Snow load on a deck

[swimmer_spe]

I live in Northern ON and my house has a large deck. We tend to get about 4-6 feet of snow over the summer.

Providing the deck has been built to code, do I need to clear the snow off of it?

It is a wood deck. Would it be bad to use my snowblower on it? I can get it on it no problem.

 

[bud16415]

We also get a lot of snow but nowhere near that much in the summer.



Your deck if constructed properly should take the load, but I like to keep mine shoveled off just so I can use it when we get a nice day in the middle of winter. I have bird feeders out there also plus a hot tub.

If the deck is big enough and the snow blower is not that big I guess you could do that.

 

[JoeD]

The only problem with the snowblower could be damage from the slider feet. I would keep it shoveled. If you get a rain event the snow will get much heavier.

 

[bud16415]

If you get a rain event the snow will get much heavier.

And harder to shovel.

 

[Jeff Handy]

In the summer!

 

[billshack]

I have a cottage in northern Quebec ,and i get snow like you do. One year the deck collapsed due to snow load. I am taking about 6 ft of hard packed snow. most people do in the southern parts do not know this. I have to remove snow from my roof or my house could collapse.

 

[swimmer_spe]

I have a cottage in northern Quebec ,and i get snow like you do. One year the deck collapsed due to snow load. I am taking about 6 ft of hard packed snow. most people do in the southern parts do not know this. I have to remove snow from my roof or my house could collapse.

Sounds like a cleaning is in order.

 

[billshack]

Sounds like a cleaning is in order.

yes i clear the deck and roof, in fact i have hired a guy that lives there to do it.

 

[bud16415]

We live in this old town in the great lakes snow belt and most of the houses in town are circa 1880s. They have been thru 140 winters and have survived with their 10/12 –12/12 pitched roofs with timber rafter and 1” sheathing. Once you get outside of town you start finding newer homes with 3/12-4/12 2x4 trusses and I see them out all winter ether shoveling the roof or with a long handled roof rake working from the ground.



Somewhere around 1980 it seems common sense went out the window or the people building things came from down south and are doing it their own way. As a kid if you had a strip mall or big store like Sears or grocery store they had a mammoth parking lot that was one big area off in one corner away from the traffic there was a snow pile about 40’ high that wouldn’t melt till June. Now they build a 100 islands and curbs all over the place and zig zag driveways and little parking places all over and snow piles everywhere that you can’t see over or around. When you drive around people are hung up on all this junk. Then the Americans with Disabilities act makes you have a dozen curb cuts and mini islands at every entry and exit even out in the middle of nowhere that no one in a wheelchair should ever be let alone in a blizzard and the snowplows clobber these things and they fill in the sidewalks and then the sidewalk crews push it into the driveway and they go back and forth. I have seen where they have a row of driveways with 12” of curb between them. They are imposable to see and if you don’t drive a 4x4 pickup you misjudge the driveway and you are sitting on a lump of curb.

If you live where it snows you need to adjust.