Franklin County, GA Roof Snow Load - 10 psf
Franklin County, GA roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Franklin County is designed to carry 10 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. ASCE 7's low-slope-roof minimum (§7.3.4) raises the governing figure to 10 psf - higher than the 7 psf the ground-load formula alone would give, and the code says use the larger one.
On a roof that means 22 in. of fresh snow, 8 in. once it packs down, or 2 in. of solid ice - three very different piles for the same load. Standard residential construction handles a load this size without extra bracing; it is a modest addition on top of ordinary roof loading.
Franklin County in numbers
- Design roof snow load10 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map10 psf
- National rank#1,879 of 2,758
- Georgia rank#13 of 159
- Population25,208
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0.9 in.
- FIPS13119
Where Franklin County ranks
#13 of 159 Georgia counties by design load, top 68% of 2,758 nationally - that's Franklin County's spot. 3.6 psf is Georgia's typical county figure - Franklin County beats it by 6.4 psf.
FIPS 13119, population 25,208, centered near 34.3751°N 83.228°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 10 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 10 psf design figure above.
Franklin County: average annual snowfall
Franklin County sees about 0.9 in. of snow most winters, per the CARNESVILLE, GA US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Franklin County's figure
The figure above assumes the case ASCE 7-22 treats as typical: a heated, ordinary-occupancy home on a partially exposed site. Change any of those - exposure, heating, roof pitch, occupancy category - and the real design number moves.
A building permit needs the number at your exact address, not the county average - the free ASCE 7 Hazard Tool returns that from your coordinates in about a minute and produces a PDF a plan reviewer will accept. Details: the calculation guide.