Thread: New Reno Problems - Cant get a builder for a small job.....No one wants to work

I reckon before you go too far you need to establish how the garage sits in relation to the house with regard to floor level and top plate height. It's unlikely they're in line. I reckon you need to get out there with a water level and a string line and do some measurements.

I can't see any easy way of joining those two gable end roofs together without some major rework and if the top plates are out of plane with each other, it's going to be virtually impossible, so my bet is it's going to be an independent roof line for the new bit as suggested. You probably don't have enough height under the eaves to get a skillion in there. The steep pitch means that the eaves are hanging too low to do it I think.

If you were building it from scratch, you could connect the two gables with a perpendicular ridge falling to the front and the back but to do that now you're looking at demolishing a significant part of both roofs and you'll have to tile the lot.

You might have to settle for a granny flat with a covered walkway.

I have done a quick ammendment to your plan but how do I upload the image?

DVD you save the pic to your computer as a JPEG then add pic as an attachment when you post.



Silent C - a covered walkway is a suggestion that will solve all the difficulties in this situation LOL - good work! Still havent given up on a full flat roof - still problem solving.

Mattles - if it turns out a pitched roof involving a rebuild of most of the roof is the only way to do it (cost approx 40k) - are you likely to consider it feasible?

Very Crude but I hope you get the point.

Hi Dvd - yeh I thought of that but it will need some very tricky box gutters - so tricky that I'm not sure it would work.

We really need a roof plan showing hips , valleys etc. with measurements.

Here is the approach I have been considering as regards a flat roof. I cant seem to get it looking any good as a mock up though.

Here is a quickie regarding structural work. I still dont know how to do the front gutter.

The main problem I can see with that is that you have a very short length of gutter there that is handling all the water off half the garage and nearly half of the house. Even with a couple of downpipes, I reckon it would be like Niagra falls.

I still can't see a way of doing it, apart from ripping up half the roof on either side and running a new ridge through. The little ridge and the dog leg in front of the gable on the house make it very difficult. You almost need to go up higher to get past them but then you run out of height on the garage side.

Yeh Silent - the gutter at the front is going to have to be industrial size 250 deep x 350 wide with Vortex outlets. I think there are other problems about where such a gutter is going to discharge. I'm thinking of trying to hide the gutter behind some sort of fascade - hence the reason I cant get any mock ups looking good LOL

Do you guys ever use what we call a 'california' framed roof for extensions?

Um Don't know that one ! What is a californian framed roof?

This is a really good description of a california roof. Says it far better than I could. I think I have some pictures of one I did but nowhere to post them.

See how the ridge dies right into the main roof? And the base for the valley jack rafters is flat nailed to the existing sheathing?

I'd think the house would be more attractive with the front (new) ridge lower than the rear ridge. Would give the house nice depth up there. I dunno, maybe I'm way off, but that's what I'd try if it were mine.

OK I checked up on hydrology engineering for this roof. Becuase it is nearly level and is between 2 steep planes and has to carry water from both planes and discharge it, the engineering term for it is an Apron segment or Apron roof.

The surface of an Apron segment has to be smooth, no obstructions or fastener heads- so sheeting is out. The attached design will get past council engineers - but still dont know about where to discharge runoff.

Very interesting - using the roof ply and a plate to disperse the weight of the new valley rafters -

but in this case the problem with any pitched roof is truncating 2 valleys by the new roof planes - resulting in the need for substantial box gutters. I might keep reading and see what that book says about box gutters.

cheers