:On Oct 7, 8:50 am, Dan Musicant wrote: :> I'm in Berkeley, CA. The winters are mild, no snow, but there are nights :> when there's ice on outside surfaces in the morning. :>
:> The garage roof (typical) is totally wasted. For the last several years :> I've been keeping water out of the single car garage (manual door, I :> don't keep a car in it, use it for storage) by putting on a fresh tarp :> (19' x 29') yearly. Of course, this entails buying a ~$50 tarp every :> year and taking 1/2 a day to replace last year's tarp. I tie down the :> corners and hang bricks every 8 feet or so from the grommets, to secure :> the tarp from the ravages of the winds. One wall of the garage needs a :> total rebuild, and I may try to do that myself, maybe hire somebody, :> maybe work with them. :>
:> When I had the house reroofed with 50 year asphalt shingles (total :> tearoff) around 3-4 years ago I didn't think to ask the roofing company :> how much they'd charge to replace the roof on my garage. Even then, I :> had it in mind that I could maybe install metal roofing on it myself. :> I'd never think of doing a tar job myself, but metal I figure "why not?" :>
:> The roof is flat (about 10' x 24') but I think there's a slight slope to :> it, being 1/4 inch height for every 2 feet of run (I'm going to measure :> the slope more carefully using a line level). On the low side right now :> is a rusted out old gutter, which I figure I could replace myself after :> installing the metal panels. The rafters are every 2 feet, 2x6's, and :> look to be in good shape. But the plywood (there's some 1x6 boards too!) :> is basically trashed, so I'd have to replace that stuff, or maybe not if :> I nail on nailing strips for metal roofing, no big deal either way. I :> have basic tools like a circle saw, saw horses, ladders, etc. and a :> concrete courtyard to work in. :>
:> 1. Is it feasible for me to do this myself, and :>
:> 2. How much would the materials cost? :>
:> Dan :>
:> Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net : :Dan- : :I have a patio cover 10 x 22' (solid sheathed) that I replaced a :couple years. It was originally (1930) sheathed with 6" T&G & :covered with wood shingles. The pitch was less than 1:12 and of :course never really "worked" but "hey, how much rain does SoCal :get?"
Yeah, I grew up in L.A. and I have relatives from Santa Barbara all the way down to where you can see Mexico from the porch (La Mesa)! Not a lot of rain. But when I lived in West L.A. I remember that just about every year there was one day when it rained steadily all day. : :I increased the pitch to 1:12 (~4.7 / 5 deg) and used roll roofing, :no leaks. : :At a pitch of 1/4" per 2 feet, your garage is even less than the code :minimum of 1/4" per foot for a "flat roof". That's why the plywood is :trashed.
Yeah, there's much about the property that's not code. It's no surprise to me, but I didn't know that code is minimal 1/4" per foot. : :I assume the garage (shed style) pitches across the 10' direction?
Yes.
:At a bare minimum you need 2.5" preferably more.
Yep, that would be code.
:But, if framing is sound & solid and you use some decent thickness :plywood or osb you can go minimal with the pitch (ponding will not be :a problem). : :I would like more like 1/2" or 1" per foot but that would require :some framing changes (maybe just custom sleepers) and more than a bit :of new timber, unless oyu can easily "raise the roof" .....well at :least on one edge. Plus depending on how the garage is finished on :the exterior; stucco, siding, ?? modifying the roof pitch will :complicate things
Back and the high side are cinder blocks, period, and they seem solid and the mortar seems great AFAIK. The bad wall is wood, has two windows (mostly broken out), and the wood's totally delapidated. Someone slapped all kinds of stuff on that wall including plywood, a couple of old doors behind a large broken out window, the works! That one side is really shabby. In fact, when I bought the house I didn't have a key to the garage and I got into it initially by going through a hole in the bad wall! It allows for ventilation on the occasions when he tarp has leaked into the garage. It also lets in animals such as cats, squirrels and who knows what!
I think the worst problem with the garage right now is the concrete floor. It's been messed with evidently by a close-by large plum tree. However, it doesn't seem to be presenting an immediate problem. A slab near the door (I totally renovated that door with new springs, plywood, paint and lock) is raised around 3 inches, I think! : :wrt cost; : :material prices are down but if you're considering doing this project :yourself. To execute it successfully, you should have the minimal :skills needed to develop a design, do a material take off and get some :pricing. : :Putting a new roof over plywood that is "basically trashed" (imo) :would be a waste of your time & the material. :Even with decent thickness plywood its only a couple $100's for :material. : :Since oyu live in the PR of Berkeley is this going to be a permit job :or bootleg?
Don't know about that. Berkeley is kind of a bitch for permitting although I could maybe slog through it. : :I'm surprised you haven't connected with Wayne...he lives in Berkeley :& has done a LOT on his house and could offer good advice (sorry :Wayne) ::)
Wayne and I are friendly, have visited each other's house several times, although I haven't seen him in quite a while. He helped me when I was having the house reroofed. I met him here. He's very astute and grounded, knows a lot about a lot of things, is very good at researching his projects and planning them. Does very good work.
Dan
:cheers :Bob : :
Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net