Greenhouse Roof Pitch Snow

Ventilation in a wide span greenhouse with a standard 6 12 greenhouse roof pitch the taller your sidewall height the better ventilation you ll get.

Greenhouse roof pitch snow.

To be perfectly honest it depends on the type of snow. Wet snows can weigh four times as much as dry snows causing a considerable amount of weight baring down upon every square foot of greenhouse roof surface. A typical greenhouse is transparent on all sides but not so with the cold climate greenhouse because you want to keep as much heat in as possible to get your plants through the darker and colder night. That s why all of the greenhouses above only have glazing on the side facing the sun.

Our standard level snow load rating is 32 pounds per square foot. Generally speaking greenhouses need to withstand 30 pounds of snow per square foot an equivalent of about four feet of snow and wind gusts up to 105 mph to meet most of the code requirements throughout the united states. In addition the angle of inclination is determined using a specific roofing. Snow load of a greenhouse is based on expected ground accumulation greenhouse roof slope whether the structure is a gutter connect or free standing greenhouse and if the greenhouse is heated or unheated during the time of snowfall.

According to the conventional rule of thumb this would require roof glazing to be about 60 degrees off the horizon 40 20 60. How much is that you might wonder. This height gives you a very large attic. Gutter height will give you a grade to peak height of more than 24 ft.

There is powder light snow and water logged slushy snow. The slope of such a roof will be determined by wind and snow load on the structure as well as attractive appearance. For example in a standard nexus vail a frame structure a 14 ft. The graphic below helps flesh this out.

If you sketch that out on paper you ll see that a roof angle of 60 degrees requires a very tall north wall or an altered plan for the greenhouse. All other sides as well as the roof are insulated. This can happen if wind lifts snow and deposits it more heavily on one side of a greenhouse. If you design your internal structure according to local codes however you will not have any difficulties.

This will shed snow under most conditions but with twin wall coverings it is not always the case. Snow load makes a structure more likely to collapse because the pressure is not distributed evenly on the bows.