Flat Roof House Snow

Flat roofs aren t architecturally logical as rain and snow will shed much more quickly off a sloped roof.

Flat roof house snow.

There are a few common misconceptions regarding flat roofs that are stubbornly persistent. Since snow falls at slow steady speeds large quantities of snow can fall on the roof resulting in bowing. As snow falls it can accumulate on your flat roof putting unnecessary weight on the structure. This down bearing pressure can cause the roof to bow and result in ponding under the roof structure.

Caring for your flat roof in winter. That means 12 inches of snow on a flat roof creates an additional r 12 of insulation that arrives at a time of year when you most need it. They can be extremely low. With a flat roof you don t have the typical attic space afforded by a sloped roof.

Neither of these are accurate. One of them is that flat roofs leak more easily than pitched ones. Snow and your flat roof. While not frequent per se the low slope of a flat roof does make it more prone to certain problems particularly when it interacts with the elements.

Yet for historic modern style buildings like this old house s cambridge tv project flat roofs are at the core of the architecture meant to reflect the broad horizontal lines of the natural landscape. Another is that they cannot handle as much snow weight as pitched roofs because the snow sits directly on the roof. This image depicts another benefit of flat roofs. Without that space heat inside your house can warm up your roof melting any snow that s piled up.

Although most flat roofs actually feature a slight pitch they still collect more rain snow and debris than traditional roofs making them a safety liability. That means 12 inches of snow on a flat roof creates an additional r 12 of insulation that arrives at a time of year when you most need it. They can be extremely low. The r value or resistance to heat flow for snow is about r 1 per inch.

Excessive rain heavy snow and built up ice all pose extra challenges for flat roofed homes. When water from that melted snow works its way to the edges of your roof where it isn t as warm and then re freezes it can also form ice dams.