Will it collapse?

[John6719]

So I’m sitting here in my office and over hear people talking about the ceiling tiles. I get up and go look to see what they are talking about and…..

In our office area, the ceiling tiles are supported in two ways, the majority are tied to the rafters and around the edges they are simply attached to the supporting walls (like most false ceilings).

Well, the tiles attached to the rafters are sagging close to 2” compared to where they are attached to supporting walls (meaning that the snow load on our roof has caused the rafters to sag that much). As I look straight up in my little office, I see the tiles bulging down towards me. Now, I’m not so much worried about the tiles falling out, but more the issue of what the tiles are attached to (the steel roof rafters) falling down. So, wish me luck that this building doesn’t end up like the turkey barn I saw the other day and this:


http://www.keyc.com/node/31887

Still waiting to hear what the plan is from our facilities manager.... Maybe it isn't as bad as it looks:confused:

[Guy]

"Instead of waiting for the ceiling to collapse on you...go up there a shovel the shit off!":confused:

Stay safe.

[Highspeed160th]

Be carefull...Shovels on a membrane roof are a no no.

[John6719]

"Instead of waiting for the ceiling to collapse on you...go up there a shovel the shit off!":confused:

Stay safe.

That would be like trying to empty a lake with a coffee cup (well, not exactly but...).

The roof is something like 16,000 sq ft, with up to 6-8 feet of snow in spots, that would be a hell of a job (especially in my office cloths:biggrin:).

I'm sure they will eventually get maintenance up there and do something with it, but the safety guy is over here surveying the situation as I type.

[KidA]

When I saw the thread title I thought you were going to be asking about that skyscraper in Dubai and I was going to ask "is it wrong if I think it is funny if it does?"

[John6719]

When I saw the thread title I thought you were going to be asking about that skyscraper in Dubai and I was going to ask "is it wrong if I think it is funny if it does?"


:biggrin:Who really cares about that:biggrin:

I just saw something on the news about that place yesterday. Must be their grand opening today?

[Guy]

That would be like trying to empty a lake with a coffee cup (well, not exactly but...).If you were about to drown, that "coffee cup" would get used...

The roof is something like 16,000 sq ft, with up to 6-8 feet of snow in spots, that would be a hell of a job (especially in my office cloths:biggrin:).I'd get fired on the spot for using that "office clothing" excuse.:eek:

I'm sure they will eventually get maintenance up there and do something with it, but the safety guy is over here surveying the situation as I type.The "safety" guy should have been removing the snow as it was accumulating...OH! I'm sorry! The weather person screwed up...snow accumulates at feet/sec.:eek:

Stay safe.

[John6719]

The funniest part about this all is that they just did a TON of work on this roof because of the structural issues with it. They welded in a bunch of reinforcements and took the AC units off the roof to remove extra weight. I guess it maybe would have caved in already if that wasn't done, but wow, this IS Minnesota....

Well, they moved me out of my office and put me in another on the otherside of the building where there is a lot less snow and the roof doesn't seem to be sagging.

I hear you Guy, we knew it was going to snow a shit ton, someone should have had this done by now. I think I would get fired on the spot if I was caught on the roof shoveling snow SAFETY HAZARD!!!:rolleyes: (Stupid), but I'm glad I'm not not allowed to do it, it fricken cold as shit here (-23 when I left the house at 0800)!

[Gpool]

What is the distance between the load bearing points? I’ll run it through a calculation and let you know the roofs chance of failure :)

If you are concerned, try to sit near the load bearing points. If you here any loud sounds or see any deflection happening quickly (over minutes or and hour) leave work. Steel will usually give you a heads up before it fails from a static load. Stay Aware.

[ET1/ss nuke]

Why shovel it when you could just napalm the roof and let the runoff go down the gutter drains?

[John6719]

Why shovel it when you could just napalm the roof and let the runoff go down the gutter drains?

Best idea yet!

I can't make this shit up:

So they call the engineer that ?designed the reinforcements? and asked him if it was safe or not. He said as long as it is flexing less than 2.3", you're g2g. So, in the most precise way posible, a guy grabs a tape measure and eyes across the difference in the ceiling tiles, and comes to a conclusion that is is only flexing 2".

They began scooping snow off of the roof, but after about 15 min (and very little snow scooped in comparison to the amount up their) they quit. I don't think they even scooped enough to get past the eves, so they really didn't help any, all the weight between the load bearing points is still there.:rolleyes:

Oh well, it hasn't collapsed yet, and I'm in a different part of the building now anyway, so they can choose to do what they want.

[Highspeed160th]

Whats on top of the roof? In Chicago we kept a snow blower on ours. I ran the maintenance department for a 300,000 facility.

[John6719]

It's just a steel roof. I would guess about a 2/12 pitch, so just enough to keep the water flowing, but not nearly enough to let the snow slide off. The fairly tall ridges in the roof would make it pretty hard to do with a snowblower in this case, but I've seen that done before on other buildings. If it were my building, I would get a telehandler with a bucket and pull a few feet off of the one area that is real bad. We were joking today that the roof would be fine until they lifted a Wrangler Loader (same size as a skidsteer only it's an articulated chasis) up there to scoop it off. :)

The problem is it butts up to the east side of taller building, which just makes all of the snow drift right on top of this roof. And with 21" in just one storm--makes for a lot of snow on the roof!