Get shoveling!!

I do not understand why those who look after building operations/maintenance do not know what the load capacity is for the building they are responsible for and how to determine what the snow load on a roof is.

Buildings typically come with a set of binders that have as-built drawings, equipment specs and manuals and base information such as the key code information they were designed to.

But hey, we have had a couple of explosions recently which also deal with building and operations maintenance, so this should really be no surprise.

Kudos to Canfor to taking proactive measures for the safety of their employees.

That is true gus, I would be very surprised if that documentation has been preserved.

Wouldn”t it seem reasonable to take proactive measures to reduce the snow load before it got to the stage where you have to shut it down? It’s the beginning of January. It’s common sense that if you have lots of snow already there is going to be more.

They had a mill in Upper Fraser for years and there was a lot more snow there so they must have had some procedures in place where they removed the snow before it became an issue.

Common sense would indicate that shallow sloped roofs are not appropriate beyond Hope.
Roofs should be built to shed snow loads to a safe location off the main load bearing structure, like onto the ground.
Sure, there are issues with dealing with that, but this is the correct answer.
Look at the design of many, if not most northern European buildings.

It seems to me that we are building from designs from much further south, like Vancouver or the USA. I think all civil engineers and architects should have to reside outside the lower mainland for a few years before they receive their stamp or attain a northern structures design certificate.

A project is a problem scheduled for a solution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche

I grew up in a similar climate. The original part of our house had a steeply sloped roof, but the living room and garage, which were both additions, had roofs that were nearly flat and had to be shovelled off every winter. The garage also had a jack in the middle to prop up the roof. Why people are so foolish as to build such nearly flat roofs in a snowy climate is beyond me.

“Common sense would indicate that shallow sloped roofs are not appropriate beyond Hope”

Common sense would say to design the buildings to withstand the snow load- and live load. There are hundreds of flat roofs in PG that were designed properly and snow load has never been an issue. There are a few that have been modified to add mechanical units or maybe corners were cut during construction where snow load may now be a concern.
I cant imagine any sawmill contractor cutting corners to save a dollar from the “bid” amount.

“Look at the design of many, if not most northern European buildings.”

Interesting observations.

The further north one goes on the European mainland while at the same time getting closer to the coast, the steeper the roofs become. The reason? To shed the rain, not the snow or ice. Those places which have steep slopes will also have ice guards near the edge to prevent the snow/ice from sliding off which actually tends to damage the building walls along the way down, or the landscaping on the ground, or people walking on the sidewalk or cars parked adjacent to buildings, etc.

The further inland and the higher one gets into the alps, the flatter the roofs become. Reason? Simple. Snow acts as an insulator. There are no cold attic spaces in roofs of older buildings and most newer buildings with sloped roofs. You will see lots of icicles on such buildings because when the snow is deep enough the bottom layer starts to melt and make its way down to the roof edge, where it encounters the cold air and freezes.

That was the traditional way, and tradition typically overrides modern technology.

North American asphalt shingle roof do not typically provide enough protection. The typical spec is to put building paper under the first 3 feet of a shingle roof. That is not enough.

Gus, not to mention hard on the trusses and A frame structure if one side slides off and the other does not.

But back to the story at hand, they are probably more cautious considering the collapse of the JDLittle nursery roof last year

I work at this mill, for the last 5 or 6 years we have been asking for a new roof but have been told time and again that it will not happen because it will cost to much $$$$ to replace it, so when thay said it was do too much snow on the roof that is only a 1/2 truth you see we have had several severe fire over the years that had damaged the roof but has never been fixed more because it does not affect production so thay never bothered to have it fixed properly,
I’m just grateful nobody got hurt

Gus.. The current load capacity now won’t accurately reflect the as built design. You have to consider the age of the structure, efervesance, frost jacking, metallurgical breakdown.. Just to mention a few contributing factors. This is why the mill was shut down in order to investigate the “current” state of the structure. Not only that.. it is also a regulatory requirement to do regure inspections and due dilligance to shut the mill down if there was reasonable concerns like a abnormally high snow fall..

Effervescence? …. You must mean efflorescence.

I am not sure what efflorescence would have to do with what I assume would be a steel roof structure.

Efflorescence is typically seen on masonry walls and sometimes on concrete walls. It is the leaching of salts from the porous materials. Has nothing to do with weakening steel unless steel joists and beams are supported directly on masonry walls and some serious weakening of the masonry has occurred in the are of support.

Frost jacking (heaving) … where? under the column bases?

Metallurgical breakdown … ??/ you mean metal fatigue .. rust? …

Sure a building has to be inspected for some of those things, but it would have had to be a poorly engineered, poorly constructed and/or a poorly maintained building to have any problems like that after decades of service.

The main problem is, what snowload was it designed for and under what code; then comparing that with the actual conditions of snow load now as well as a quick look through the building to see tell-tale signs such as variable beam slopes that stand out as an exception to the rest, excessive joist deflection, excessive joist deflection, etc.

As they say, better be safe than sorry.

Gus.. Just because things have to be routinely inspect doesn’t necisarry mean its a poorly engineered structure. Anything that is built and subjected to the forces of nature and regar mechanical break down will fail at some point. All engineered structures have a life span and sometimes there are un foreseen circumstances that can shorten this life span. Which is why you have to take pro active measures to asses the risks. This whole shut down is about risk mitigation and not necisarrily shoddy engineering.