Solution To Roof Snow Drift

A sloped metal roof system can be installed directly over the lower flat roof minimizing business disruption.

Solution to roof snow drift. For adjacent drifts we do not start with 4 hdand then possibly increase the width we start with the 1 on 6 shade line. Before building a barrier to prevent the build up of snow drifts such barriers are typically called a snow fence you must assess the area where the snow drifts. This is fairly simple to determine even when it isn t snowing. To prevent a roof collapse the slope of your roof makes a huge difference.

Perhaps the least costly option is to institute a snow drift monitoring program after a significant snow or winter wind event the roof could be inspected to look for snow drifts at known susceptible areas. Figure 7 1 pages 84 85 and table 7 1 page 92. Length of high roof lu. Table 1 1 page 3.

By elevating driveways above the surrounding terrain wind will sweep snow off of the roadway. A longer term solution to drifting snow includes building up roads and driveways so that snow is blown across rather than drifting on to them. This approach is conservative and simpler but for small gap the width could be 6 hd. Determine the direction from which wind usually moves the snow.

Lets assume our project is in madison wisconsin and we have already calculated our balanced roof snow load here. If it weren t for those two concerns you could just let the snow pile onto your roof. The second reason is you live in an ice dam prone home and you want to prevent ice dams. For ordinary leeward drifts the width is 4hd unless hd hcin which case we set the height at hcand increase the width.

From our example our ground load and flat roof snow load were found to be 30 psf and 21 psf respectively. The first reason to worry about roof snow is you re worried about a roof collapse. Solutions to these problems are generally self evident e g place air intakes high up on the wall keep windows at roof steps as high above the lower roof as possible locate plumbing vents and. Usually the roadway should be 1 2 feet higher than the nearby landscape to make this effective.

Provisions on how to calculate the snow drift surcharge for structures can be found in section 7 8 of asce 7 10.