Can I drive nails in my garage roof?

[aspasia]

A vine I planted against the garage wall got away from me and has gone totally ape. If you want to see what it looks like, go to

and look for subject

At first I supported the vine (which took a few years to get going) with those plastic discs that you adhere to the wall and thread twisties through to support plant.

But the vine became too heavy; tore off the plastic discs, and now is falling down on the plants below.

I'm not about to build an expensive trellis to support this monster, which would involve pulling down the vine while putting up the trellis. Anyway, at the rate it's going, it will be over the roof and in the next county soon!

I thought of putting something ON the roof to which I can attach the vine to get it up off the ground. It would have to be strong enough to hold the vine.

Maybe a wooden 4x4 or 6x6? It needs to be about 6' long, which might be as expensive as, or more expensive than, a trellis. How would I fasten this beam to the roof to keep vine from pulling IT down?

I'm afraid to drive nails into the tar paper roof because I don't know how much "stuff" there is between the tar paper outside and the ceiling of the garage.

Should I glue the beam to the tar paper? Would that affect waterproof-ness? Would it hold under (a) strong sun and (b) rainy season (if we ever get one)?

Group members from So.Calif coastal can relate to this type of roofing, so could perhaps advise about this.

Any other suggestions how to solve this are very welcome!

Aspasia

[David Nebenzahl]

aspasia spake thus:

You're probably going to get a lot of nasty replies for suggesting driving nails into your garage roof, which is, in any case, not a really good idea (you seem to sense that). And so far as putting big old timbers up there goes, forget about it.

Here's a crazy idea: assuming the vine is on the side of the garage, and not one of the gable ends (assuming you have those), how about throwing a rope over the roof ridge, tying it to the vine, then securing or weighting the other end to hold the vine up? This way, you haven't done anything permanent to the roof. The roof will be there in 20 years, but the vine may not.

[Joseph Meehan]

Just a thought. Do you know it is possible that that vine can damage the garage causing mold and rot? I am not against the idea, but do consider the possible issues.

If you decide you want to provide for the vine, you may want to consider:

Screwing supports into the roof rafter ends or using a "L" shaped bracket attached to a nail or screw under a shingle tab (sort of like a roof jack) and attach to that. That way the nail would be protected under the tab. Of course you could damage the tab when you do that.

I would like the rope over the roof idea for a short term fix, but I fear in time wind would cause the rope to damage the roof.

[Lawrence]

If you like this vine then build a trellis. If that is too expensive for you then just pull the vine up and compost or throw away. A vine like that can cause significant damage to your siding. In some places it is illegal to dispose of yard waste in the houshold trash.

[Terry]

A good way to post pics on Usenet is to go to tinypic.com You will get a link that you can post here. Try it and let us know.

Many people don't have binary access.

[BobK207]

Is this flowering vine worth reducing the life of the garage rood & speeding up the replace thereof? And the likely damage to the roof framing system (rot) ?

If you're worried about the cost of a 4x4, you should REALLY be worried about the cost of the new roof & rot repair.

I bought a house YEARS ago (Santa Ana) & the previous owner let a beautiful Wisteria(?) grow over a very cute patio cover.....destroyed the entire thing (rot) about $1000 worth of old growth cedar.

IMO vines & structures do not mix unless the structure is specifically designed to handle the issues of ventialtion, rot resistance, wind loading, etc

You could re-attach the vine to the wall by a stronger method & control the vine (keep it off the roof) by trimming.

What's your plan when the vine covers the entire garage roof?

If you really want to save the vine.....severely trim it & go with a new attach method for the main "branches" that you save. The vine will recover quickly in SoCal (or if you're lucky it will die....j/k)

cheers Bob

[Al Bundy]

Terry wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thanks Terry! Didn't know about Tinypic.com. About as simple as it gets. Many of those freebie sites end up being in the list of 63k taboo sites in my HOSTS file.

Any idea of retention? Few days, weeks, months? Maybe it's just "rolling" and depends on how much gets posted.

[David Nebenzahl]

Joseph Meehan spake thus:

[...]

[...]

Just to amend that suggestion (keeping in mind my disclaimer that it's a "crazy idea"), I'd suggest putting something over the roof ridge (like a piece of wood with a "V"-shaped cut) to prevent the rope from digging into the roof surface there.

[Terry]

I just went back and checked an old post I made in Feb and it is still up. Most of the ones I make are just screenshots so they are small but it looks like at least 6 months are saved.

[Not]

If you have a wood frame garage, put a lag bolt or hook through the siding into one the the framing timbers at each end of where you want your "trellis" to be, then tie a rope between them. The vine will be quite happy with that level of support, and its easy to replace when the vine goes, or the rope wears out.

I would discourage the v> A vine I planted against the garage wall got away from me

[aspasia]

You and others are absolutely right! I have been allowing the vine cart to pull the roof horse, to belabor a metaphor!

Do they really have tar paper roofs in California? That sounds like a very cheap and temporary cover.

Mmmm...maybe I described it inaccurately.

Somebody in this area know the correct term?

Many of the local flat (slightly angled for runoff) roofs on California Spanish" style houses have that kind of covering, but it must be a more sophisticated process than my dismissive language implied. Only has to be replaced every 15-20 years or more, if done by a reputable local contractor.

The peaked front is covered in tiles; very attractive.

Aspasia

[...]

[aspasia]

Thanks for the reality check. As stated in another post, I have been letting the vine cart pull the roof horse (block that metaphor!)

Will go out tomorrow and commit partial vine-i-cide.

FYI, in my community, there are separate trash containers supplied for trash, yard waste, and recyclables.

Aspasia

[aspasia]

Hmm...I never heard of them. Thanks. I'll give it a try.

Is there a down side? Like your info being taken for use elsewhere?

The link I gave was the one that members use. Didn't realize about not everyone having binary access. Thanks for heads-up.

Naive question: What does it actually take to have binary access? Aspasia

[aspasia]

OHMYGAWD!!!

A Wisteria I planted about 6 (?) years ago has overgrown the back of the house and the small patio cover over the back steps, and is climbing onto the roof! I was totally ignorant of its, uh, "vigor", when I planted the vine. Now the (&^^%%$#^& thing is cropping up all over the yard! A relative who is in the landscape architecture business said one of his early jobs before he went professional was to extirpate a Wisteria that had taken over a client's yard. Did I grok? Noooooo...

I was happy when it shaded the French doors at the back from hot summer sun, but now realizing I have to TAKE ACTION, thanks to good people on this NG.

Duh...

As stated in earlier post, I am going out tomorrow to commit partial vine-i-cide. "Severely trim" is tomorrow's code word.

THANKS!

Aspasia

[David Nebenzahl]

aspasia spake thus:

Probably what they call a "hot mopped" roof, I'm guessing: layers of tar paper bonded together with hot black goop (dead dinosaur sauce), maybe with crushed gravel sprinkled on top for a garnish. Sound like it?

[aspasia]

Yeah, you're getting there. Hot mopped is right. Mine doesn't have crushed gravel garnish but due to unevenness in roof, I had them paint a light-colored layer on top, which (ISTR) is supposed to facilitate runoff? It's been years; memory fails

Aspasia

[David Nebenzahl]

aspasia spake thus:

So far as I know, just one thing: not using Google Groups. Pretty sure anyone else who accesses Usenet will be able to read "binaries" (how 70s can you get?). At least I don't know of *any* ISPs who offer non-binary NNTP access.

[krw]

Individual.net doesn't carry binary groups and some ISPs no longer have any NNTP access.