Roof Snow Load Failures

When prefabricated wood roof trusses fail truss manufacturers get blamed.

Roof snow load failures.

Abstract collapses of a number of roofs in europe during the winter 2005 2006 initiated discussions concerning reliability of the roofs exposed to snow loads. While it is impractical unaffordable or unfeasible to retrofit existing buildings to meet code loading requirements we can make changes to minimize or eliminate future failures due to snow. Insured catastrophe losses in 2013 dollars or more than 1 billion a year on average according to property claim services and the insurance information institute inc. If the standards for mississippi where the maximum expected snow load is much lower are used in error problems ranging from deflection to full collapse can occur.

A roof not designed to the appropriate standards for its use location etc. Together these two industries can lobby for changes ultimately making for better and safer buildings. From 1994 to 2013 winter storms resulted in about 27 billion in u s. How much snow is too much.

Or if the building was poorly designed or constructed. Every time a post frame building roof collapses it reflects poorly upon our industry. It doesn t take a blizzard to cause problems. Roof failures due to snow can result in damage or destruction of valuable building contents and equipment business interruption and even loss of life.

In my humble opinion these would include. If the roof failure was caused by an excessive snow load ie exceeding design load. Snow load is the downward force on a building s roof by the weight of accumulated snow and ice. Further if it was caused by an.

Is more prone to failure. An imbalance of drifting snow can cause one part of a roof to give causing a domino effect. Whether or not that failure was the result of an inadequate design. Presented overview of extensive.

For example a roof in minnesota must be able to accommodate the large live loads associated with the state s heavy snowfalls.