The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Never mind toppling dominoes - how about falling ice?
I must admit, I found this fascinating - as well as funny.
Normally on sheetmetal roofs in northern climes there are safety brackets that prevent the snow and ice from sliding off. I know I've read it in the Ontario Building Code.
If you were caught under that fall of ice you could quite easily die. Falling ice is heavy and hard enough to fracture every bone in your body including your skull.
This was quite a problem in the Dallas Fort Worth area during the Ice storm in Dec. Few roofs were pitched enough to prevent heavy accumulation of ice.
Great reminder to look up as part of your situational awareness
My Vermont farmhouse has standing seam metal roofing that sheds snow just like this. There are no brackets to catch the ice and snow, which would defeat the primary purpose of having a roof you don't have to rake the snow from. Why create ice dams when you don't want them? You can place diverters over doorways that might help prevent the avalanche directly on you, but the depth of the snow coming off has as much influence on that as anything. The noise inside the building is as impressive as that outside when it lets loose.
3 comments:
Normally on sheetmetal roofs in northern climes there are safety brackets that prevent the snow and ice from sliding off. I know I've read it in the Ontario Building Code.
If you were caught under that fall of ice you could quite easily die. Falling ice is heavy and hard enough to fracture every bone in your body including your skull.
Al_in_Ottawa
This was quite a problem in the Dallas Fort Worth area during the Ice storm in Dec.
Few roofs were pitched enough to prevent heavy accumulation of ice.
Great reminder to look up as part of your situational awareness
My Vermont farmhouse has standing seam metal roofing that sheds snow just like this. There are no brackets to catch the ice and snow, which would defeat the primary purpose of having a roof you don't have to rake the snow from. Why create ice dams when you don't want them? You can place diverters over doorways that might help prevent the avalanche directly on you, but the depth of the snow coming off has as much influence on that as anything. The noise inside the building is as impressive as that outside when it lets loose.
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