Roof framing repair advise needed

I need some expert advise on how to repair rotted roof framing.

I am repairing a house that had some termite and rot problems over the year. The house has been tented and roof has been replaced last year by the previous owner.

Now I am repairing some areas of the fascia and underlying lumber. It's probably easier to show a few pictures.

Here is one side where I removed the soffit ceiling to expose the soffit framing.

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Before I removed the soffit I thought the damaged piece is a short section from the exterior wall to the fascia, but turned out it goes all the way inside so I cannot replace it. The ends are basically rotted away and had termite damage as well. The fascia is a 2x12 that will be attached to it perpendicularly. I guess the only way to repair this, is to attach a 2x6 like I had to one side? or should I attach another one to the other side and "sandwich" the damaged piece? What is the best way to repair this?

Another damaged area is shown here from an angle:

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a side view of the same damaged area:

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a close up with annotations:

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In the above image, you can see the rafter extends to the fascia (which I already removed) and the end of the rafter is completely rotted. Again it extends all the way to the inside of the roof and it's impossible to replace, so my solution is to use an attached 2x4, well, I will now change it to a 3x8 to match it exactly.

Note the rafter is attached to another fascia. This is a 2x12. There is a metal I-beam that runs across the ceiling, the 2x12 is seated inside the I beam so that another layer of fascia can be attached to it. See how the termite had eaten half the wood away? I was thinking about cutting that piece out but with the I beam in the way I cannot cut it and replace that section, then I thought it is best to not cut it to preserve whatever strength it has. My question is - is there a way to strengthen it? I know since the I-beam carries the roof load this 2x12 is not truly structural, but I will have another layer of fascia covering it, and then some parts of it will be attached to a gutter, and some parts of it will be attached to an overhead screen enclosure framework, so it will have to be able to handle that.

My question is whether there is any product I can use to "fill" this hole that will have some structural strength? Is there any kind of structural wood filler? Anything at all that may help?

After I repair all the pieces, should I tie the 2x12 and the adjacent rafter together using some metal straps would that make things better?

Thanks,

MC

Reply to
MiamiCuse
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Is it a truss rather than a rafter?. _______________

A 2x12 ???????? I have little experience in this area but the fascias on my Florida house are 3/4 x6 cedar. ______________

GitRot __________________

What you *should* do is get a contractor...someone that knows what to do and how to do it.

Someone also needs to figure out why you are getting water damage at the ends of the trusses/rafters. The fascia should cover them and the drip strip - the piece of aluminum directly under the tile - should extend downward over the fascia board so that no water can get to them. In at least one of the photos you linked, that doesn't look like it is the case.

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Reply to
dadiOH

Man, I hope you bought that house CHEAP after seeing what you are going through with it. Man-o-man.

I think you need to have someone take a serious look at this issue. I'm not sure that your short little sister is sufficient there. Granted it doesn't hold much weight but it's got some leverage on it and who knows what a high wind would do.

Before you go throw too much money at it, you might want to consider just ripping it all out and starting again. If you do that, you might then consider what else you might want to do at the same time -- like add a second floor or bump up the ceiling or put in sky lights to find a way to re-route your troublesome AC.

Ugh. Good luck with it. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Reply to
Pat

MC-

Your situation is too complicated to diagonse & prescibe from a distnace.

As you now know (unfortunately) the time to repair all this was when the roof wwas off........I hope you got a bargain.

Was the condition discovered or disclosed before you bought the house (ie did you know the existence & extent of the damage?) otherwise it looks like a case of willful deception.

In CA this is a cause of action against the seller & maybe the realtor but Florida may be different.

but to your question

Structural epoxy repair of wood & concrete

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the stuff is great but not cheap.

I have 20 years of good results with the stuff.

buy the wood repair kit ...the kit is way cheaper than "ala carte"

sounds like you'll need the gallon kit ........~460 cubic inches of Wood Epox

typically I have Liquid Wood leftover so maybe a quart or two of Liquid Wood & a gallon kit of WoodEpox would suit your needs better & be less money than the gallon wood repair kit (combo of Liquid Wood & Wood Epox)

On my old house I've done more filling than consolidating.

When you a sister repair it is generally done with the same sized timber, the sister has to extend onto sound timber by at least 2x or more the length of the damaged wood,

Dry rotted wood has very little strength so you're not saving much when you leave it

You've go the solve the water / roof / flashing issues or the problem will just come back.

Treated wood is no substitute for good detailing.

cheers Bob

Reply to
BobK207

case.http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/courtyard/CopyofP10100> 74.jpg

There is no water damage now. I have done waited through several rain storms as well as using garden hoses on the roof to test various angles.

The moisture damages was done prior to the reroof which cost the previous owner 40K. I have removed soffit boards in about 50 % of the eave areas and it's all dry. Some of the rot were caused by termites, and the house was tented at the end of 2004 so I believe all these were pre-existing damages which has since been cured by the termite tenting and new roof.

