Waller County, TX Roof Snow Load - 5 psf
Waller County, TX roof snow load, translated
A typical heated home in Waller County is designed to carry 5 pounds per square foot of snow on its roof, per ASCE 7-22. 3.5 psf is what the ground-load formula alone gives; Waller County's 5 psf low-slope minimum (§7.3.4) beats it, so that figure is the one that governs on flat and low-pitch roofs.
On a roof that means 11 in. of fresh snow, 4 in. once it packs down, or 1 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.
Waller County in numbers
- Design roof snow load5 psf
- Ground snow load, ASCE 7 map5 psf
- National rank#2,168 of 2,758
- Texas rank#80 of 254
- Population65,109
- Annual snowfall, NOAA normal0 in.
- FIPS48473
Where Waller County ranks
#80 of 254 Texas counties by design load, top 79% of 2,758 nationally - that's Waller County's spot. That's 0.4 psf below Texas's own county-average design load of 5.4 psf.
FIPS 48473, population 65,109, centered near 30.0136°N 95.9821°W. ASCE 7's underlying ground snow load here is 5 psf before the code's exposure and importance factors bring it to the 5 psf design figure above.
Waller County: average annual snowfall
Waller County sees about 0 in. of snow most winters, per the BELLVILLE 6NNE, TX US station's 1991-2020 NOAA normal. See the density guide.
Read this before you use Waller 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. See the methodology guide.