Though i wouldn't dissuade you from taking already brittle bones onto a brittle roof while brittley cold out, but check with an inspector as most homes in the north are designed for just this instant - it may not look like it but if built by a contractor it should hold all the snow the lord can send you (within reason said noah).meriruka said:
Removing snow from roof
- Thread starter inchworm
- Start date
Well, I don't actually live in the north, but I am trusting that the roof will hold, that's why I'm NOT going up there and do all the stick poking from the ground, mainly to give the rain gutters some relief.
- Thread starter
- #13
I took this photo this morning while shoveling my way to the heatpump to shovel it out. The house is built into the side of a hill, so this back area is ground level. At the front of the house, it is two stories high. At the far left is the sunroom with the flat roof. In the back, you can see the main house with the snow that fell last night. You see that DH didn't manage to clear along the front edge of the main house. At that point, it is a 2-story drop and it was dark out, so I can't blame him. The portion closest to you is the garage which has the full weight of the snow at this point
It houses part of DH's prized muscle car/convertible collection.
I have since cleared the snow above the gutters on the garage. I think we'll get another 6" before this is all done for the day.
Inchworm
Thanks for the offer, but I'm pretty sure the back part of the house was added on by the 'do-it-yourself-even if-you-have-no-clue' original owner. Certain sections I'm convinced are still standing out of sheer habit.
You can see what happens here is that it slides down from the upper roof and whumps down on the lower, adding to what's already there. Usually it hits with enough force to propel it off the edge of the lower roof. When it doesn't, it's stick time.
You can see what happens here is that it slides down from the upper roof and whumps down on the lower, adding to what's already there. Usually it hits with enough force to propel it off the edge of the lower roof. When it doesn't, it's stick time.
You don't mention your location but your roof looks like a 4/12 gambrel and when trussed right will hold all she can take, can't see much of the garage but looks like a simple 4/12 . Since its easy it doesn't hurt brushing it off though it is probably superfluous (if in the deep north).inchworm said:
- Thread starter
- #17
It's not a gambrel, just a simple gable. I was guessing it was 3/12, but 4/12 could be right. The house was built to code in 1985. We're just wondering how good code is when you're in the midst of getting more snow in one week than has ever been recorded before. Not to mention we had the roof replaced about 3 years ago and we want to keep it in good shape.
We haven't removed the snow from our deteriorating flat-roofed woodshed as we were already planning on tearing it down this year anyway. It is definately not built to code, and it's still standing! Go figure....
Thanks,
Inchy
We haven't removed the snow from our deteriorating flat-roofed woodshed as we were already planning on tearing it down this year anyway. It is definately not built to code, and it's still standing! Go figure....
Thanks,
Inchy
I see that now but the shadows and snow made it look different to meinchworm said:
3/12 is a southern slope - 4/12 would be used to the north without almost no exception unless a handyman built it and that doesn't look obvious in your case.
the bank and insurance company is not in the habit of letting that happen to them when they own or insure a property.
you must be in a southern climate then and seldom get snow, otherwise the last 100 years of atmospheric data would have seen such a trend and codes would dictate that.
heat will destroy a shingled roof 10 generations before cold will. In a northern climate a roof is capable of holding 40+ pounds per square foot, 12" of compacted heavy snow at most may be 20 lbs cu.ft.
what is the code on pitch and rafter load there? that woodshed may have been designed right with over sized roof trusses - I put 2x8s in my shed rather than the engineered 2x6s just because I wanted a safety factor and they only cost a dollar more each.
reinbeau
Moderator Extraordinaire
Well, if you've got a house that was built before code, then you are SOL, aren't you? That's what I've got - and it would cost a heck of a lot more than $500 to fix it, I'd have to remove the whole roof, install a whole new rafter system, etc. The back shed dormer has a very shallow pitch. So, we shovel it off. There's nothing wrong with using a snow rake if you can, it will avoid any possibilities of ice dams.
Inchworm's house was built in 1985 and codes were mandatory, meriruka's location is undisclosed so it a roll of the dice on what is going on there as far as future weather and new truss load calculations.reinbeau said:
The existing house looks to be 4/12 and garage 6/12, the stepped addition starts out at about 8/12 but then goes to a shallow slope of 2/12. If you are north of the Mason Dixon and looks as old as it is then somebody has been lucky over all these years.
But as reinbeau suggested re-doing the trusses to make a deeper pitch would be best, since your roof is metal it will be fairly easy to remove, Ask your local lumber store for the truss snow load calculation based on the dimensions of the roof, this is normally a free service, they will tell you what you need - heck you might just skate by with a few dozen 2x12s and some jack posts for a knee wall.
