Snow roof collapses are rare.
Heavy snow on roof.
Metal roofing is another option that is extremely resistant to snow and ice formation with ice sliding right off.
If a snowstorm just dumped about 9 inches of heavy snow on your roof the equation to determine snow load is 9 x 1 25.
It is a sign that the roof is adequately insulated and vented.
Anyone who has lived in an area that gets a lot of snow knows that removing icy pile up from your house s roof is just part of life.
If you have a low sloping roof on your home and especially on a home addition such as a outdoor porch these may need to be monitored during heavy snow storms.
As a result there is no worry of ice and snow building up on the roof and adding unnecessary weight and pressure.
It also provides an additional level of insulation and protects the roofing material from sun exposure which is your roof s worst enemy.
S equals the depth in inches of the snow on your roof and p represents the pounds per square foot your roof is supporting.
If you live in the us our snow load calculator compares the total weight on your roof with the permissible load calculated according to the standards issued by the american society of civil engineers regarding the minimum design loads for buildings and other structures asce7 16.
28 40 heavy wet snow.
The main danger lies in the fact that snow is heavy and the weight of it can cause some serious damage.
1 foot of snow on the roof 22 000 lbs 11 tons 20 psf 2 feet of snow on the roof 45 000 lbs 22 tons 40 psf 3 feet of snow on the roof 67 000 lbs 33 tons 60 psf lets say you ve got an industrial building or outbuilding with a 40 60 footprint and 2 feet of heavy snow.
Others allow a 1 4 inch slope.
Some metal building manufacturers will not warranty a roof with a 1 4 inch slope.
The best roof for heavy snow.
Another kind of best roofing material for heavy snow is metal roofing.
The roof deck collects the snow load and transfers the weight to the rafters.
Metal roofs leak under these circumstances.
Thankfully this type of incident doesn t happen very often.
In most cases excessive snow accumulation on a roof manifests itself in more subtle ways and causes gradual damage over time instead of a sudden calamity.
The danger of leaving snow alone.
For any rafter the portion of the roof deck that transfers this load is the tributary area.
That works out to be 11 25 pounds per square foot.
A house that.
In fact having a reasonable depth layer of snow on a roof is a good thing as long as the roof is designed to handle the weight.
That roof will be straining under 70 tons.