Roofs are strong and solid structures, designed
and built to protect buildings against almost any weather, to stand up to heat,
water, wind, hail as well as to the weight of snow deposits. However, as one of the good Algonquin roofing contractors will tell you every material
has a breaking point and not even the strongest, most solidly built roof can
resist an infinite amount of snow, so here are a few details about how much
snow is too much snow on your roof:
-
Differences in weight – not
all forms of frozen water weigh the same. Fresh, fluffy snow weighs only around
3 pounds per square foot, the same amount of wet snow weighs around 21 pounds,
while ice is even heavier, at 57 pounds per square foot;
-
Differences in weight bearing
capacity of roofing materials – most roofing materials can support around 20
pounds of snow per square foot, some types can take a little bit less, others a
little bit more, but no roof can stand up to amounts of snow that exceed their
capacity for too long.
If you consider that the amount of snow that
has accumulated on your roof might be impossible to hold up for the roof, call
a roofing expert to remove it. Amateur snow removal and de-icing on roofs is
among the most dangerous, most risky operations for the roof owner as well as
for the roof, so the best way to relieve the roof of the unwanted weight is by
leaving the task to the experts.
