Conservatory collapsed due to weight of snow.
 

A friend of my daughters sent some pictures and a warning yesterday of her neighbours conservatory that had collapsed due to the weight of snow on its roof. I've seen these pictures and the conservatory looks like it was a fairly new pitched roof pvc one. It is totally destroyed, the roof is laying on the floor inside and the sides are pushed out and laying on the floor outside. Apparently somebody nearby has had their carport collapse as well. This is in Killamarsh, South Sheffield not far from me. We have had over two feet of snow here in Chesterfield, with some drifts totally covering some cars.

Wonder if it'll happen to ours. It would be nice to have a new one and I assume such things would be covered by insurance :D

The owner had commented on FB that she'd informed her insurance and was covered.


I have this image of you now, shovelling snow on to your roof not off. :lol:

Is pvc tough ?

I know its cheaper than the styrene / polycarbonate ....and also more prone to uv degradation

I worried about mine, but the warmth inside is allowing it to slide down the roof in huge sheets.

I had let the snow accumulate to around 18" on top of the car and before clearing it I took a measurement of 10cm from wheel arch to the start of the metal on the alloys. After clearing it the measurement was 12cm - quite a bit of weight I'd say.

I had to get the spade out of the wife's car boot and could barely lift the hatch, before I knocked the snow off, around 10" I'd say.

There's a Ka over the road with that much snow on it you'd think it was a Minibus :eek:

Did it have internal tie-rods?

I've seen alot built these day without them, which strikes me as odd, as from an engineering point of view, it means there is nothing to stop the weight of the roof from pushing out the sides.

Ours has tie-rods, due to being wood framed and having a double glazed glass roof, so it has to bear up to a hefty load with/without snow.

Also if the conservatory was built infront of a sloping roof end of a house then there should be a barrier on the house roof to stop snow sliding onto the conservatory.

Conveniently undoing some screws :D

Thinking about it, I'm fed up of that wooden roof....and all the double glazing uints have broken down internally anyway......and underfloor heating would be nice

< gets adjustable spanner >

;)

I'm more worried about the flat roof garage TBH. There's over a foot on it and its starting to bow slightly as its a double.

On the plus side, that too is in dire need of renewal :D As long as they dont replace the asbestos sheeting like for like :Suspiciou

The GF's parents have had the same today!

I have a kind of car port type arrangement at work that we valet cars under, used to use various gazebo type things but they always ended up being mega hassle.

So i constructed one from scaffolding poles, the thing is built like a tank, i lost the heavy duty tarpaulin so i roofed it in proper galvanised steel sheeting.

You should have seen how much the scaffolding poles were bent 3 days ago, holy crap!

Ladders out and i managed to remove most of the weight, but it still has a massive lump in the centre giving the pipes a bit of a bend, we dont dare put any cars under it until it all melts and goes back to normal.

Mine was similar. Thats got a steel sheet roof and there was about 2' of snow on it. When I heard this I was up on the flat roof next to it for about an hour shoving all the snow off.

Oh my god, no conservatory, what room will they now not use in winter because its too cold and not use in summer because its too hot, where will they keep their flies ?

We get a lot of snow every year. Anything over 8 to 10 inches and I'll clear it off (inlcuding the roof) Roof strong enough, but gutters and facia boards prone to damage, especially as it melts.

Would never leave more than that on top of an unsupported flat roof or conservatory roof.

Deep snow is fine when its powder fresh, but when it consolidates and freezes down becomes much, much more dense and heavier.

You know what, that sums it up absolutely perfectly.

Winter - ours has a mahoosive radiator in it, but its dark all the time, so whats the point? Therefore not used.

Summer - too hot mostly, so doors and windows open.

Flies - see summer. Hundreds of flies and constantly hoovering up the dead.

This, seems dumb to leave it on, asking for trouble really.

Well get yourself one of these Daikin heat/cool pump climate control units. Will heat or cool your conservatory in seconds. Our conservatory is open to our kitchen and is used every day. We had one of these installed when the conservatory was erected and its the most comfortable room in the house. Also, in the summer you can turn the temp right down and cool the whole downstairs. No need for radiators or roof vents then either. :thumb:

Ditto - we had two of these installed (its a big room and south facing). I have loads of family coming over on Xmas day and that's where we will have Xmas lunch.