How Much Does Wet Snow Weigh ?

[stewfox]

My garden shed just caved from the snow (it was old) and im now Im concerned re the roofs /gutterings

I live in a coverted barn but I would guess the pitch of the roof is pretty standard

If you have had a foot of wet snow should you be getting worried ?.

Must be well over a ton on the roof of snow ?

I have tried and cleared the gutterings

Am I just being silly.

I saw on tele a bus shelter collapse in Banbury

[Guest]

With normal snow 10 cms of snow would be equivalent to one cm of rain - so 30 cms (or 1 foot) of snow would be equivalent to 3 cms of water, since it is wet snow - very difficult to estimate because the water content will vary as to how wet it actually is but lets say that the foot is equivalent to 6 cms of water. Now 1 litre of water weighs a kilogramme. So on each square metre of your roof you should have 6 x 100 x 100 = 60,000 cms or grammes, which I think should be about 60 kilos.

However I doubt that the snow is that wet since it would have slid off with the pitch of the roof so you may be looking at the figure of more like 30 kilos per square metre. You will also have to consider that the force will not be straight down, as it would be on a flat roof which would be more likely to collapse under heavy snow but directed more to the edges.

Also I would suspect that the barn would have originally been built to withstand heavy falls of snow and there is little to worry about. If it has been there a long time I would suggest that if the roof were to collapse it would have done so by now. I take it that you checked the timbers to make sure they were in good order when the conversion was done.

If I have got this wrong I am sure somebody else will correct me. :unsure:

[Snowyowl9]

Had 9inches of snow last week which turned wet as there was drizzle lots of boughs had broken off trees,and a shed roof collapsed a mile from here not ours,todays snow is much lighter as it`s powdery,last weeks snow has frozen solid so tough and very heavy.

I cleared the guttering last week also as a couple of joinings had broken,turned into solid ice from overhanging snow,quite alot slid off the roof with a tremendous wallop.

[Verglas]

is the barn very secret, or how covert is it ?

[towbar0]

Depends on how big your shovel is? Mines an aluminium one but I've still given up...

[snowingtequila]

my gutter has just fallen off my garage with dry snow, there was a heck of a lot on there though