Questions about building snow roof over deck

SidecarBob said:

As I said before, if this can't be a quick & simple project that I can do on my own it isn't going to happen.

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Then don't do it.
Back around post #19 or 20, you said that the old shingle roof held the snow from sliding. Snow guards do the same thing, and your roof has already proved it can handle it. you may not like the look of it, but you may not like the look of a new shed roof either - once it's complete.

Another random thought: I don't know enough about metal roofs to suggest this, but if you increase the insulation under the roof, will the chances of a slide be as great?

Please post some pictures.

Pics of the deck below.

I know the roof will support the load of the amount of snow we are likely to get. I just like the idea of it not having to in the event of a significant weather event like a 100 year snowfall. But if it can't be done it can't be done so I have given up on putting a roof over the deck and I have contacted a couple of steel roof places about adding the snow stoppers.

I am going to get some deck blocks to put under the posts & take the sag out of the deck in the process and rebuild the stairs.

There are two ways you can do this to my mind:

1. Install a shed roof starting about halfway up your existing roof but at a flatter pitch.
2. Install a reverse gable roof.

Both would require:
1. Altering your existing roof
2. Verifying that your footers can support the load and are deep enough for your frost line
3. Beefing up the deck supports to 6x6's.

If you wanted to extend your roof without altering the existing roof, I'd tear off the deck and build a ground level patio to not block your basement windows that are currently under the deck. I prefer ground level patios anyway when you're not a full story off the ground. They require less maintenance and are easier to incorporate into the landscaping of your yard. That said, I think adding a roof like that will really reduce the light coming into your existing windows.

Otherwise, the snow stoppers are the way to go to prevent the snow avalanche. Beefing up the insulation in your attic will help keep your roof cold and keep the snow on it longer.

There is really only 1 window in the area where I would have put the roof and that is for the room I am sitting in as I type this. In the days of CRT monitors I always kept the blind drawn because of the glare but with an LED monitor I rarely draw it. And being on the south side, the sun shining in through the patio door fades everything in there and heats up the room even with the blinds closed so reducing the light coming in would actually be a benefit most days.

We have a foot or more of blown in fibreglass, well over the height of the ceiling joists everywhere so I don't think more insulation would make that much difference. The problem is that snow isn't a very good insulator so when the sun shines on it the roof underneath heats up, causing the layer next to the roof to melt. Since there is no grit like on asphalt shingles for the snow to grip the thin layer of water acts as a lubricant and the snow slides off. This is considered one of the advantages of a steel roof because it means that even in significant snow events you virtually never have to remove snow from the roof. I just wish it would land a few feet farther away when it does.

Adding something to keep the snow from sliding off seems like taking a step backwards. But I am not getting any younger and shovelling off the deck has never been my idea of fun.

You don't have to put snow guards all over, just over doors. Commercial buildings sometimes do it that way as a convenience to customers and shop owners.

Yeah, but I want to be able to get out through either door and the stairs are in between so that means the whole deck has to be covered and the heat pump is close enough to the deck that protecting it separately probably wouldn't work.

Re patio: Changing to a patio might be OK in places where the ground floor is only a couple of feet above grade but with about 4' I don't think that would be practical here. It would mean replacing one set of stairs with two (both of which would have to be shovelled) and it would mean carrying everything up & down stairs every time to use the barbecue (we rarely eat outside and as I said, we aren't getting any younger) and would probably eliminate the possibility of using the barbecue in winter during power failures (where it is now it is just outside the sliding door).

Post a picture so we can see what your seeing please.

danlycarporte said:

Post a picture so we can see what your seeing please.

Click to expand...

He has posted pictures, scroll up and go to the first page of the post.

A local roofing company will be installing 30' of beam type snow guard that should reduce the shovelling to an acceptable amount.

The wood to rebuild the deck stairs and the deck blocks have arrived. I have been advised that, since the ground where the blocks will sit is going to be disturbed when I cut off the ends of the posts and pull them out of the ground, I should dig them out and put in a foot or so of packed gravel so I have to call about that today.

In the meantime, I have an old injury in my left shoulder that sometimes aches but lately it has been hurting almost the way my right one did when I tore the rotator cuff a few years ago so I will be going to have it scanned to make sure (they will do the right one too as a check-up, even though it feels OK). I am trying to avoid lifting any substantial weight with the left or working above my head until I know for sure. I also twisted my left knee last week while just turning to pick something up; It is getting better each day but I still need to take it easy for another few days. All of that adds up to I might not start working on the stairs for a few more days and maybe its a good thing I won't be taking on the project of building the roof.

It turns out that I do have a tear in my left rotator cuff but it is minor and I won't need surgery. I should get a call to start physio any day. And my knee is getting closer to normal every day.

One of our daughters came home for a few days and helped me level the deck. I measured down the same distance on each post and marked them, then one post at a time we jacked up the deck next to each post, cut the post off at the mark with a reciprocating saw, dug out the bricks and made a hole a couple of feet deep and filled it with gravel (crusher run), tamped the gravel, lowered the deck back to level and adjusted the top of the gravel to leave room for a deck block, then lifted the deck again, slid the deck block into place and dropped the deck so the post sits solidly in the block. The deck is now flat and level in both directions. I expect the gravel to settle a bit, giving the deck a bit of pitch for drainage.

The old stairs were attached by nailing the stringers to the 2x6 facer of the deck from underneath so that you stepped down from the deck to the top step. While working on levelling the deck I realized that a lot of the 2x4 decking is pretty far gone. It was too late to get it finished this year so the new plan is to strip the 2x4s off in the spring, check the condition of the framing and replace whatever I need to then. So I decided to attach the new stairs with concealed stringer hangers so that I can remove them as a unit if I have to do anything serious with the framing. The first thing I learned is that with the hangers as low as possible the top step would be about 1.5" below the deck (= tripping hazard). The regular solution would have been to add another 2x6 below the facer and hang them from that so the step would be the same but the deck & stairs already block the light from the basement window and I didn't want to make that worse so that was out.

No prob - I'll just hang them so the top step is level with the deck and you walk out onto it before stepping down. Bit I had already hung the stringers temporarily with a couple of screws when I realized that I would need 6 steps instead of 5 to bring them down to the same grade as before and I couldn't take the stringers back with screw holes so I started exploring options. I could get another 2x6 and build a plinth/bottom step for them to sit on top of but I had no way to bring a 2x6 home and besides, it would look cobbled together. I was already planning to salvage a couple of patio slabs from the former dog pen (on the right in the pics - we aren't planning to have dogs again and one day we'll plant vegetables there so the slabs are redundant) for the stairs to rest on so they won't rot and I got a lot more gravel so why not raise the slabs to meet the stairs? But Then I would need to get more wood to build a frame around the slabs... My neighbour suggested I salvage some of the wood from the old stairs to build a frame around the slabs... OK but then I discovered that you are required to have a flat area at the bottom of the stairs and 2 slabs wouldn't be enough....

Here's what I ended up doing: The landing at the bottom of the stairs is 3x3 slabs (x 18" slabs = approx. 54' square), framed with PT wood from the old stairs and filled inside with gravel so the slabs are just a bit higher than the wood and I filled the gaps with sand mix concrete to deter weeds. I then backfilled around the outside of the frame with more gravel and spread the dirt from the holes under the posts plus some that my neighbour wanted to get rid of over it so that the grass will grow up to the wood and hold everything in place as the wood rots away. You can't see it very well in the pic but I set a couple of the slabs into the dirt/gravel to provide a clean place to stand while putting stuff into the composter (the big black thing to the right of the stairs) too.