Rules Tighten As Result Of Roof Collapses No New Barns To Escape Review; Experts Disagree On Crumpling

Kootenai County’s construction cops have toughened some building rules in the wake of a series of early January roof collapses.

County building inspectors will require engineers to design roof truss systems for pole barns rather than allow some barns to be constructed without an engineer’s review.

But more than a month after as many as 50 North Idaho sheds, garages and businesses crumpled under heavy snow, building experts still disagree on the cause. The vast majority of those structures were unoccupied storage buildings.

No one was hurt in any collapse.

At issue is whether the problem was with the materials, the people erecting the structures or the building rules.

City of Coeur d’Alene building chief Mike Jacobs maintains a great number of the failures can be traced to truss manufacturers.

Many of the metal roof trusses turned out to be thinner and weaker than the manufacturer had claimed, he said.

County building chief Dave Daniel, meanwhile, maintains most of the failures were caused by one of three factors:

Builders who didn’t follow plans.

Owners who didn’t tell engineers how the building would be used.

Improperly engineered plans.

Daniel also acknowledged that in about three cases, his inspectors “inadvertently approved” inadequate plans.

“In some of the ones that failed, the engineers had taken it upon themselves to reduce” the amount of snow weight the roof can handle, Daniel said.

County and city rules require structures be built to withstand 40 pounds of snow per square foot, Daniel said. Some were built to handle only 25 to 30 pounds per square foot - a mistake his office didn’t catch.

“We overlook things from time to time,” Daniel said.

Neither Daniel nor Jacobs would blame the problem on inadequate roof snow loading requirements.

But some builders, like Momb Steel Buildings, did.

“The regulations are clearly insufficient,” said Momb marketing manager Harry Sawyer.

He pointed to a University of Idaho study that recommended buildings in northern Kootenai County be erected to withstand more than 40 pounds of snow.

In fact, after a handful of their buildings collapsed this winter, Momb has decided on its own to build stronger roofs. But the company wishes other builders were required to do the same.

“We won’t even sell a building unless it has a 54-pound snow load anymore,” he said.

, DataTimes