How Much Snow Is To Much On My Roof

How to protect your roof watch for ice build up on the edge and valleys of your roof.

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 roof deck collects the snow load and transfers the weight to the rafters. How much snow is too much for my roof to support. 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 much snow a roof can hold depends on the type of snow roofline and material among other considerations. The chart below courtesy of paul schimnowski p e gives some examples of snow loads. So how much snow does this equal. So you most likely will never have to worry about removing snow from your roof.

Packed snow however weighs more. These questions aren t quite so easy to answer because there are several variables. We have some good news for you. Please remember that the numbers given by this calculator are just an approximation and are by no means 100 accurate.

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. But as the chart below shows packed snow with ice can easily overload a roof once it reaches about 12 off depth. For the twin cities metro area the roof snow load equals 35 pounds per square foot or 7 x 50. For any rafter the portion of the roof deck that transfers this load is the tributary area.

How much snow can my roof hold. Most roof designs can handle snow loads of 20 40 lbs per square foot. Most roofs are built to support heavy loads of snow without having any problems all winter long. 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.