Roof Load Distribution

The load bearing capacity of a roof should be adequate to support not only the roof cladding materials such as tiles or shingles but also objects that sit on top of the roof like antennae satellite dishes air conditioning units solar hot water systems and solar photovoltaic panels.

Roof load distribution.

Technically you should use the actual rafter length when adding up the weight of roofing materials. The dead load of a typical asphalt shingled wood framed roof is about 15 pounds per square foot. This means that one is a fixed node and the other is a rolling node. A fixed node will provide support in both directions down the length of the roof truss members often called the x and y directions.

Live loads and total loads which are dead load live load. Remember these loads are distributed uniformly over the entire surface of the roof. Roof uniform load distribution these examples use an assumed load of 40 psf. The live load appropriate to your locale is specified by your building official.

The load increases with the use of heavier roofing material. To do this i use conservative too heavy dead loads and full snow loads regardless of pitch. Here each square foot of roof system delivers 50 pounds of live load and 15 pounds of dead load 65 psf total to the structural support system. However in my practice i typically use the horizontal run of the roof for both types of load.

A clay tiled roof may have a dead load.