A conservatory roof is a complex piece of engineering, and this guide attempts to explain the various forces acting on it in simple terms. I am not a structural engineer – this is a guide only and should not be used as the basis for any calculations. As always, if in doubt seek professional advice before deciding if a design is structurally sound. |
Forces
There are several major forces acting on a roof:
In order to determine if the roof is suitable for its site location we need following information:
The site specific information is often looked up from a location map – contact your roof supplier for more details. |
Failures
A conservatory will begin to fail for a number of reasons:
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Remedies
If the given design is found to be insufficiently strong there are a number of remedies, including:
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Tie Bars
Portal Frames
Automating Remedies
Resolving some of these structural issues manually can be very time-consuming and often requires the services of a structural engineer. Better software systems can recommend solutions automatically for many designs although complex designs will still need to be referred to an expert. In some cases there can be several ways of solving specific structural issues, and this is where the experience of a qualified engineer is invaluable.RoofWright Bronze, Silver and Gold editions all allow tie bars to be added and shown.
RoofWright Silver and Gold Editions allow designs to be exported to Autocad for further structural analysis, and allow portal frames to be drawn and shown. All versions of roofwright provide for structural checks, but this data needs to be configured for your roof system. To find out if this information is available for your roof system, contact us or your roof system supplier. John Morris-Ashton Senior Support Engineer |