NZS 3604:2011

and more

Snow
loading
The citing of AS/NZS 1170 Structural
design actions in December 2008
introduced a number of changes to snow
loading on buildings, and these have
resulted in changes in NZS 3604.
By Roger Shelton, BRANZ Senior Structural Engineer

T
he snow loads quoted in NZS 3604:2011 are ‘ground snow loads’.
Snow loads on a building’s roof can be considerably less than
this, depending on roof pitch and shape. Snow loads in the 1999
version of NZS 3604 are 0 kPa, 0.5 kPa and 1.0 kPa.

Research to see if change needed

To assess the impact of AS/NZS  1170:2002 and revisit those loads,
BRANZ carried out a study to assess the impact on NZS 3604-designed
buildings over the whole country.
Several locations and a range of building activity were chosen. Various
options were considered to avoid overdesign, while maximising the scope
and coverage of the document throughout the country. The effects of the
options for snow loading on various roof members were also investigated.
The study revealed that, up to 1.0 kPa of snow, wind loads, dead loads
and concentrated live loads dominated over snow loads on the sizing of
members. In other words, up to 1.0  kPa of snow, there was very little
reduction in member spans.

Changes to cut-offs and some spans

The conclusion reached was that cut-off values of 1.0 kPa, 1.5 kPa and
2.0  kPa was the optimal arrangement for NZS 3604:2011. Only high-
altitude towns such as Lake Tekapo, Omarama, Mt Cook village and
Arthur’s Pass are outside the scope of NZS 3604:2011.
A new provision has also been added to account for the extra
depth of snow that drifts onto a lower roof abutting an upper wall (see
NZS 3604:2011 Figure 15.2). This results in span reductions for some
members (such as purlins and rafters) in the higher snow load regions.

Depending on snow density, a ground snow load of:

❚❚ 1 kPa is equivalent to a depth of 350 mm of snow
❚❚ 1.5 kPa to 520 mm of snow
❚❚ 2 kPa to 700 mm of snow.

BUILD 124 June/July 2011 37