Hello all,
I am new to this site, found it on Google. My mom's house is an older house built in the 30's to 40's. It was moved from downtown Atlanta to 30 miles west of Atlanta in 89 or 90 when mom bought it. When the house was moved, they cut the top of the roof off, down about half way on both sides. We never knew this, I was in 6th grade or something like that. When they put the roof back on, they did not "brace" it properly, they sistered the 2x6 rafters with 1x6 boards that are anywhere from 18" to 24" inches long. Then they went below the rafters about 1' and nailed 2x4's to each rafter going down to a 2x6 that spans across all of the ceiling joists, it is not 1 2x6 though, it is in pieces, 2 I believe. The 2x6's are not on top of a wall at all(not sure if this is important or not). Also, some of the 2x4's are not even whole, they found 2 scrap pieces and nailed them together. Her roof has 3 layers of shingles on it and from the exterior there are noticable dips and waves going across her roof. I have been tasked by mom to re-roof her house, when I began to look at it I originally thought that the waves were from water damage due to the shingle failure, but when I crawled in the attic I found the structural fiasco. My mom lives below the poverty level and I don't have the money to pay anyone either so I am left to do this on my own ability and experience(4 years of building houses in college as a helper, I picked up alot but it has been 10 years since I did it and have only took on small side projects since then, this is the first major one). I have 4 house jacks and plan on getting in the attic and jacking up the roof some to try and correct some of the sagging, then I plan on sistering the rafters with 2x6's that are 6ft long or longer, after that I am not sure what other support needs to be put in and how, not sure how to tell if there are any interior load bearing walls in her house(there is ALOT of blown insulation in the attic), it is a small house, only 30ft long and about 24 to 28ft wide. After I get the roof "level" and supported again I will then tear off the shingles and replace any water damaged planks and then re-roof with the 30-year architectural shingles she has bought(this part I can handle, although I have only worked with "regular" shingles, never with architectural). My questions are:
How do I properly jack up the roof?
How do I properly support the roof going forward so that I do not cause any damage to her ceilings or walls below?
PLEASE OFFER ANY SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY THINK OF INCLUDING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS I SHOULD HAVE ASKED BUT DIDN'T KNOW TO ASK.
Thanks and I truly apologize on the novel but I didn't know how to explain in 2 to 3 sentences.
Joey
I am new to this site, found it on Google. My mom's house is an older house built in the 30's to 40's. It was moved from downtown Atlanta to 30 miles west of Atlanta in 89 or 90 when mom bought it. When the house was moved, they cut the top of the roof off, down about half way on both sides. We never knew this, I was in 6th grade or something like that. When they put the roof back on, they did not "brace" it properly, they sistered the 2x6 rafters with 1x6 boards that are anywhere from 18" to 24" inches long. Then they went below the rafters about 1' and nailed 2x4's to each rafter going down to a 2x6 that spans across all of the ceiling joists, it is not 1 2x6 though, it is in pieces, 2 I believe. The 2x6's are not on top of a wall at all(not sure if this is important or not). Also, some of the 2x4's are not even whole, they found 2 scrap pieces and nailed them together. Her roof has 3 layers of shingles on it and from the exterior there are noticable dips and waves going across her roof. I have been tasked by mom to re-roof her house, when I began to look at it I originally thought that the waves were from water damage due to the shingle failure, but when I crawled in the attic I found the structural fiasco. My mom lives below the poverty level and I don't have the money to pay anyone either so I am left to do this on my own ability and experience(4 years of building houses in college as a helper, I picked up alot but it has been 10 years since I did it and have only took on small side projects since then, this is the first major one). I have 4 house jacks and plan on getting in the attic and jacking up the roof some to try and correct some of the sagging, then I plan on sistering the rafters with 2x6's that are 6ft long or longer, after that I am not sure what other support needs to be put in and how, not sure how to tell if there are any interior load bearing walls in her house(there is ALOT of blown insulation in the attic), it is a small house, only 30ft long and about 24 to 28ft wide. After I get the roof "level" and supported again I will then tear off the shingles and replace any water damaged planks and then re-roof with the 30-year architectural shingles she has bought(this part I can handle, although I have only worked with "regular" shingles, never with architectural). My questions are:
How do I properly jack up the roof?
How do I properly support the roof going forward so that I do not cause any damage to her ceilings or walls below?
PLEASE OFFER ANY SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY THINK OF INCLUDING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS I SHOULD HAVE ASKED BUT DIDN'T KNOW TO ASK.
Thanks and I truly apologize on the novel but I didn't know how to explain in 2 to 3 sentences.
Joey