Suggested Snow Roof Degree

If you live in the us our snow load calculator compares the total weight on your roof with the permissible load calculated according to the standards issued by the american society of civil engineers regarding the minimum design loads for buildings and other structures asce7 16.

Suggested snow roof degree.

S equals the depth in inches of the snow on your roof and p represents the pounds per square foot your roof is supporting. The pitch of the roof is determined by the vertical rise. Pitch is a measure of the steepness of a roof. At these slopes snow creeps rather than slides and is easy to manage.

A reputable roofing contractor will be familiar with the pitch required by these codes. Your equation for determining snow load s x 1 25 p is fairly straightforward math. The requirements for an asphalt shingles roof are contained in the international building code. The 30 degree 7 12 roof recommendation is backed up by testing according to the publication science daily.

Lower slopes don t handle wind driven rain as well. And although asphalt shingles are the easiest to damage among the roofing materials they are another good option for snow as long as your climate isn t too windy. Determining the roof pitch for your weather the first thing to do is to check the building codes for your county and state. Building a roof with wood shakes works well in moist colder climates as they don t dry out from the snow.

On roof slopes between 4 12 and 6 12 rough textured roofing materials work best. In country with heavy snow and tough winter days the metal roof minimum slope is recommended to be 1 12. A 30 degree roof slope 7 12 pitch is the right pitch to aerodynamically handle high wind. There are some opinions that standing seam metal roof minimum slope is 12 but it increases the possibility of leaking on the few first days of snow arrival.

To calculate the snow load on your roof assume that every inch deep of snow equals 1 25 pounds. In snowy areas your roof should be at least 10 12 40 to allow snow to shed while the safest roof pitch in very windy areas is between 4 12 6 12 18 5 26 5. According to this code the minimum slope for asphalt shingles is 17 degrees or two vertical units to twelve units in the horizontal.