1. Scope

Keywords

Rationale

Currently industry representatives do not follow a prescribed or consistent method for determining the load bearing capabilities and failure mode of Individual Mechanically Fastened Snow Retention Devices that are being applied to building roof and facade surfaces. Thus, this new standard is intended to provide an industry wide and consistent method for determining and reporting the ultimate load capacity and failure mode of a particular individual mechanically fastened snow retention device. This allows a particular individual device to be reliably utilized in an ice and snow retention design, as the device load capacity and failure mode aspects are only two of many components of design calculations for the development of a device layout that also considers the surface snow load, fastener strength / requirements in a particular substrate, etc. Ultimately, this standard is intended to assist with the prevention of possible injury / death from ice and snow fall from building surfaces (i.e. roofs and facades), as well as assist ice and snow retention designers with the understanding of a particular devices failure mode, as the device limitations need to be considered within the overall system layout at the design stage in order to avoid any system failure or determine if the chosen device is not suitable (or requires additional conservatism in its application) for the layout required.