Cutting thru Shingles and plywood Roof

[mark.wolven]

My neighbor snitched on me and my shed is too tall given it's location according to County zoning. My bad.

So, I have to make it shorter by about 18 inches. My plan is to take off the roof and rebuild a newer less tall roof. Safety wise, I plan to install some of the new cross supports while I remove the roof to make sure that the shed maintains its structural integrity during its retrofit.

My question - would a circular saw be enough to cut through the shingles and plywood so that I can remove the roof in 2'x6' sections? Is there a special blade for this? Or, should I invest in a reciprocating saw?

[HotRod]

I saw blade will do this though you better be ready for a lot of smoke. The colder the day the better off you'll be. If the shed isn't to large I'd strip the shingles first and then the plywood. Expect to ruin a few blades.

[The Reverend Natural Light]

Why not build up 18" of dirt around it?

-rev

[e-mail] wrote:

[Butch Haynes]

.....which would lower the height of the shed how.......?

butch

[N8N]

Most height requirements are given as "X feet above grade."

nate

[tom]

[bill allemann]

The blades are often called nailcutters. I would go the route someone else suggested, stripping the shingles first. Get one of those roofing shovels or even a landscaping fork, and you can peel the shingle off in no time. Bill

[kellyj00]

kick your neighbors butt, then blackmail him into lowering your shed by

18". Can't imagine how 18" would be a problem... didn't even know there was code for heights of shed anyhow...are they afraid that airplanes will crash into them or soemthing?

[marson]

I would grab a skilsaw with a blade I didn't care about, any old carbide general framing will do, and cut through shingles, plywood, and all between each rafter (a wormdrive saw helps). Remove each rafter like that with plywood and shingles attached. If you want the job to take 3 or 4 times longer, make a bigger mess, and be more aggravating, then strip the shingles seperately.

[Bob]

So, I have to make it shorter by about 18 inches. My plan is to take off the roof and rebuild a newer less tall roof. Safety wise, I plan to install some of the new cross supports while I remove the roof to make sure that the shed maintains its structural integrity during its retrofit.

Two questions for you:

1. Was the garage inspected while it was being built? If so, it passed inspection and the city should not be able to come back at a later date and insist that their inspection was flawed. See a lawyer.

1. Have you considered going to the zoning or planning board and requesting a waiver? It would seem that since the building has been this way for some time, and has caused no problems except for a crabby neighbor, that they would waiver the rule. See a lawyer.

[kellyj00]

or, just follow my suggestion and give your neighbor a little beat down. I hate nazi's who can't control their own lives so they go around enforcing.

Kinda like this fella that I saw on courtTV... he's not a police officer, but he goes around in his SUV on friday and saturday nights performing "citizen's arrests" of folks he thinks are drunk. He videotapes all this stuff from his dashboard with a home video camera, that's where it gets funny. He sees a guy in a 80's camaro cross the center line on the highway then follows him to the gas station, blocks his car in and waits for the guy to get out of his car angry "Why are you blocking me?" dude tackles him and yells "this is a citizen's arrest, you appear to be driving under the influence sir. Stop resisting, I've already called the police"

The dude in the camaro was much smaller, but still managed to run off and call the police on his own to report the crazy fella who tackled him.

That was the most extreme case as the fella wasn't drunk at all and the fella tackled him to the ground, and the police got called twice. ;-) They showed quite a few other videos he had made where he managed to videotape a few folks weaving on the road and call the police, not sure of the results.

If somoene doesn't have anything else better to do than meddle in building codes or weaving motorists all weekend long...maybe I should have pity for them, nah.

[mark.wolven]

I checked the County website and saw the info about permits related to the square footage, 150 SF or greater requires a permit, mine is 120, so no permit needed and I wasn't running power to it, so, no permit, no inspection needed. I missed the info on the height restriction in relation to the side yard setback.

Yes, I could go for a variance or special use permit. Which required like a $350 application fee, and a new survey ($200), plus 8 laminated plats to send to my neighbors ($15 each from the surveyor). So, it's a bunch of legwork and more than $600 and they could still reject the permit because the old lady next door has nothing to do and I'd guarantee that she'd be at the hearing to object.

So, at this point, I'll make the shed less tall. And at 8.5 ft or less I can place it anywhere on my property, this is no sideyward setback at that height, I'll be moving it closer to the property line with a borrowed/rented fork lift.