Approximate weight of snow???

[Clarence Martin]

I know there are a bunch of variables, dry vs wet, but what would be a rough estimate on the weight of snow ? Yesterday, I shoveled a path about 3 feet wide, by 30 feet in length one way, then another path 20 feet, then another 30 feet on the other side of the house, then 8 feet in length in front of the mail box, and finally, another 8 feet in front of the garbage totes. all this was 24 to 30 inches in depth.

How much would all that snow that I shoveled weigh ??


I am bone tired from all that shoveling!!!!!!!!:eek:

[Lee Schierer]

I did a quick internet search and found "average snow" weighs 15 pounds per cubic foot, "light fluffy snow" weighs about 5-6 pounds per cubic foot. "Wind driven compacted snow" can weigh 20 pounds per cubic foot. "Wet snow" can weigh 20-25 pounds per cubic foot. Water weighs 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. Assuming all your snow was 24" deep and all the paths were 3 feet wide, you shoveled 576 cubic feet or about 8640 pounds of "Average" snow.

A good snow blower can do that much in about 20 minutes without breaking a sweat.

[Paolo Trevisan]

The official wt of snow to use per the bldg codes is roughly 20pcf. Further to this another interesting item is that 10" of snow equates to 1" of water.

Pmt

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Wow- so a 40x30 roof with a foot of snow is holding 24,000 pounds. That's a lot of weight.

[Jim Koepke]

A good snow blower can do that much in about 20 minutes without breaking a sweat.

Well that is good... who'd want a sweaty snow blower parked in their garage?

jtk

[Dick Adair]

Jim, now that is funny.

[Brett Luna]

Wow- so a 40x30 roof with a foot of snow is holding 24,000 pounds. That's a lot of weight.

I can testify. I've had to shovel my roof on more than one occasion. No.fun.at.all.

[Jerry Thompson]

When I was a boy in South Dakota I can remember my Dad having to shovel down through 3 feet of snow to grease the windmill. Well it might have been 2 feet. Time changes memories.

[Richard McComas]

I can testify. I've had to shovel my roof on more than one occasion. No.fun.at.all.

Best way to avoid having to shovel a roof is to put on a metal roof. The snow just slides right off. :)


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[Shawn Pachlhofer]

Best way to avoid having to shovel a roof is to put on a metal roof. The snow just slides right off. :)


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nah. Move to Houston. :D

[Rich Engelhardt]

I am bone tired from all that shoveling!!!!!!!!:eek:Back when I worked in a paint store, we'd get regular shipments in via 40' semi.
Usually 20 skids w/120 gallons per skid.
We'd have to unload it all by hand and wheel it into the store's back door.
2400 gallons X 54 pounds (rough average) per gallon comes out to 129,600 pounds.
We figured each box got handled three times - once onto a two wheeler, once staged in the warehouse and once put into it's place on the shelf.

The worst of all though were the bags of waterproofing. They came in a full 40' semi , stacked two skids high the full length of the box.
That was 40 skids w/80 50# bags per skid.

That was a long time ago though - but - I'd still rather hump a couple of semi's loaded with paint than shovel snow any day of the week! :D

[Rick Moyer]

Back when I worked in a paint store, we'd get regular shipments in via 40' semi.
Usually 20 skids w/120 gallons per skid.
We'd have to unload it all by hand and wheel it into the store's back door.
2400 gallons X 54 pounds (rough average) per gallon comes out to 129,600 pounds.
We figured each box got handled three times - once onto a two wheeler, once staged in the warehouse and once put into it's place on the shelf.

The worst of all though were the bags of waterproofing. They came in a full 40' semi , stacked two skids high the full length of the box.
That was 40 skids w/80 50# bags per skid.

That was a long time ago though - but - I'd still rather hump a couple of semi's loaded with paint than shovel snow any day of the week! :D

Not questioning your estimated weight, but that would be about a 160,000 tractor trailer. Is that legal in Ohio?

[Mike Lassiter]

in US, max total weight for normal ( not oversized or special heavy hauls using many more axles than a standard 3 axle truck, 2axle trailer) is 80,000 pounds total. Payload typically around 40,000 give or take depending on the specific truck/trailer. You couldn't load a standard 2 axle trailer that heavy, it would break the springs, mash the tires flat or blow them out. Van trailers are mostly used for palleted items that are loaded and unloaded with a forklift that drives in the trailer to load and unload. Flatbeds used for bulky and heavy items have much stronger frames and crossmembers supporting the flooring ( mostly thick wood) where a hugh amount of weight maybe sitting in a small area on the trailer bed. Like a huge coil of steel which you frequently see 1 large sometimes 2 smaller being a load due to weight limits.

I think the error here is a 54 pound gallon can of paint. :eek:

[John Lanciani]

2400 gallons X 54 pounds (rough average) per gallon comes out to 129,600 pounds.
:D

Ill give you 54 lbs. for a box (4 gal.) but even that is a stretch. Paint is +/- 10 lbs per gal. 2400 gal is closer to 25k lbs. with packaging.

[Jerome Stanek]

When I was installing Revco Drug stores we always looked at the weight of the fixture in the trailers We would get between 40,000 and 44,000 LBs per trailer. would get 3 or 4 trailers a store all in one day. Had to hand unload them as there was no dock

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Perhaps it was lead paint. :-)

[Mike Lassiter]

Perhaps it was lead paint. :-)

:rolleyes:

AND a LONG time ago - since lead has been banned from paint for decades now.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I think the error here is a 54 pound gallon can of paint. :eek:
Correct - my bad...54 pounds is the case weight.


Ill give you 54 lbs. for a box (4 gal.) but even that is a stretchWeights were always printed on the outsides of the cases.
After seeing 54 pounds printed on God only knows how many cases of paint over a 20 plus year span of looking at them, I remember that pretty clear.
Aluminum paint (not roof coating) was the lightest at about 39 pounds a case.
Latex paints ran between 50 and 56 pounds per case

My bad on the math - 2400 gallons @ roughly 13 pounds per gallon comes out to 31,200 pounds.

Emulsion block filler was the worst. That stuff ran 75 pounds per 5 gal pail. What made that stuff the worst though was were it had to be delivered. It always went to a muddy construction site where you had a 2x10 plank across the mud or to a high rise were the buckets had to be humped up stairs.


:rolleyes:

AND a LONG time ago - since lead has been banned from paint for decades nowI'd say it was a while ago...
I started working there part time in the Summer of 1968..



Not questioning your estimated weight, but that would be about a 160,000 tractor trailer. Is that legal in Ohio?I'm not 100% sure of the number of 50# bags were on each skid. I recall they were stacked 5 per layer and packed in the truck two skids high. I also recall the trucks being packed solid all the way from the back to the nose.
Our store was the distribution point for the metro Cleveland area - which totaled about 8 stores with Akron's two stores and the Lorain store figured in.
If 80,000 is the max, then my figure would have to be off by two. I probably made a mistake in the number per pallet. (obviously)