Roof Snow Load Support

Determine the load per square foot that the roof must support.

Roof snow load support.

Basing on the roof parameters you specified in the first section our snow load calculator displays the maximum allowable snow cover thickness and snow weight. 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. If your roof is 1 000 square feet the total snow load is 15 000 pounds of snow. The dead load is constant and is estimated as 10 pounds per square foot for wood framed construction.

Snow loads acting on a sloping surface shall be assumed to act on the horizontal projection of that surface. The thermal factor c t from table e 3 determines if a roof is cold or warm slippery surface values shall be used only where the roof s surface is unobstructed and sufficient space is available below. It also informs you whether you should immediately remove some of the snow or you can wait a little bit longer. 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.

The roof load is composed of a dead load and a live load. The live load depends on the maximum snow load in your area. If the weight of the actual snow load exceeds the weight a structure was designed to support the roof or even the entire structure can fail. To provide additional support in double poly covered greenhouses two by fours can be placed under weight bearing bow and purlin connections however snow removal may still be required.

Make sure to not wait for too long though. The term snow load refers to the downward force on a structure s roof by the weight of accumulated snow and ice.