Anyone want to bet on snow colapse insurance?

The post below, got me to thinking of a warning for all the folks that will have a white x-mas.

On winters with deep snow, I get calls often to ask how much snow the roofs will hold. I already know what words they are trying to put in my mouth. I usualy ask for the building specks, that we all know are long gone and thrown away.

Yesterday I lost my reputation of never loosing a building from wind or snow ( I started in 1964) I did loose one from a tornado when a barn landed on my addition.

There was some old age problems with this one, and we did not loose it, rather all the truss rafters started breaking down.

Many buildings that go down seem to be built by the same outfit. Sure seems as though they must always build where there is more wind, and snow than the other contractors building sites. Kind of like high winds always blow harder around trailer courts.

Then of course the insurance card is tossed up in the air, and I blast it down with a 100 to 1 odds that they do NOT have any such coverage.

It is not totaly unheard of, but I have never seen such a ploicy in my life.

I would be intrested in knowing how many here actulay know they have such coverage. (REPEAT--KNOW THEY HAVE SUCH COVERAGE) Then the ones who thought they did?

This is just a heads up for those of you that own roofs with lots of snow.

Also it is often a safe bet for farmers who back through their (unattatched) garage doors, seldom do they have any insurance at all. Not to may are covered in our area, unless it is a attatched garage. Residentual is a totaly different story however.

It seems that we often assume we have insurance when we have a claim.

Yes, under the section on collapse with a Kentucky FO 3 farm owners policy from Kentucky Farm Bureau. A single event of snow or ice which causes partial or total collapse of the structure.

Lost my barn to snow collapse in Buffalo Ny. in 2002. 5' of snow with 3" of rain on top of that. One Beacon insurance company paid for 100% replacement. Bill M.

Last year when the snow started piling up, insurance co sent out letters that, while they will cover loss if it happens, be a good idea to check your roofs and if you can safely, try to deal with deep snow on them.

While that's far from a settlement of any sort, it would appear there is coverage of such or they wouldn't indicate they will cover collapse????

--->Paul

i have a small home, just 24x36. every time i get up and shovel the snow off my ins. pays me $100. it saves them the cost of a new roof. wally

My new shed has FULL coverage. Learned it the hard way after a 50 year old machine shed collapsed during the 2009 snow storm.

any broad form policy would cover collapse as result of weight of ice and snow. Been handling claims 25+ years in WV mountains, seen a few, winter of 1998, had a wet snow that put down over 40 inches in in 2 days, one Kroger and small strip mall collapsed, several pre-engineered metal church gyms fell, lotsa free standing carports and 1 single family house, after engineer finished inspecting felt it was more about not enough nails fastening rafters, ties, etc but still covered, several bows in attics where a couple of rafters would crack, almost always where a knot hole was located, largest number of claims was trees breaking from weight of snow and falling on structures (also covered)

My homeowner's insurance covers out buildings at 10% the insured value of the home. Don't know about snow insurance. May be like flood insurance, it's a special policy.

It has been several years but my brother had three or four trusses break, insurance payed, the biggest hassle was from the builder of the pole barn in the first place. They had re-engineered the trusses that broke for more height, they were trying to tell him it was his fault they broke. He informed them they had sold the building with the modified trusses and he didn t care, fix the roof, the insurance was paying the bill!

Last year on this sight I read about a man that got killed when he fell through his sky light while removing snow from his roof.

My pole barn was designed by a company in Michigan that put trusses on 2 ft centers and used 1/2 osb decking. You then had a choice of metal or shingles for the roof. Perhaps people who have a pole barn built should think of snow loads and put trusses closer that 8 ft apart.