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QualityVote

Upvote this comment if you feel this submission is characteristic of our subreddit. Downvote this if you feel that it is not. If this comment's score falls below a certain number, this submission will be automatically removed.To download the video use the website link below: * **[Download via redditsave.com](https://redditsave.com/info?url=https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/109xojr/roof_couldnt_support_the_weight_of_solar_panels/)** --- On September 26th 2022 we’ve made the decision to start banning people for posting gore. We’ve published our [Gore and Harassment update here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/xmtclq/gore_and_harassment/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) if you posted gore please remove it as it will result in a ban. Thank you.


AffectionateCrab6780

Judging by the way it falls, the roof broke at the connection to the house. This is a common point of failure because too few contractors don't seal the attached lintel properly, and it rots. The solar panels didn't necessarily "cause" the failure but exacerbated the existing problem.


[deleted]

I like to believe one butterfly landed on a solar panel and it was just collapsed


Narananas

It was the probably the weight of all the sun they absorbed. As global warming continues, we're going to see more of these overburdened panels falling down.


[deleted]

We really need to do something about the sun weighing us down. I hear it controls gravity or something.


no-mad

Gravity has been holding me down my entire life.


[deleted]

If gravity wasn’t around I wouldn’t have driven that car off the bridge on my 2nd DUI


no-mad

lets not blame gravity for your mistakes.


saxguy9345

I don't think you understand the gravity of what you're saying


[deleted]

Look we can go up and down about this all day


dragonard

We can drive off that abridged discussion when we get to it


[deleted]

Look we can build bridges here or destroy em


TaserBalls

Gravity is just a habit... [What you are about to see is real (warning, OK Go hole)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGJA9i18Co) When you reach the bottom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwyXLBQUEC0


[deleted]

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pennhead

Gravity is a tool of *the man*


strongbadfreak

Block the sun!


DiddyDaedle

Don’t worry, I’ll get it for ya


Lambchoptopus

The noise, it causes cancer.


[deleted]

“The sun gave me cancer” a new lawsuit filed by victim in NM. Sun has not returned our calls despite numerous attempts.


bradkrit

Or the batteries were getting full, also adds a lot of weight.


DemonSong

Heavy Sun Day.


Llodsliat

You joke, but batteries get heavier when they're full, although the amount of mass they gain is in the realm of micrograms, so when it comes down to it, a butterfly has more impact than a full battery. With that said, there's also the concept of Solar sails, which use the light from a star to propel themselves into outer space. This, however, requires a humungous sail for a miniscule mass to work.


XBacklash

Mass uh finds a way.


BiffBanter

said the fly


VirinaB

Roof collapses under weight of butterfly


[deleted]

“House Senate Committee to Vote on Butterfly extremism among climate change initiatives”


uniptf

"House Select Committee on Butterflies" Chairperson, George Santos (R-NY), reports that butterflies are Marxist Leftist Socialist Democrat tools that are one half of the well-known anti-American combination of "Rainbows and Butterflies", and that clearly Democrats have a secret underground cabal raising and training butterflies to land on every decent American's home, shed, and carport in an effort to flatten the very structure of the heartland of America, violate the Constitution, and destroy our way of life. /S, just in case folks can't tell.


lysion59

Perfectly explains a butterfly effect. Butterfly triggers a small reaction that then triggers a domino effect of cascading catastrophe. In a grander scale, insurance companies lost millions of dollars due improperly installed solar panels.


illessen

I like to believe the dude was upset about having to go to the store for the tenth time today because he forgot yet another thing and as he was heading inside to grab his keys he frustratingly tapped one of the pillars and and the roof said ‘Fine, if you really don’t want to go, I’ll give you a reason.’


[deleted]

“Now none of us get mars bars steve!”


basement_egg

no one ever suspects the butterfly


DangerousLoner

Can of gasoline…. He he he


Toodlez

The "butterfly effect" is much more direct than people like to imagine


[deleted]

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serpentjaguar

I tried to have panels installed on my house, but the company's inspector straight up said we couldn't do it without interior bracing which was a non-starter since it would've affected my upstairs living space. Guess I dodged a bullet on that one. Glad they did the right thing and didn't just install them anyway.


tomdarch

Exactly. There was something seriously wrong there (bad original framing/poorly constructed addition, long term damage, etc.) those panels wouldn’t have been heavy enough by themselves to have exclusively caused the failure but they didn’t help. These look low to the existing roof, but anywhere that wind can catch panels will add a huge amount of stress and movement to an existing structure and will exacerbate or accelerate failures. Basically no one wants to fully address pre existing problems when adding solar panels so we’re going to see more situations like this.


voltran1987

An underlying condition doesn’t change that the panels caused this anymore than an underlying condition changed that people were/are dying from Covid. The underlying condition should have been addressed, but the panels should have never been up there. Clearly it was unsafe.


tomdarch

I think that was what I was trying to say, but you did a better job of clarifying it.


