I know, I probably should have brought the table inside before the snow came, but I didn’t think of it. We only get snow once every few years.
Regarding the table, well, it just has a glass table top which sits on top of a supporting frame. The frame does provide decent support, so it’s not like there’s any huge area where the glass is just supporting itself. I don’t know if it’s tempered glass or not, but it’s smooth on top and textured on the bottom side, to give a kind of frosted effect.
As of now, there’s snow on the table to about four inches depth, and we’re expecting more tonight. Do I need to clear it off now?
I’ve got the same snow you’ve got. This is pretty heavy wet stuff. I’ve got nearly a foot now.
I just went out and knocked all the snow out of my ornamental trees and swept it off my hot tub cover. It only took 10 minutes and will save me a lot of worry, warranted or otherwise.
I hope I’ll be spared sweeping it off the satellite dishes till morning. But if not, that’s what headlamps are for.
We have an old “Dish” dish on our roof from the previous owners. Satellite companies do not take responsibility for removing disused satellite dishes, so there it still sits. It’s not worth calling someone in to remove it, and I don’t want to attempt it myself lest I damage the roof.
No the weight of the snow won’t break the table glass. Just think of an aquarium: they usually have plastic edging around the bottom so the bottom pane of glass is actually suspended and not sitting flat on the stand. The 1/4" glass could easily support 12" of vertical water plus rocks and gravel. Your table glass is thicker, and actually made to hold some weight. The glass used for small aquariums isn’t anything special.
Living at 53 degrees north, satellite dishes don’t catch snow because they are almost exactly vertical. It never occurred to me until now that people in more southerly climes (with more laid-back dishes) have this problem to deal with.
I have two glass topped tables in my patio, that live there through the winter every year. I don’t remove the snow. I sometimes get a few feet of snow. They haven’t broken, yet. Not even the cheap flimsy one that came with 6 chairs all for $100.
Mine are pretty close to vertical too, but they’re old and snow wants to stick to them. They perch atop my pump house like a set of Mickey Mouse ears.
We rarely get such heavy snowfall but when we do, keeping them clear is a priority. Fortunately, I have a cobweb cleaner on a long extender. It works very well.
I’m at 44 N and now I wish I’d thought to look at the satellite dish last week when we had snow. It belonged to the previous owners and we don’t use it, so it wasn’t like we were going to turn on the TV and discover that it wasn’t working. Satellite TV companies aren’t responsible for removing the dishes they install.
I’ve got an all aluminum awning over my patio, probably from about 1980 and is (est) 9 (w) x 5 (d) feet. It is attached to the outside wall of the house by two brackets on the outside and three legs in the front at a 15 or 20 deg angle. Every few years, we get a snow that enough to make me worry about it, and I’m out there shoveling it, either out the windows from the back porch that overlooks the awning or on a ladder or both. That back bar is really long to support hundreds of pounds of frozen water and, every year, I think ‘This needs to be supported in the middle.’ And here we are, unsupported.
If there’s really wet snow, or if it rains on top of lots of accumulated snow, I’ll remove snow from the shrubs and trees, especially my yew trees, which have very vertical branches.
My dad has a snow squeegee, like this. Might be a better solution for removing snow from your awning.
We have something called a roof rake, with a very long, telescoping handle. We used it to remove snow from the roof before we got a new roof that doesn’t leak. Much safer and easier than climbing a ladder.
It’s similar to the snow squeegee, except it has a larger metal (light aluminum) blade and a longer handle.
In the photo, there’s significant snowfall after significant snowfall from February 2021. Dibs chair seen in back.
So to use a pulling tool, I’d have to wade through 2 feet of snow on the lawn to get to the base of the awning but, worse, you really need to be able get under the snow to sort of flip it over the sides.
As mentioned, it is unlikely. Outdoor glass is durable and snow weighs less than water. The humidity of snow varies and wet snow can freeze and be heavier. Still, never seen it having lived in several Canadian provinces.
Snow and ice ruined my tiled outdoor table. Moisture got under the tile. It froze and lifted the tile. The wood base had started rotting and the table had to be thrown out.
I’ve replaced it and keep the table covered with a tarp.
