Anybody here done a roof decapitation? Where you do the necessary micro-sawzall surgery, beam it, brace it, reinforce the pick points, and call in the crane to lift off the whole thing intact?
If so, tell us about it.
I’m going to look at one today where we might do just that. Photos to follow.
Guy wants an upstairs apartment over what is now a one-story boat garage. Thing is, though, it’s long. Think of a “tandem” garage, one car wide, but two cars long. Now oversize it somewhat. That’s the size we’re talking about.
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patiently waiting on photos to follow.........................................
I took one side of a 7/12 roof off with a crane a few years ago. The crane operator told me he could have picked it in one piece, no problem, but there was a little dormer someone had butchered in there so it made more sense to cut it into 4 pieces.
Took about 2 days for two of us to prep and about 1+1/2 hours of crane time to get it all on the ground in a pile.
The house had 4 layers of roofing - original resawn cedar shingles, 2 layers of comp and a layer of thick butt cedar shakes. Can you imagine stripping, removing, and cleaning that up by hand?
Jim- So what were you doing? Replacing the roof and adding new rafters?
Added a master suite on the second floor. There wasn't anywhere near enough headroom, even at the original peak there was only 96", or something, rez.
Got any more pics of it?
Eenie,weenie...chili-beanie
Tons. What do you want to see, how we set it up for the crane? The after shots? I've posted some of these before, but not many of the crane process shots. Let me know what you want to see.
Here's one - this is how we gained enough headroom and saved 1/2 the roof...left it connected at the plate and jacked the peak...hinged right up. Put in a glulam ridge beam and used I-joists for rafters on about a 2+1/2/12 for the new upstairs.
Here are a couple of how we rigged it to lift. Simple enough. Those eye bolts were spendy, but I wanted to know they'd take the weight.
Whoa. THAT is interesting.
If it's been that long since you last posted the project, could you run the pics thru again, I never saw them and a lot of new posters have come aboard since then.
be interestingEenie,weenie...chili-beanie
Yeah, that was a really interesting project to reframe, rez. I don't want to hijack Gene's thread though. Just thought those crane photos were "on subject" so I posted them.
What else you want to see? Reframing the second floor before we took the roof off? Opening up the opposite side of the roof like a clam? Building windows? I know you've seen a bunch of the residing with fiber cement shots. About the only thing I didn't take any photos of was pouring the new foundation with the house cribbed up, but that's about as straight forward as it gets...
Jim-
See attached - when I did my house, I lifted my roof with four holes in each lift and a 3' piece of square pipe slipped through each strap. I had throught about a big piece of lumber like you have, but the crane guy told me to not waste my time. So we went the pipe thing.
You can also see in the picture where I held up the ridge using some 2x6. I had cut out all the ceiling joists before the roof came off. Then I clipped all the toenails at the top plates and on the day of the lift, I cut the nails @ the ridge while the crane had pressure on it. Popped right off and away it went. Took about 1.5 hours to put the whole roof on the ground.
My roof was lifted in eight sections, 18x15 or so. Could have done bigger, but didn't have the place to set down anything bigger. Some guy came and dismantled on the ground and used the lumber to build a workshop for himself.
MERC.
Yeah, that's a lot smarter than what we did, MERC. I cost myself some money and did a lot of unnecessary work. And that is just about the same size as the biggest piece we took off.
Jim Anderson's crane article in FHB is what gave me the idea to use a crane in the first place. Allowed us to get the old roof off and new one on in a very short time; November is a very bad time to be cracking a house open here in the Pacific Northwet.
Had the job scheduled for August but it kept getting pushed later and later, then, when I would have liked to say "nope, too late, have to wait until next summer", we had a big hole in our schedule and my son was home from college to help. So we jumped on it. Worked out great.
I've been thinking about ding the same. We have a small addition 18 x 22) built in the 20s tat has 3/4 underlayment, original resawn cedar shingles, 2 layers of comp and 1/2 OSB with a rubber membrane. There is currently no ceiling in this part and the rafters all go to accommodate a new roof plan.I was thinking of cutting out smaller sections, but the weight seems like a big issue. Someone suggested to me to just crane the whole thing off. That is way beyond my scope of abilities as a HO.I'll be building the new roof and doing the other carp work, so I am just looking to get the roof off quickly.Any idea what I should look for in a contractor to do this job? I was thinking maybe a demo company.
Well, in all honesty pino, it's a straight forward process. If you can frame a roof, you certainly could cut one apart. You could take yours off in two picks, one for each side.
Look at the photo DJMerc posted. Mine is the virtually the same set up, but with 4x8s instead of the pipes that he used perpendicular to, and beneath the rafters. Just divide the length of your rafter (don't forget the overhangs) by 4 and place your pipe/beams at the 1/4 marks in from each end. That will ballance the weight evenly along that axis. Then do the same across the width of the roof plane to determine your pick points.
Temporarilly support the rafters near the ridge with deadmen (this is one place where beams might be easier because you could just put a few deadmen under each upper beam instead of one under every rafter)
Then cut the ridge.
I wouldn't cut the nails that fasten the rafters to the plate until the crane is rigged and ready to pick. But you can either do that from inside, or remove a strip of roofing and sheathing directly above the plate to give easy access to those nails if you prefer.
Whatever you do, don't cut the ceiling joists loose from the walls, they keep the walls from spreading.
And that's about it.
Thanks for the detailed info Jim. I suppose I might tackle this myself with the help of a professional. My wife's cousin is a very skilled carpenter and union instructor out in CO. I am thinking of tapping him for a week or two between classes this summer.A paid trip back home to see family is always welcome incentive for him.I'll post pics when we get around to this part of the rehab.
Gene, often, that idea falls into the "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" category.
If you intend to reuse the roof, then the idea has merit. If you're simply going to put it into a dumpster, then the idea doesn't make any sense at all. You would be better off from a time factor, to park the dumpster next to the house, then systematically chop the roof into pieces that you can handle, then walk them to the edge and drop them in. You're going to do exactly that anyways on the ground.
Of course, there may be some extenuating circumstances which make your idea superior. Can you tell us why you think this is a good approach?
blue
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. There are some in here who think I'm a hackmeister...they might be right! Of course, they might be wrong too!
Blue, I would never fly it off there unless I was going to re-use it as-is.
As I said in the starter post, the owner wants a second-story apartment over what is now a one-story building.
Decapitation, setting it on some cribbed up beam blocks, reshingling it while it's down low, and then setting it atop the new second story wall plates might make sense.
Maybe not, though.
It was Jack that said, "let's fly it." I initially suggested the dumpster approach.
More to follow.
Well Gene, now that might make sense.
Since your brainstorming...have you entertained the idea of flying the entire building setting it aside and using the old building on top?
I know..it's probably a corny idea..but I'm just tossing it out there becasue it might only require the unbolting of the bottom plates or something real easy like that.
blueJust because you can, doesn't mean you should!
Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. There are some in here who think I'm a hackmeister...they might be right! Of course, they might be wrong too!
Gene,
You really have me thinking. I have built a roof on the foundation before and had a crane come in, lift off and set down, stood walls, then set roof on walls. I have never thought of picking the existing roof off and using it again.
What kind of prep do you have to do for the temp placement area? We have a possible job coming up that might work with this type of thing, but I'm not sure if it would work with the lot. I will definetely be pondering the possibilities.
Jon Blakemore