40 lb roof load

[Patricia Lisonbee]

My friends have a Guerdon double wide with a 30 lb snow load and require a 40 lb snow load in the county they want to move to. Any suggestions on accomplishing this? Need answer asap.
Thanks much

[Roy Bonney]

The roof construction to meet a certain snow load, is directly relative to the spacing on the roof trusses. The general rule of thumb, is 20lb = 24" centers, 30lb.= 16" centers, 40lb = 12" centers. There are other slight changes, depending on the configuration of the ridge beam. The bottom line is, that you will not be able to make a change that will increase the snow load to the 40 PSF.

[Jason Bettis]

Patricia,
Talk to the county zoning office and see if a waiver is possible. Also, you should work with an Engineer to ensure the 30# roof would hold up at the new location.
Other ideas:
- change roofing material to metal to help shed snow quicker
- last resort (this may be less expensive than selling and buying another home) - build a 40# roof over the home.

[wendy]

Adding a metal roof will not change your snow load requirement, we already tried that approach to avoid a #110 snow load.

[Gary DeHaas]

A manufactured homes that has a 30 # snow load, has a 30 # live load and a 10 # dead load. So it really is a 40 # snow load. So go talk to the local building official and have them look at the data plate on the home, and explane this to them and they might allow you to place the home in that area.

[Lori]

In reading this thread, I have a question. My home is 2.5 years old, a 32 X 80 foot model. We've been told that there is a 30 lb roof load, however, when we were told that our roof had failed earlier this summer, our observations are that we have 2 X 2 trusses, 24" o.c.

On this roof span, do we truly have a 30 lb roof load? If not, what roof load do we have? (we have a min. of 7 broken trusses visually through the opening in the ceiling, with more suspected. we want to make sure that we have proper repairs done.)

Thanks.

Lori

[Roy T. Bonney]

Check the data plate inside the home, to see to which zone the home was constructed. I would suspect a 20# roof load with 24' cntrs.

[Don Amonson]

How old was this home?
Who was the home manufacturer?
Where was it constructed?
I am curious.......

[Don Amonson]

Do you have any pics of the broken trusses?
Also are you on the east coast or west? Who mfg. the home?