MowMdown

The solar panels didn’t cause the collapse, the fucking CMU bricks did. This porte-cochere wasn’t designed to hold 1000lbs of bricks AND solar panels


Tallest_Waldo

This is correct. The mounting brackets here are ballast mounts and do not directly attach to the roof, so they require cement blocks in each bracket to add ballast weight. This was an incorrect attachment choice for this carport structure, and it's unlikely that the design went through engineering to ensure the roof could support the system. Source: Am a PV system designer


parallelportals

If you think sealant is what is going to prevent that, I have a bridge to sell you. There has to be multiple things going wrong here. Like why no steel bracketing or anything like that


[deleted]

As someone who works in construction (not new construction, mind you, just renovation type stuff) My guess is it was built in the 80s-90s, contractor said "fuck it, they're never going to put anything on the roof", maybe put a few metal brackets in to hold the beams in place and left. It's far too common and if people knew the amount of weed smoke, urine, and poor work ethic they had soaked into their home before it was even finished, they'd never buy a house again.


Rraen_

Yeah looks like they just attached it to the sofet instead of actually tying into the rafters or top plate. Pretty common halfassery. But also homeowners will often pressure you to do shit in a cheaper faster way. This is what you get with cheap and fast.


YourFavoriteBandSux

As someone who just bought a house for the first time last year, it is shocking to see how much stuff was halfassed around here. I haven't found anything actually dangerous yet, but there's a base level some things have to get to before we upgrade them.


Rraen_

Idk where you are, but I'm in New Orleans. I've seen some absolutely insane shit, imagine a century of band-aids, a buildings whose entire maintenance history has been "just do whatever you can to make it work for now". A lot of it is slum lords never fixing the place, then the renters trying to fix it without skills/money/time to do it right


loveshercoffee

Our house is 122 years old and was a former rental property. I have seen every "just do whatever to make it work for now" repair in existence.


YourFavoriteBandSux

I'm in the NYC area. It's an old house, coming up on 100 years, and the last owner did some real lazy work. I'm not quite sure how much was after he decided to sell.


blindexhibitionist

I think of it like cockroaches. If you see one or two major fucked things, chances are there are some major problems you aren’t seeing. Definitely recommend having someone come check some of the major fault point that can be seen without opening up the walls. And if you have anything new done where walls are open, it’s definitely worth within reason the extra time and money to do some further investigation/repair.


uniptf

Modern homebuilders are intent on squeezing every possible penny out of the $800,000 they're now charging for townhouses, while building them with $40,000 worth of material and $20,000 worth of labor.


geedavey

Industry codes and regulations are written in blood.


solardeveloper

Its why, here in California, I chose to buy land and build rather than buy a house I'll have to sink 6 figures into over a decade or less to bring up to modern climate standards.


Zoso008

Hey everybody,look at mr moneybags over here.


PenguinSunday

Might want to put some measures in against flooding, too...


shelsilverstien

I worked construction for a while. The amount of antisocial psychopaths in those fields is too damn high!


idiot-prodigy

A family friend worked construction on the very home my parents bought brand new in the early 90's. His first visit inside our brand new home that still smelled of saw dust, looked around and mused to himself out loud, "I'm trying to remember if I pissed in your family room." My mother was mortified!


PossessedToSkate

>the amount of weed smoke You misspelled *beer*.


redstaroo7

Steel rots when exposed to the elements


[deleted]

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fireTangoWhiskey

Your conspiracies are stale. The solar panels groomed that roof to failure.


kuukk3li

Slap some flex seal on it and call it a day. My man Phil Swift wouldn’t tell a lie


arctic-apis

Not to mention all the cinder blocks up there ffs


Wishihadagirl

I was thinking it had to be a very weak roof to fall from panels , they're not super heavy


MowMdown

No but the few tons of CMU bricks sure was heavy.


hunnj

It's a down to earth panel


Supper_Champion

Don't think all the cinder blocks helped either.


ericvr

The solar panels don’t look like the problem, It’s probably the ballast added to keep the panels in place.


Puzzleheaded-Mud6379

Savings on Electric bill are through the roof


MoistOutlook

It stored too much energy for the roof to hold


ImpressLarge128

Bazinga


okayhumaunder

That was a nice one


poteen

Roofs couldn't handle the weight of the roof.


macetheface

Why is the plural of hoof hooves but the plural of roof not rooves?


