garage roof

I am watching my neighbor have some work done to here garage. It is a small, 1-car garage that was probably built in the 40s' Hinged doors, not "garage door".

The roof sags quite a bit, maybe 6 to 8 inches in the middle. They just put up a new facia/soffic/eaves "thing" which is basically two pressure treated (yes pressure treated) 2x8s toenailed together to form a V. The long side on on the roof, the short side hangs down. Then they took 2 more pressure treated 2X8s and formed another V and put that in as a new ridgeline. (and you can see a gap under it where the roof sags down). All of this right over the existing roof.

I don't know the next step, but I would guess another 2x8 on its edge halfway up (shimmed to be level) or 2x8s on edge tieing the ridge to the edge, followed by decking and roofing.

The old roof has a least two roofs on it already.

It is just me, or does this sound like a whole lot of weight on an old structure? I've never seen anything quite like this before. I don't care what they do because it's their garage and their car, but I'm just curious about it. She's in her 80s, so if it lasts another 20 years she'll be happy. And if the neighbor is happy, I'm happy.

I know they're not doing any jacking because there's a car in the garage

BTW, the new garage doors look nice and appear to be well made. Also pressure treated.

Pat wrote: ...

Depends...a lot of stuff built that vintage is pretty stoutly constructed, but the sagging roof sorta' contradicts that, although there could be lots of reasons there, too. No way to tell w/o knowing what actually is there, of course, but sounds like a reasonably cheap "fix" that may well last quite a while. Undoubtedly unless there's some other way to add some stiffness it will eventually sag some, too, but as long as the end walls are relatively stiff and there's a decent tie across the wall tops, should be adequate...

As for not jacking, the existing sag has probably been there for so long that to attempt to take the bow back out would be essentially impossible w/o turning it into a major long-term project...