Solar in Buffalo has to share the roof with lake-effect snow. Modules on a pitched house can sit covered for long stretches. The structure is already asked to carry drifts before anyone adds a rack. Ice at the eaves does not politely stop at the first rail. Lake cloud changes how much useful sun a slope actually sees. If the covering is old, the roof work comes before any array. That order is the whole conversation.
Say which way the roof faces and what shades it. Trees, a neighbor's gable, and the low winter sun matter more here than a sketch of a clear summer afternoon. A steep slope sheds snow differently from a low porch roof that holds a drift. Attachments and flashing have to survive ice, not just a calm rain. An array layout that blocks the eave or dumps sliding snow onto a walk is a bad layout. Mention valleys and lower roofs.
The electrical service in an older house is part of the site. Say whether the panel is crowded, in the basement, or something you have not really looked at. Do not guess. Ask who pulls the permit and who files the interconnection. Ask how the rack is flashed to the covering you have, and what happens to the modules when that covering is replaced. Ask who owns the equipment once it is up and who is called when an inverter goes quiet.
Have the age and type of the roof in plain words, the slopes you can see from the ground, and whether ice dams are already a habit of this house. Snow cover is not a surprise to be handled later. It is the climate. A picture from above has not stood in the attic or looked at the eave. If you want the call to be useful, describe the winter roof, not a bare roof in a mild week.
Leave every money question out. Buffalo solar is structure, snow, ice, shade, and the wire. It is not a harbor membrane with a water tower beside it. Call the number on this page.