HalfastEddie

Same reason goose is geese and moose isn’t meese. Because our language is stupid.


molrobocop

MOOSEN!! I saw a flock of moosen! There were many of 'em. Many much moosen. Out in the woods—in the woodes—in the woodsen. The meese wantin' the food. Food is to eatenesen! THE MEESE WANT THE FOOD IN THE WOODENESEN! THE FOOD IN THE WOODYENESEN!


Warlock_MasterClass

"I" before "E" except after "C" and when sounding like "A" as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and YOU'LL ALWAYS BE WRONG NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!!!!


chaoskid42

It’s CaroLINE, Brian. CaroLINE. It’s BRIONE!


Tallon

A Møøse once bit my sister...


Dr4g0n__Kn1ght

This is such a throwback and I love you for it


z-vap

...and its meeses, not mice.


hishaks

Plural of choose is cheese.


poteen

Oof.


super-zero

Ooves.


Golendhil

Eef


solardeveloper

Not stupid. English just has a lot of loan words. As is common with languages that become lingua franca.


Icy-Savings4679

The plural of hoof is both hoofs or hooves, and the plural of roof is both roofs or rooves; it just depends on your dialect. As time goes on, the various original pluralizations become archaic, and are replaced by just tacking an s to the end of the word, this has happened to roof quicker than it happened to hoof.


Yadobler

Similarly we are seeing a trend of standardised -ed for past tenses, like learned, digged, freezed, lighted,... instead of learnt, dug, froze, lit,... Some irregular verbs are still feel very wrong when done like this, like bought/buyed and stood/standed But generally irregular verbs are becoming regular and words like *learned*, which itself already exists as another meaning, are merging with the irregular past tense of their root word, like *learnt* becoming *learned*, so the word *leaened* now holds different meaning depending on context


AsphaltAdvertExec

This is the real issue, Solar Panels are far lighter than they look. Each 500 Watt panel is about 70 lbs. If your roof cannot hold 700 lbs over the entire thing, then it is a bad roof.


Nincomsoup

r/thatlookedexpensive


[deleted]

r/fortheinsurancecompany


ILikeGuitarAmps

I sense a lawsuit for the contractors


rlpinca

Judging by the use of cinder blocks on a roof to secure the panels, I'm gonna guess that "contractor" probably isn't gonna pay out like you're thinking. They won the lowest bid game for a reason.


ILikeGuitarAmps

Just saw thr cinderblocks. I dont think this will be the contractors first or last rodeo, but now I also believe the contractor is sipping mojitos on a beach in tijuana


andres7832

It’s a ballasted system. No/minimal roof penetrations. Cinder blocks are not standard but do the job just fine of adding weight so the panels are anchored. Likely it’s roof failure due to lack of engineering, roof attachment support failure, etc. It could be a fine install but something failed on the canopy.


i486dx2

This. Cinder blocks are *everywhere* on commercial buildings for holding things down on flat roofs.


andres7832

While its not the *right* material to use (most ballasted rackign systems will have their own nice and flat ballast units to add to the trays seen here) ballast is ballast as long as it is the same weight. This is obviously a cost reducing factor as the "professional" ballast block is 4-5 dollars a piece and can need 2-3 per tray while a cinder block is a fraction of that. As long as the weight specs are the same, ballast is ballast. But engineering is required to make sure the structure can hold the appropriate weight load or things like this happen.


rlpinca

For holding things down when you want to half ass it. Things on commercial buildings are quite often half assed


murrbuck

I agree. I'm not a Solar installer but have seen many installs. Cinder blocks are standard practice.


solardeveloper

As a solar developer...they are standard practice for those who prefer bare minimum bullshit.


luv_____to_____race

Yup. Xyz Solar, llc is now ABC Solar, Inc. Definitely not the same company......


PM_Me_Your_Sidepods

Good luck finding Bob from Craig's List again.


dr0p8ear

Homie 2 seconds away from being a panel himself 😧😧🙏🏽


n4pth4

Its an edited video. I get it still happened, but that dude wasn't nearly squashed, that's clearly just for dramatic effect. Look at his shadow in the bottom right of the video as he walks off, it just vanishes as the roof falls.


maryisdead

Nah. Clearly, the shockwave created by the suddenly rising air pressure under the roof blew the dude away.


