For all the sunshine days that Calgary gets (an average of 300 or more every year!), the city gets its fair share of snow to go with it. As anyone who has lived in the city during the winter months, the sheer volume of snow can make it difficult to go about your day to day business when you’ve got to spend time and effort shovelling your driveway and keeping the ice and snow off your car. This is when you need to upgrade to a carport to save you from the worst of the Calgary winters.
The Two Types of Carport
If you’ve never considered a carport before, you’ve not been thinking seriously about how to protect you and your vehicle from the snow and ice. Carports come in two main categories. The first carport type attaches to your home and will often sit next to an external door so you stay covered all the time after leaving your house. Think about it as an open sided garage where you don’t need to worry about digging foundations or expensive garage doors. The other option is a free standing carport, and this can be constructed anywhere on your property. This works better if you have to park your car out front or if your external door isn’t next to where you park the car.
How A Carport Protects You In Winter
A carport has a solid roof, and is typically made from a simple post and beam structure meaning that your carport will be able to withstand a whole winter’s worth of snow and ice, leaving your car clean and dry. A carport can also help break up the wind flow around your house which means that your vehicle is much less likely to freeze up, and should start up quicker each morning. Finally, you can install simple plastic sheets or screens to the sides of your carport to give your vehicle some extra protection from the snow as well as giving you a place to store your outside winter tools like shovels and salt for your walkways.
How A Carport Saves You Time In Winter
It’s clear to see that a carport is a quick and easy way to protect your vehicle during the winter months, but it can also save you time by drastically reducing the amount of shovelling that you have to do. It’s no secret that having to shovel the snow and ice off your car, and from the area immediately around it, is one of the worst winter chores that you face as a Calgary resident. A carport keeps this area clear of snow and saves you from having to work out how to help your car get over the rest of the icy driveway as you’ll already have built some momentum. A well designed carport can also provide further protection for your driveway so there’s less shovelling to do to keep you and your family on the road all season long.
