it slide down. I've been told by one roofing guy that slate roofs clear snow very well (so it doesn't strike me as an insulation problem, per se). I've also been watching carefully - and other garages and out buildings have snow on them.

I might just buy the rake as a 'just in case thing.' Since I don't know enough yet, and by the time a problem develops (or at least when one did a few years ago) there was a 'run' on roof rakes - and everyone sold out.

I wish I knew more about construction, but I don't

Yes, I agree with you retwitch.