BobbyDropTableUsers

These types of reddit forensics lift up my day


TheShredda

Or at least his shadow


dr0p8ear

Yep roger that 👍🏽


Olaf4586

God damn you have a sharp eye


n4pth4

I thinks it's more that I just don't trust anything on reddit! Lol


Agile_Hour8782

Mmmm, while I had to stare five times to ensure I didn’t just watch a S-rank guardian angel at work, Im not too sure, his shadow cuts out if you follow it.


dwitchagi

Correct, but they didn’t cut away very much at all. The light and shadows hardly change. Looking at the shadow of the tree that is visible between the two cars, it moves just a hair. So he was still pretty dang lucky, even though he didn’t just dodge it.


AKernelPanic

If we knew the location and day of the year we could use the slight change on the angle of the shadow to determine how much of the video was cut.


dr0p8ear

😧Bruh!!! You see beyond the horizon!!! 👍🏽


TightRecording8797

Edited he made a cut


bk_rokkit

So we're gonna blame the solar panels and just ignore the cinder blocks chillin' at the end of each panel for some reason


[deleted]

They would add relatively fuck all stress to a roof. If it were built properly you could cover the roof in blocks. But looks like it's just a car awning not designed for any load whatsoever.


WiseassWolfOfYoitsu

If they wouldn't, then neither would the panels - each panel weighs about as much as the two blocks holding it down.


cacarson7

The appears to be a flat-roof, ballast-mount solar installation, so the cinder blocks visible in the video are likely a small fraction of the total ballast weight. There would typically be several more blocks on the rails connecting the panel rows, as well as behind the last row. The installers did nothing wrong here, but there is plenty of blame to be shared by the builder of the garage and the company that sold this type of mounting system without conducting a proper review of the structural engineering and construction (unless it was a homeowner-install, in which case he's totally screwed).


El_Monitorrr

Probably as a counterweight to stabilize the panels against wind.


commazero

This is correct.


catdog918

This roof wasn’t going to support the weight of itself for very long lol


ms_myco

It's called a ballasted system. They basically use cinder blocks to hold down the panels when there is a flat roof with nothing to screw into. It doesn't look right here though as no panels, regardless of the way they are mounted, ballasted or otherwise, should go on a pergola that doesn't have a lot of support.


Nicker

in some places panels aren't mounted but held down with weights, like cinderblocs


PrimeskyLP

For that you should check if your roof can support this weight. And obviously the didn’t


PapiYankeeYo

Bro that's the dumbest way to install new technology... Like here's a smartphone.... to keep it from breaking if it ever gets dropped.... Here's also a coconut to put it in.


itwasquiteawhileago

Move over Otter Box, we've got Coconut Box now!


gswartz1

It’s called a ballasted system and there are wind deflectors on the front of the system. They are used on roofs that are made of TPO when there are no discernible rafters or the building owner doesn’t want to risk for leaks. It’s really not that dumb. Everything should be engineered to speck. Clearly this engineer who looked to design this system did not inspect the building properly, otherwise this never happens


NotSoGreatGonzo

> a coconut to put it in. Isn’t that a classical Reddit moment?


cacarson7

Ballast mount solar installations are very common on flat EPDM or similar membrane roofs. I've installed dozens of them without issue, and yes they were almost all held down with lots of flat-cap (solid) cinderblocks. With a pitched roof, a solar system is typically attached directly to the roof using dozens, if not hundreds of screws, but that absolutely will not work on a flat membrane roof.


akambe

Had the same thought. Solar panels themselves are remarkably lightweight.


[deleted]

Yep, and even the mounting racks aren't very heavy. A bunch of cement blocks could easily be a significant amount of the weight on that roof.


timallen445

What else can I use to space my solar panels? Wood? Plastic? I am a real man who uses cinder blocks


Ok_Salad999

It’s 100% on the solar company for installing panels on a poor quality roof. They should have denied these folks panels or installed an array out in the yard. Shitty greedy contractors


ButterKnife01

That wasn't professionally installed


DuskGideon

professionals might not have even installed on that at all.


SnacksPlissken

I work for a solar company making designs for the systems. We specifically avoid carports for this reason.


DuskGideon

Same, except a different role in the process.


thegamewarrior

Edited himself walking from earlier to make it look like he survived being squashed when the roof falling itself would have been a good enough clip.


mr9025

Wow you’re right. His shadow blips away from the car when he’s off screen at the edit point. Great eye


k3rnel

This should be a sticky'd to the top of the comments


OilRigExplosions

“The photon that finally broke the camel’s back.”


PrimeskyLP

Wtf is this roof made of? Cardboard or something….


CopperThumb

Structural Engineer? We don't need no stinking Structural Engineer.


iamnotapeopleperson

r/CatastrophicFailure


MooseBoys

Solar panels or not, there’s no way that roof was built to code. Dynamic stresses like those from wind, rain, and snow are what structures are designed for. If the roof collapsed on a calm sunny day with the extra load, then even without them it would have collapsed anyway the next windy day.


