Any suggestions on building a “floating deck” over an existing roof? New roof appears to be tar and roll roofing and has approximately 4″ of fall in 10 feet. I’d like to avoid any penetrations in the roof itself. The previous deck that the homeowner removed had tapered joists running the 10 feet (creating a level deck over the sloped roof) . They had trouble with the old roof leaking beneath the old deck. Is it possible to build a “floating deck” on top of the new roof without penetrating the surface of the roof with fasteners?
Thanks, Erik
Replies
That's a very do-able request. Do a search in FHB back issues (good luck, the search engine sux) for membrane roofing. There was an article about 2-3 years ago about a contractor in the NYC area that did just that. And I think I have seen other articles as well. Basically, you get the roof in good, non-leaking condition, put down a couple of extra layers of peel & stick membrane under the joists, and build away. You probably have to anchor the deck to the wall so it doesn't slide away, but as long as you don't try to nail through the membrane, it should stay leak free.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Take off the old deck. Take everything off to the plywood/sheathing. Check for holes & seal.
Get a good membrane up there with a guarrantee.
The roofer will tell you what to use to seal the sleepers. Here, often my guy will tell me to build supports which he covers with a second coat of membrane and I can then use sleepers supported by the outriggers with his special fasteners.
Glue & screw the supports to the sleepers. Don't let anything go through the membrane.
Build the deck.
It's the way I do it, and I've never had to repair it.
Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the Handyman
Vancouver, Canada
The roofing you describe sounds like plain old Selvedge roll roofing with a life expectancy of ten years. It isn't all that dependable for residential roofs anyway.
The deck would be a forty year item.
See any problem coming up in the future?
EPDM rubber roof membrane is a forty year roof.
Sleepers floating to attach deck to is not a problem
Excellence is its own reward!
Ditto on new rubber roof. Firestone makes walkway pads for rubber roofing I have put these under built up 2x10 beam over the wall below and joist hangered beam & ledger on walkout wall, if access is high enough joists don't even have to touch roof. I space pads for drainage but they are beveled on edges.