It is an age-old question, and one that never fully goes away: Am I allowed to sit out on my roof? Would the owners of local roofing companies near me tell me I should not sit down on the shingles and gaze at the night sky?
The temptation to sit on your roof is certainly understandable. If you are a fan of stargazing, crawling out your bedroom window and looking up at the stars sounds like it would be magical.
Truth be told, though, your roof is really not built for that.
While an average roof is built to hold at least 20 pounds of weight per square foot, do not let that number fool you. You may weigh 140 pounds and think, “oh, my roof is way more than seven square feet!”
However, that calculation is never intended to have all the weight concentrated in one place. 140 pounds of snow may fall on your roof, but it is (for the most part) evenly distributed across all of the tresses. It is never 140 pounds in one spot, pressing downward on one exact pinpoint.
You could, quite easily, damage the structural integrity of your roof. You could snap one of the tresses. Conceivably, you could fall straight through the roof into your attic. In such a situation, you might then need to replace the entire roof. It really is not worth the risk.
Rooftop Decks
Some homeowners have explored the option of building a rooftop deck. If your roof was constructed with that in mind, then it may be designed to hold more weight – say, 50 pounds of weight per square foot.
While a rooftop deck may seem like a feasible option for you, it goes without saying that you would need to consult with a contractor to discuss the possibilities and safety precautions.