How Much Snow Is To Much On My Roof

This has the benefit of providing the owner with more usable space at less than the cost of reinforcing the existing roof to carry the drifted snow.

How much snow is to much on my roof.

As everyone knows cold fluffy snow is very light while wet snow can be extremely heavy. The easiest is to add a low section of roof the width of the drift adjacent to the existing building and design this low roof to carry the weight of the drifted snow see figure 2. So how much snow does this equal. Most roof designs can handle snow loads of 20 40 lbs per square foot.

But as the chart below shows packed snow with ice can easily overload a roof once it reaches about 12 off depth. Please remember that the numbers given by this calculator are just an approximation and are by no means 100 accurate. Most roofs are built to support heavy loads of snow without having any problems all winter long. According to the national research council of canada a roof should be able to withstand pressure of at least 21 pounds per square foot psf this number can fluctuate based on regional building regulations but any well built roof should be able to sustain this much weight before it gets too stressed.

Ten inches of fresh snow equates to about five pounds per square foot which means your roof likely can support four feet of fresh snow. How to protect your roof watch for ice build up on the edge and valleys of your roof. Asking yourself how much snow can my roof hold here is a list of indicators that may mean you need to move to a safer place. Our snow load calculator helps you to make the decision when to remove the snow from your roof by comparing the weight of snow with the load carrying capacity of the roof.

We have some good news for you. How much snow a roof can hold depends on the type of snow roofline and material among other considerations. For the twin cities metro area the roof snow load equals 35 pounds per square foot or 7 x 50. How much snow can my roof hold.

These questions aren t quite so easy to answer because there are several variables. Two feet or more of old. Packed snow however weighs more. For any rafter the portion of the roof deck that transfers this load is the tributary area.

So you most likely will never have to worry about removing snow from your roof.