determining live load for roof

I have a daughter in Greenpoint who lives in a renovated house with I think four units. When the building was renovated it was made higher, so the roof is new. The roof is not officially living area, although of course the building was marketed with pictures of furniture on the roof, and they currently have some furniture and potted plants.

My daughter would like to add a couple of large planters and is trying to find out whether the roof can support them. Is there any way via the DOB to see architectural drawings for the renovation? Would that show the live load? She would be willing to pay $1,000 -$2,000 to hire an engineer, but the engineers she has talked to say they would need access that she can’t supply (there is no place from which one can inspect the rafters).

For what it’s worth, some aspects of the building renovation – plumbing, for one – were done poorly. And she would be using potting soil, which is I think lighter than regular garden soil.

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kassie319 | 3 years and 1 month ago

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It should be listed on the certificate of occupancy on the DOB website. It’s probably 40lbs/sq.ft. 25lbs for snow leaves 15lbs live load. Many buildings allow only 7lbs for garden elements. “Potting soil” can be anything from 60-80lbs/cu.ft saturated.