Another Roof Collapsed

[devildog1]

Just listened to Local News and were the barn roof collapsed last week killing around 70 or so dairy cows. Another roof at same farm caved in, poor farmer, having to deal with all the other things thrown at him now another roof at his farm.Whew just finished cleaning off valleys and edges of my roof because weatherman said more snow tonight, I believe lake effect snow from Lake Ontario. That stuff is quite heavy up there, just wondering has anyone figured out roughly how much 28" to 30" of ice and snow weigh on roof?
DevilDog

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Just listened to Local News and were the barn roof collapsed last week killing around 70 or so dairy cows. Another roof at same farm caved in, poor farmer, having to deal with all the other things thrown at him now another roof at his farm.Whew just finished cleaning off valleys and edges of my roof because weatherman said more snow tonight, I believe lake effect snow from Lake Ontario. That stuff is quite heavy up there, just wondering has anyone figured out roughly how much 28" to 30" of ice and snow weigh on roof?
DevilDog

I would guess around 70 or 80 pounds per square foot. Maybe more.

 

[Gizmo2]

I would guess around 70 or 80 pounds per square foot. Maybe more.

70 to 80lbs?
http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=12809

 

[herringchoker]

Gizmo - thanks for the great link.:thumbsup: I have a good 3 feet of snow on my roof now, but my design snow load is 77 lb./sq.ft. I was concerned about how much 3 feet of snow weighs, so this morning I cut out a 12" x 12" x 12" cube of snow, packed it in a bucket and weighed it - about 10 lbs. (which is about mid-range in the Arkansas link you provided). So I have about 30psf on my roof now, but if it gets rain-soaked I may be approaching my roof design limit. Interesting!

 

[Gizmo2]

herringchoker,
I guess you know I was thinking about the same thing. That's why I had the link readily available. I could not seem to find a site from NY but figure snow is snow. Can't be to safe.

 

[Carykong]

Where there any details on the type of barn,age,roof slope?

 

[JB4310]

70 to 80lbs?
http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=12809

He's talking about 2.5 cubic feet per sq ft so it's right in the range of heavy wet snow and ice from the chart you linked to; We've got all kinds of buildings collapsing around here, we've had 6+ feet of snow in just over a month, it's compressed down to 20-30 inches.

Doesn't look like much but I can tell you this aint no 10 pounds per cubic ft snow, closer to 40 or 50 Pounds PCF, Just ask my Back
So that estimate is probably not that far off and could be under estimate, buildings don't fall down around here with 40-50 PSF on them.

Driving around the last few days I've seen several cranes working with a small army of man power, removing snow from large roofs like Home Depot and Walmart, both have been closed for a few days now for evidence of structural problems/fear of collapse. These are record setting/code changing conditions.

JB.

 

[First one]

Originally Posted by devildog1 View Post
Just listened to Local News and were the barn roof collapsed last week killing around 70 or so dairy cows. Another roof at same farm caved in, poor farmer, having to deal with all the other things thrown at him now another roof at his farm.Whew just finished cleaning off valleys and edges of my roof because weatherman said more snow tonight, I believe lake effect snow from Lake Ontario. That stuff is quite heavy up there, just wondering has anyone figured out roughly how much 28" to 30" of ice and snow weigh on roof?

How do you get over something like that?
And then to happen again , I bet he just felt like taking a walk out behind the barn and throwing in the towel.
My hats off to him and his family.

I just cleaned off my glass greenhouse(17x30) it looked to be about 1.5- 2' . I just touched it with the roof rake and the weight of the snow sliding down took out one of my roof pans (about $60.00) The only way to get it off was to try and shovel it off a little at a time. After about a couple of hour I finally got it. The plastic hoop house I have, didn't look much better about the same amount on that as well. What kept either one of these from collapsing I don't know.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I would guess around 70 or 80 pounds per square foot. Maybe more.

I remember now....When my garage collapsed back in '08 the insurance adjuster came to my place. He told me many of the lost buildings had 60 to 70 lbs/sq. ft.

He was actually a temp add on. There were soo many buildings down that the local adjusters couldn't keep up.

So, ya...my estimate was a bit high.

By the way....my garage had patches of snow and ice build up of 3' and 4' feet.

If you do not keep up with clearing your roofs each storm, it can get away from you in a hurry. I nearly lost my truck when the roof and walls blew out. For some odd reason I went into work on a Sunday morning.??....Came home and my garage was down.!!.......

 

[Gizmo2]

JDGreenGrass,
Gives me cold chills just looking at your picture and trying to just imagine.........