How Much Snow Will A Roof Hold

How much snow can my residential roof hold.

How much snow will a roof hold.

That s a lot of snow. How much snow can a roof hold. Last winter we had snow on the ground that was up to our hips. If the snow weighs 10 pounds per cubic foot and there are 1 5 feet on the roof each square foot of the roof is getting 15 pounds of pressure.

These questions aren t quite so easy to answer because there are several variables. If your roof is 1 000 square feet the total snow load is 15 000 pounds of snow. Fluffy fresh snow can weigh as little as three pounds per square foot compared with 21 pounds for wet heavy snow according to fema. The 20 psf load is equivalent to 14 inches of snow at the design.

Roof snow loads indicate the amount of additional force pressing down on a building when snow and ice pile up on the roof during winter storms. How much snow a roof can hold depends on the type of snow roofline and material among other considerations. Alberta s building codes specify that your roof can bear loads of at least 22lbs per square inch. How much snow is too much for a roof to handle.

It calls for 20 psf throughout most of ohio and 25 psf along a north south strip in the eastern half of the state. Whenever neurotic people like me think to ask this question northwood will tell them that 2 is an acceptable load for the roof of any rv including theirs. To see that kind of load your roof would need to hold a snow drift 4 5 feet high or 2 5 feet of compressed snow. That sounds simple enough right.

57 pounds a square foot. The drifts on the roof were 5 feet deep. Well there are a lot more variables than just the amount of snow on the roof. With all of the recent snow fall i ve started hearing from a lot of homeowners who are concerned about how much snow their roof can hold.

To figure out the load on your roof take the depth of snow in feet and multiply it by the weight of a cubic foot of snow.