Roof Pitch For Snow Country
If the design necessitates a roof slope that drains onto a traffic area snow retention devices should be provided to hold the snow in place.
Roof pitch for snow country. This will extend the life of your roof. Massive snow suddenly sliding off a roof sometimes kills the unsuspecting caught below it. The standing seam metal roof on this ice hockey rink leaked like a sieve a few weeks after the first snow arrived. Snow can certainly slide off of a 4 12 roof.
The conclusion was to avoid avalanches by building a 4 12 roof pitch with non sliding roofing material such as asphalt. A minimum slope of 1 inch per foot is recommended in snow country. Valleys dormers it seems to form a snow wedge that as david said can have impressive density and depth. The total snowfall last winter was over 250 inches.
The 1 4 inch per foot slope was not adequate. Anything less than 1 12 pitch is a huge mistake in snow prone. I also share a little about why we did not build an earthship as we had planned because of the climate here. However the larger factor is that when the sun comes out radiant heat passes through the snow is reflected outward melts the snow from underneath and causes it to slide.
Out of this snow storm an idea was conceived to create a shop that would replace the old cabin. Some time ago an article in fine homebuilding addressed roof designs in snow country. Roof pitch for snow country. My gable roof has a pitch of 2 1 2 in 12 and two layers of asphalt shingles.
Anything over a 6 12 pitch tends to make massive amounts of snow slide off the roof without warning. I have already begun the research to build a pole barn. The higher the roof pitch the more often the snow slides off. Cheltenham town offer pitch update installing snow guards metal estimating roof pitch determining have your flat roof and snow too sheet.
On june 7 2020 by jaka santuy. Managing snow on roofs mountain ts hendricks ture. My house has a 12 12 pitch metal roof with concealed fasteners snow never gets more than 2 inches deep before it goes flying whenever 2 roof planes meet i e. Hi brian i just completed a house directly south of you in leavenworth.
I am thinking of removing the two layers of shingles and installing trusses on the present roof deck to increase the roof pitch so that snow would slide off a metal roof. Roof pitches of 3 12 4 12 5 12 or 6 12 work best for metal buildings in snow country. The safest way to determine the pitch of an existing roof is to measure from inside your attic using a level tape measure and pencil. So in general the shallower pitch can be more dangerous with bigger slides.
In the video above i explain the importance of roof pitch when it comes to snow.