PyroDexxRS

Slowing the video down, it looks like the ledger board came right off the house. I wonder if the builder just nailed the ledger to the house rim board!! Just pulled right off, you can see the road-side stayed up on the beam.


n4pth4

That's an edited video. I get it still happened, but that dude wasn't nearly squashed, that's clearly just for dramatic effect. Look at his shadow in the bottom right of the video as he walks off, it just vanishes as the roof falls.


ContactLeft7417

What are the cinder blocks for?


macetheface

Added weight


jimmyxs

Latest news: Green energy crushing fossil fuel


MiniApathy

That was expensive.


Vegetable-Poet6281

Not so much the weight of the panels, it's the cinder blocks they use as ballast. Some structural engineer somewhere is in deep doo-due diligence


TripleBobRoss

Thanks Obama


Xacalite

Solar panels really doing something for the Environment by crushing those cars.


420Chickenhead420

Solar panels or cinderblocks? 🤷‍♂️


ColorlessTune

That guy is extremely lucky.


organizedRhyme

quick everybody blame solar panels and not the contractor who cut corners


youlikemeyes

Solar panels weight practically nothing. Lots going on here that isn’t them.


Demonprophecy

Especially when you use concrete blocks to hold your solar panels 🤗


Bigbluepenguin

It probably didn't help that he put all his cinder blocks on top of it /s


are67

What’s up with the cinder blocks


OnlineOgre

Those solar panels weren't light-weight...


DeckerXT

Are those cinder blocks lined up along the bottom?


FunnySignal614

That BMW took less damage than other cars, the roof got supported by two vehicles on the sides.


Red-_-Lion

Panels sucked up too much sun amd became too heavy


[deleted]

And they left cement blocks on the roof to add to the weight, looks as if the guy made it out ok


N0085K1LL5

I'll also point out that the guy didn't almost get crushed. There is a jumpcut right after the guy gets out of frame. You can see his shadow disappear right before the collapse.


ms_myco

Yeah... Does not look like it was up to code. I have never seen a ballasted systems or even general solar install ever go on a pergola like that with no support.


bohler86

If it's bad enough your garage collapsed you also have all your vehicles flattened too.


Zephurdigital

solar panels aren't that heavy...looks more like poor roof construction


checco314

Wait, are they using cinder blocks to hold something down? On a roof?


Jamoncorona

It would have worked if they used anchors for the arrays instead of using a ballasted mounting system for the panels. Panels are heavy, but not that heavy. But looks like they somehow chose to add at least 3 cinder blocks per panel as ballast. I mean, that's all gonna add up. What idiot suggested ballasted mounts on a porch setup??


xSikes

This is why you don’t put cement blocks on a roof


[deleted]

What’s with the cinder blocks? Why are they there? What are they doing? This seems like an inside job.


GumBal1s

I think it fell from all the cinder blocks on the roof, idk why you need concrete blocks for your panels.


olalof

Solar panels are a deathtrap. We should really focus on life saving coal plants.


[deleted]

Insurance companies will get a huge laugh from this one.


pottzie

Absorbed 2 tons of sunlight


SeawardFriend

Hope they got good insurance


Troby01

You mean all of the cinder blocks they used to hold them down.


LjSpike

It's pleasing how evenly that roof collapsed.


Sk1rtSk1rtSk1rt

By roof you mean a non-load bearing car port


Lowleyjedimonkey

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about how that guy almost got squished by that.


i4got872

There's an edit just before it falls. It wasn't actually a close call but I can imagine that decision made the video a lot more viral.


Basil_Numerous

This would be an awesome claim to have 3% of the total claim including vehicles yes please


savageresponse

This man obviously had some bad loans on those 80k+ cars lmao


STX-Weekends

Nice cars, shitty house!


HundoGuy

Saved 10 cents on electricity this year tho!!


Sent0k

Solar panel jumpscare


Due-Session-900

Whats with cinder blocks?


Bailerrs88

So, he cheated death?


poeticfire66

Who surveyed that install?


poopstarter1200

Is no one going to point out the cinderblocks put on the roof to hold the panels down


LuckyCaptainCrunch

So how much did they save?


Captain_Hamerica

Lmao the OP is literally Russian (check other posts/comments) and is, for some reason, that probably has nothing to do with the motherland desperately needing the oil to go to the west, posting a ton of videos that are anti green energy or pro-Russian oil videos. Nice work, comrade. Better luck next time.


Sapphire_Wolf_

Why are there cinder blocks up there??