How Much Snow On Roof Is Too Much Montana

It doesn t take much snow piled up into one concentrated area to collapse a flat roof.

How much snow on roof is too much montana.

These questions aren t quite so easy to answer because there are several variables. In snow country that number might be anywhere from 30 or 35 pounds per square foot psf to more than 70 psf. As everyone knows cold fluffy snow is very light while wet snow can be extremely heavy. Local and or state requirements on the ground snow loads or the roof loads subsequently calculated from these values supercede the values provided by this snow load finder tool.

After a big snow year in montana some areas of the state are struggling with the load. On thursday and saturday march 10th and 12th two gym roofs at montana state university msu in. How much snow can pile up on your rv roof every winter. 2 spruce rafters can handle a maximum span of about 15 ft.

Montana ground snow load finder. For the twin cities metro area the roof snow load equals 35 pounds per square foot or 7 x 50. You might want to get out there or have someone else get out there if you see 1 2 feet of snow anywhere on the roof. It may be one foot high in one spot and eight feet high in another spot.

Several feet of snow have piled up on roofs across the state over the past couple days. So how much snow does this equal. Big snow year proves to be too much for montana state university roof adrian dolatschko march 15 2019 weather. Armed with that number a builder can frame the roof appropriately.

Packed snow 7 5 to 12 5 cm 3 to 5 in of old snow is equivalent to 2 5 cm 1 in of water or about 2 3 kg 5 pounds per square foot of roof space. One business in missoula the silver theater already saw the affects too much. We have a high snow load. Over the past week as we got pummeled by a desperately needed snowstorm we watched the fluff pile up on our rooftop.

For example where the design load is 50 psf 2x10 no. This means that you can have a maximum snow load of 1 2 m 4 ft before the roof becomes stressed. Right off the top count on a minimum of 30 psf that is state code. How much snow a roof can hold depends on the type of snow roofline and material among other considerations.

In case you need to know the snow load requirements should you be thinking to build a house in montana you can go to the montana ground snow load finder. The chart below courtesy of paul schimnowski p e gives some examples of snow loads. You need to be careful with flat roofs. It is right on up there with a balcony at 55 to 60 psf.

It seemed like common sense to me that a heap of snow would add too much weight to our northwood arctic fox.