Protecting Open Roof during Renovation
WAbuilder
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
We live in Seattle where rain is a daily thing this time of year. We are about to open our roof to add a second story. We need help devising a temporary roof to protect the open house from the elements for several weeks while the framers build the addition. We have used tarps in the past, but want to know if anyone has a more reliable system devised. Any words of wisdom? Wind is also an issue for us.
Replies
This shopuld be the framers headache, not yours.
They should panelize the walls and be ready with the rooof before they start the demo
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My buddy Mark bought a panelized house. It's about 1700 SF on one level, and an odd shape, an ell with a 45 degree midsection joining the two legs. There were approx. 25 wall panels up to 10 feet long, 8 feet high, weighing about 200 lbs each. They were staged on delivery about 60 feet from the floor. Mildly sloping site with a few obstacles, access to the floor from one side only.
The two of us, using his backhoe with forks on it, unwrapped, un-spiked, moved, stood up, and braced all of the exterior walls in 6 hours. The time was mostly in breaking open the bundles, sorting out the pieces, moving the damn things, first on the forks, then on dollies on the floor. Dangerous and heavy for 2 guys.
During the week Mark put on the upper top plate.
The next weekend we got the trusses up--weird trusses with big girders to span the weird 45 area, not a bunch of commons--in 7 hours. Crane for 45 minutes in the morning. Long lunch.
A crew of maybe 5 carps, 1 crane man, 1 tag man, with the panels and trusses ready, with a crane on the street, could have set all the walls by 11 and all the trusses by 2, most or all of the plywood by 5, tarps on by 5:30. I'd say start blacking in the roof but it's already dark now at 5:30.
WABuilder, check out sources of panelized walls. The kit above came from ABS Homes in Canada, but there are several places in Western Washington advertising panels.
The blue eyed devil is probably reading this and laughing because he already stacked one of these complete before break this morning.
Sorry, I don't know what you mean. They certainly can't frame an entire second story in one day. What do you mean have the roof ready before they start demo? Thanks.
panelize means build all the wall sections on the ground or tables before beginning to demolish the existing. The the crane can have them set in a few hours and start setting trusses on them. Tarp for the nightSecond day, sheathe and dry in the roof - but only if the have all the materials ready
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
We have built temp tarp roofs to finish projects on time.The Cole Construction Group
Design | Construction | Planning | Construction Management
Cole McConnell
How do you build your temp tarp roofs? What is the best way to secure them?
If you want some good advice here you should give us more details. How big is this addition? What are the dimensions? Is there jogs in the house and is there any complicated roofs to be framed with big beams? Is the house just a rectangle and your adding new joists above the old or along side the old joist?If you can answer some of theses questions you can can some good advice here to keep your project water tight because it's not just about building a temporary roof. It's about the type of addition it is and how complicated it is and how much MAN POWER you have and how EXPERIENCED your framers are to frame this.If you don't have enough man power there's different steps you have to take to frame this. You can frame all your walls on the ground first and then lift them up with a crane but it all has to be coordinated with what you have to do first with the house.You could just be putting the addition on top of the old floor joists like a Cape Cod house but the rafters have to be cut out of the way because they sit next to the joists on the top plate and you have to put a box around the perimeter because the top of the joists are cut to the angle of the roof.You might not have to do that because the old rafters sit on top of the joists so your walls can go right on top so once the roof is off you can just sit your walls on top with a little patching in here and there.You might be adding cantilevers 2' front and back and sitting your new joists above the old joists on a plate. So there's a lot of prep work first before you even frame your walls.This could be on a Ranch house with 2x6 ceiling joists and you have to put new joists in no matter what. No matter what type of house your doing this on, once you have to add floor joists your probably going to have to frame for a new stairwell.So there's a lot of prep work first before you even frame your walls.I've done many add-a-levels before and never once has one taken a few weeks to frame unless I was framing additions all around the whole existing house with foundations going up two stories to tie into the house and making the house twice as big as it was where you wouldn't even recognize the house and the whole first floor was gutted.There's a lot of ways to keep your project water tight but you need to give more information because if you don't have enough man power there's different steps you have to take to do this. If your not comfortable with a crane that's fine because I've never used one on an add-a-level before and had these done in in three or four days. It's all a matter of what system you have and whether conditions and daylight you have. With more daylight it's one system. With less daylight it's another system. With rain coming it's another system.If you don't have enough man power you can precut a lot of stuff on the ground before you even cut the roof off. You can cut your all your headers, window jacks and sills, ceiling joist, rafters.If you can't get all your walls up with ceiling joists on top so that you can tarp it without having a big pocket in the middle then don't attempt to raise the walls that day if you have rain coming.Just trying to help you here if you give more information.Joe Carola
I don't like to depend much on tarps because i hae never lkived anywhere that the wind didn't blow prety good at least once in the course of a week.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Can you tell mer how big and complicated that this add-a-level is that it would take a few weeks to frame?
Several weeks seems way to long to close in a second story addition, unless its really huge or really intricate.
Several days is much more appropriate. We used to do add-a-levels on ranches and capes in 2-3 days max., from tear-off to having the roof and walls sheathed and tarpapered. That was with a crew of 3-4 guys.
Like Piffin said, its a matter of being organized enough to get the work done quickly and efficiently.
There were 2 articles from past FHB - one where the roof was removed by crane and set aside, then reinstalled on the new upper floor. The 2nd was done in Vancouver BC where 4x4 posts were set onto the top plates for the addition thru holes in the roof (said holes being waterproofed), then built-up beams installed, upon which the new roof was constructed. Then, when all was watertight (inc tarp 'walls') the old roof was removed (from inside the new addition, in case you are trying to figure this) and the new walls built within the post and beam structure.
Sorry, can't find either article, but that's the general idea.
All the best...
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.