Every work­site in Fin­land needs to pre­pare for win­ter, snow loads and snow removal. The cus­tomer is always respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing snow, but they can do so with help: Suo­mi Teline clears snow effec­tive­ly and safe­ly wher­ev­er we work.

Many things have to be pre­dict­ed in the con­struc­tion busi­ness, and the same goes for snow removal. The weath­er may change quick­ly even in the Uusi­maa region. If your work­site uses weath­er protection, you should pre­pare for win­ter, as snowy roofs need to be cleared as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

“We are usu­al­ly able to pro­duce cost sav­ings for every­one by care­ful­ly plan­ning the prepa­ra­tion and posi­tions of weath­er protection struc­tures – and keep­ing the site and equip­ment in work­ing order, of course,” says Jere Siep­po, sales direc­tor at Suo­mi Teline.

Snow is sur­pris­ing­ly heavy. In addi­tion to oth­er load fac­tors, snow loads must be con­sid­ered in load cal­cu­la­tions and when build­ing weath­er protection and its under­ly­ing scaffolding. If one is unpre­pared for the con­di­tions in Fin­land, they may pay a high price if weath­er protection and scaffolding have to be rein­forced lat­er. The avail­abil­i­ty of work­ers and mate­ri­als, the sit­u­a­tion at the work­site, and the struc­tures’ capac­i­ty for mod­i­fi­ca­tion may pre­vent the nec­es­sary changes from being made quick­ly.

The SFS-EN 16508 stan­dard sets the require­ments for weath­er protection, and snow loads are based on the standard’s snow load class­es. The typ­i­cal win­ter snow load is 25 kg/m2. The base assump­tion is that snow can be cleared off the weath­er protection as need­ed.

In late win­ter, the typ­i­cal den­si­ty of snow is 200 to 300 kg/m3, but winds may tem­porar­i­ly push this val­ue high­er. This means that just 10 cen­time­tres of fresh snow is approach­ing the rat­ed load. Although weath­er protection can be designed with­out a snow load, Finland’s con­di­tions are such that you should absolute­ly be pre­pared for an unpre­dictable win­ter and snow sit­u­a­tions.

Weath­er is key in snow man­age­ment

Suo­mi Teline keeps a close eye on wind, rain and snow­fall fore­casts and pre­pares accord­ing­ly by adjust­ing its num­ber of on-call per­son­nel, for exam­ple. This guar­an­tees a quick response to snow­fall. Cus­tomers should also mon­i­tor the weath­er at their work­site: there may be great dif­fer­ences in snow­fall even with­in Uusi­maa.

If snow removal is neglect­ed, the changes in weath­er become the biggest prob­lem. When wet snow freezes, you get ice. Pro­tec­tive cov­ers will sag due to the increased weight, and fresh ice is not as sim­ple to remove as fresh snow. This makes it essen­tial to quick­ly respond to snow­fall – snow may change its state with­in a day in win­ter.

“All the cus­tomer needs to do is con­tact Suo­mi Teline and review the work­site’s snow sit­u­a­tion. We offer quick and safe snow removal ser­vice for our own sites,” says Siep­po.

Safe­ty comes first when remov­ing snow

Suo­mi Teline focus­es on and invests heav­i­ly in safe­ty. All scaffolding crews wear har­ness­es and use dou­ble hooks, and equip­ment is pro­tect­ed against falls from the scaffolding. This also applies to snow removal, which is always han­dled as the sit­u­a­tion requires.

There are many things to note in urban snow removal: Where will the snow go? Is it safe to drop the snow down onto the street below? Do we need to close off the street? Suo­mi Teline is an expert who can han­dle all these issues and more.
Even though Suo­mi Teline uses the high­ly safe ALFIX Vario weath­er protection sys­tem for roof access, only pro­fes­sion­als should be allowed to walk on roofs. This is why you should leave snow removal to scaffolding crews: they have the nec­es­sary knowl­edge, skills and expe­ri­ence to safe­ly oper­ate on scaffolding and weath­er protection.

Always remem­ber the fol­low­ing when win­ter approach­es:

1. Pre­pare your site and its weath­er protection for win­ter at the plan­ning stage.
2. Mon­i­tor the weath­er at your work­site. Report snow­fall to Suo­mi Teline.
3. For prop­er snow removal, leave it to Suo­mi Teline scaffolding crews.

Suo­mi Teline offers a snow removal ser­vice for its sites under a sep­a­rate con­tract. Con­tact us and make sure your weath­er protection is safe from snow!