Close Call

Jim DeLaney

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Austintown, Ohio
Had a bit of a mishap Here last night. After holding up its snow load for over two weeks, the roof on my spa enclosure collapsed. The entire roof pretty much just imploded into the gazebo and on top of the hot tub.

What was really scary was that, had it happened about an hour later, the wife and I would've been IN the hot tub! Had it happened then, I'm pretty sure the injuries could've been pretty serious. Sometimes, you just get lucky...

Since my homeowners' insurance will pay for it, I'm having a contractor out tomorrow for an estimate. It may be a while - until the snow melts and the weather clears - before it gets repaired.

1. Before, last December.
2. Before, Yesterday
3. Aftermath, this morning, after partial cleanup.
 

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Well Jim glad you never got caught inside that could have been bad news. Dont seem like that much snow was on it. Did it have trusses at all or was it just pieces of ply joined at each edge with some overlapping 2x4.

I ask because i worry about my shop. I have had as much snow as that on it and have no experience with these things. The trusses were supposed to be designed to handle snow load but how much is the question.

I was shocked to see it that all the trusses were only 2x2.

With snow i guess there are many variables like density and water content so how does one judge when to get out there and drag it off the roof.

Any chance of any rot in yours with the hot tub steaming away at the wood or rusting the nails holding it together?

Not a pretty sight. :(
 
Dang. :eek: Glad you weren't in a position to get hurt.

On the other hand, if you had been simply trapped in the hot tub (and not hurt) when it collapsed, you'd one very relaxed son of a gun by the time the rescuers got you out. :p And prune skin?...world class for sure. :rolleyes:
 
...Dont seem like that much snow was on it.

What you saw in the 'before' picture was the result of two weeks compaction of what started out as about 30 inches (or 76 cm for you) a couple weeks ago. It hadn't melted - the temps her haven't been above freezing (until just today) so far this month - just compacted.

...Did it have trusses at all or was it just pieces of ply joined at each edge with some overlapping 2x4.

It was wierd setup - a hip type roof with a skylight at the truncated top. The supports ran from the skylight frame down to the wall caps. We're now guessing that the skylight failed, and the rest was 'avalanche effect.' (pun intended)


...Any chance of any rot in yours with the hot tub steaming away at the wood or rusting the nails holding it together?

No rot apparent - just too much weight for the structure to bear.

...Next year invest in a snow rake.;)

Bob,
This snow was the biggest this area has had since 1950. We usually get much less than this, or at least we don't get it all at once.
 
I was shocked to see it that all the trusses were only 2x2.

:(

Rob,
I live in a double wide modular... it's about 12-15 years old.... in Sept or October we had a new metal roof put on after a windstorm to replace the shingle roof that was original on the house... when the roofer started putting the lathes on and replacing the vents.. he said our roof joists were only 2x2's ... we had two guys walking around up there, both of whom weighed between 200 and 250 each...
 
LOT of compaction - 30" to only 3-4". I don't think it was built with enough safety factor, even if you don't ordinarily see that much snow. It's NOT a lot of snow, even compacted. A roof like that should (I think) certainly be constructed so's to hold that much solid ice in the air.

Calls to mind a roof extension I saw built onto a trailer a couple of miles away from me in Albuquerque. It extended over a large deck. It was built exclusively with screws, no nails at all. One day a neighbor stopped by to return an extension cord. As he stepped back off the deck, the whole roof collapsed like a huge wooden sandwich. Apparently some of the screws sheared off with the vibration of the neighbor's tread on the deck (because they were very near their limits already), and the extra weight distributed to the rest of the screws sheared them, too, effectively "unzipping" the whole structure.

If it had been built with nails, it'd probably be standing today - nails can withstand a lot more than screws can; they're much tougher, and aren't subjected to so much tensile stress.

Toni... that's a HUGE DOG! :)
 
LOT of compaction - 30" to only 3-4". I don't think it was built with enough safety factor, even if you don't ordinarily see that much snow...

Tim,
Look at my second picture. The snow was compacted to about 18 inches, no 3 or 4. It was a wet snow, and pretty heavy.

Still, I agree with you that it should have been better built. (BTW, it was already here when I bought this place - It's wasn't something I built, or had built, myself.) It was a fairly light, gazebo-like structure that really would've been better suited to a much more Southern climate.

I had a contractor out this morning to look at the mess. He pretty much agreed with me that what I've got left isn't practical to save. A new pre-fab gazebo will cost around $10K, and the contractor thinks he can do a much nicer, scratch-built enclosure for somewhere around that same price. He's gonna give me some drawings later this week.

We'll see...
 
...Take it on the positive side, now you have some woodwork to do, and some used wood to recall;)

Toni,
Not me! That's what homeowners insurance is for. The insurance company can pay someone else to rebuild this one, and also to haul away all the debris.

There's not much there worth keeping anyway, except maybe a few 2X4's and the plexiglas/acrylic from the windows.
 
The Replacement

Well, it's been not quite two months, and the insurance settled up, and the contractor finished up the construction late last week. We decided to kick in a bit (quite a bit) extra and build a spa enclosure that'll last hopefully quite a bit longer than the last one did.

Taking snow load into consideration (even though the load that collapsed the old one was the biggest snow since something like 1921) the new roof is 10/12 pitched, with 2 X 10 rafters on 16" centers, and ¾" sheathing.

I still have to do some landscaping - arborvitae, junipers, and some color - and install the ceiling fan, but other than that, she's done!
 

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