As to why they did not replace the damaged rafters when re-roofing, I don't know.

Thanks.

Reply to
nmbexcuse

Well, no I did not get a good deal, it was an ok deal, but I know going in I will need to do major renovations. So some of this work has been factored in, but I have found some surprises.

Some of these problems are connected and some are not. My troublesome AC is in another room fifty feet away so they cannot be solved together. I would prefer to save this roof that is brand new if I can somehow solve the problem from below.

Reply to
nmbexcuse

Much of the fascia in this house are 2x12s, well I am not sure I should have called them fascia. The house's exterior walls are all poured solid concrete, there are metal I-BEAMs along all the exterior and interior perimeters above the ceiling. The metal I-BEAMs are used to support roof overhang areas - some sticks out 6 to 8 feet.

The I-BEAMs are 12" deep, embedded into the "I" of the I-BEAM are the

2x12 boards. They are bolted onto the I-BEAM and the "real" fascia are attached to that lumber. I called the embedded lumber fascia but it's incorrect. The actual fascia is a four layer construction, with a 1x12 on top of that, then a 1x10 layer mounted flushed to the top, then another 1x8 layer, then another 1x6 layer. So the actual fascia is a 4 layer 1x with decreasing depths.
Reply to
nmbexcuse

I will look at the products you suggested thanks. I believe the water and termite problems are in the past, I did some tests and no water penetration now except in a chimney area far away from this spot but that I need to solve another way. I appreciate the information about the epoxy.

Reply to
nmbexcuse

I agree. He needs to go longer with the sisters. But to do that he's getting into serious trouble. It's be hard to do from the outside. So he'll either need to take the roof off (at which time he might as well just replace everything) or get into the attic to do that (or take out sheetrock if he can't get into the attic). But just the patch will need to include doubling just about everything. Ugh. Too bad. Time to call a serious roofing contractor.

Reply to
Pat

OK let me ask you what you mean by "no longer structural".

I have removed about 50% of the soffit and what you saw are the worse case scenerio. Most of the rafters (about six of them total out of hundreds), the damaged portion is on the last six inches or so when the fascia is attached to it. That is not the majority of the load. Further up the wood is fine and solid. The rot is localized to the end of about half a dozen rafters.

The last picture I listed, where there is a big piece of wood rot, was also where the fascia is attached to. That wood is not structiral as well. There are metal I-BEAMS 12" deep running across the bottom of the roof framing to support the cantilever eave. The rotted wood you see there is embedded into the I-BEAM and it's simply there for the attachment of fascia. The only structural aspect of that is whatever strength it needs to hold up the fascia. Are you saying I need to rip up 3000 SF of new roof to repair the ends of about six rafters?

I need to make sure I am not missing something,

Thanks,

MC

Reply to
MiamiCuse

There are only about six rafters that are in that condition, localized to one area. Most rot are at the end of the rafter where the fascia is attached. I think by sistering the end I can support whatever weight I need to support for the fascia.

If I need to get into the attic to double the whole thing I can do it, I plan on ripping out all the ceilings anyways so it's possible, but is it necessary to double sister 18' of rafter when the damage is at the last six inches? It's not impossible it's doable just more work but I thought that's an overkill.

Thanks,

MC

Reply to
MiamiCuse

MiamiCuse wrote: ...

No, not if it is only minimally structural as this and your other post indicate. You need _at least_ 2x the length of the bad back onto good material and certainly not less than 12-18" as simply a practical matter of having enough material to make a good joint overlap. Certainly more is better from a structural standpoint, but 18' for a 6" overhang is certainly overkill.

As others have noted, the key item is to make sure whatever it was that allowed the water damage to begin with is resolved prior to anything else.

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Reply to
dpb

If it were I, first off I'd sell the damn house and get out of Miami, but I guess that's not the advice you're looking for.

Looking at this picture:

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You need to think about the leverage the load has on the wood, both in terms of wind load and snow load ;-)

I would sister the beam and I think 1 side is okay. but I woud extend the sister inside the house for the same distance that it sticks out past the wall. I don't know why I would do that, but it would make me feel much more secure when someone walks on the roof or a big wind comes. As I was doing that, I would just cut out the bad wood and replace that too, but nailing it to the new sister. It's not like the rotted wood is doing you any good. Just cut it off and pull it off the sheathing.

But the MOST important part is to figure out where the water came from and stop it. Stop the water. Stop the water. Stop the water.

Finally, you've found a bunch of "weird" stuff in that house -- nothing your fault but just plain weird. That wood is rotted but the plywood looks okay. It seems like someone tore off the old roof, put in new plywood and left the bad stringers. Before you go any farther, get up in the attic and see what the wood looks like up there and make sure this isn't a bigger problem that was covered up.

Reply to
Pat

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