Comment by citrin_ru

7 days ago

A-frame houses are not efficient in terms of space inside and thermal properties (both because of low volume to surface ratio). It's sufficient to have 40-45° root pitch to avoid snow accumulation.

18 comments

citrin_ru

Reply
boringg  7 days ago

Depends what you are optimizing for -- roof collapse in a high snow load local or the level of efficiency for thermal properties. You can drive for high efficiency of your thermal properties but when your roof collapses those efficiencies are meaningless.

Home design is a game of engineering tradeoffs with the occasional new technology to improve things or lower costs.

  • UltraSane  7 days ago

    An A-frame is a overkill solution to snow load when you can just make a shallower roof stronger.

    • dathinab  7 days ago

      only to a limit

      enough snow, especially if compacted, especially if it involves melting + refreezing cycles turning part of it too ice and even robust concrete building can have some surprising issues

      but it's true that for what most places in the world need a slightly tilted and structural stable roof is good enough, if you know how to clean it if things to south

      3 replies →

    • pastage  7 days ago

      Tradition says that this is not true but honestly I have no real experience except I have done the calculation for our roof. According to our local building standards at 60⁰ you basically have zero snow load, I am not sure what angle a shallow angle roof is but 30⁰ is max load. 6kN/m² is a lot of extra strength.

      10 replies →