From my bedroom window after a snow storm which brought over two feet of snow.
We had over 2 feet of snow last night. I awoke to everything outside being completely white. My first thought was worry for the greenhouse. My plan was to push snow off each side the night before. This would let the new snow slide off easier during the storm. This did not happen. Everything looked fine from outside my bedroom window.
That is a lot of snow being supported by Solexx on 4 foot centers. With 2 foot centers -as suggested- I can only imagine the snow load it could handle.
I got dressed and bundled up for a fight with the snow to save the greenhouse. When I got outside I could see that my barn (old observatory) had completely collapsed. I have plans to put another greenhouse in that location this spring. So, the collapse is motivation and no big loss. The greenhouse itself and Solexx seemed to be fine.
Most of that snow is being held by a single piece of H channel going down each side of the Solexx.
I grabbed my trusty broom and started to pull snow from the side of the greenhouse. It quickly came down in waves covering me up to my waist. I went in the greenhouse and began to hit areas I couldn’t reach from outside. At this point I saw that one of the H channels had slipped off the edge of the Solexx. I’m not really surprised since we are using 4 foot centers and Solexx is not brittle and bends. With the amount of weight on the greenhouse I am surprised that there was not more damage. It will be an easy repair job this spring now that I know how to support those weaker areas of the structure.
If the greenhouse was polycarbonate I would be scared to try and remove the snow for fear that the sides would be brittle and crack when I hit them with a broom. With the Solexx I can hit the still soft and bendable material to bounce the snow from the roof.
I knew there was a greenhouse in there somewhere.
Overall it was a good lesson and none of the Solexx was damaged. We will need to pull the slipped piece of H channel out and slide a new one into place before spring but no big deal.
Just as I was finishing up...
It started to snow again...
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