My current customer has asked me to think about additional work, when I am done remodeling the bathroom and bedroom. I am confident that I can do the requested work, but I am not sure how good the idea is.
The house was built around 1950. Sometime in the past 20 years, the back porch was demolished, and a family room was added (about 18 by 26). It has a flat roof, with a membrane (EPDM?) covering, almost no overhang. There are two sections of sloped roof above the flat roof, so the flat roof is handling almost half of the rainfall that hits the house. (Snow loads are not a concern here in Carolina.)
Extending from the back of the family room is a deck — about 16 feet from house to back yard, and about 24 feet wide.
The additional work is to add a roof above the deck, but to somehow do it so that there is still al lot of light streaming into the family room — maybe four or five skylights.
The current flat roof seems to drain rather well, with most of the water falling to the deck (rather than to the other side). Since the drainage is to the side of the roof that I might be adding to, should I consider a flat roof, or should I only be thinking of a mildly sloped roof — maybe 2/12.
Thanks in advance for the help, and for participating in the best forum anywhere on the net.
Dave
Replies
need pics if you want some input
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Sorry, my digital camera was stolen about a year ago. Here's a line drawing from an overhead view.
Thanks again for the help.
we need elevations. Roof heights to the deck/ground and roof to roofs.
"Attachment is the strongest block to realization"http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 2/5/2003 5:39:56 AM ET by Andy Clifford(Andybuildz)
Ground-to-deck is 2 feet (approx).
Ground to flat roof is about 11-1/2 feet
Flat roof to peaks is probably 8 feet, though I didn't measure it.
My only thought would be to use the corrugated plexi transparent roofs that come in several colors.
Some think it looks tacky but I think you could make a design with the stuff to make it more attractive then the way that some people have used it in the past......Short of that I suppose you could continue the flat roof with built up skylight boxes but youre probably talking about seven feet or less at the eave for headroom.
If you do go with a flat roof and the eave becomes too low... one thing I did in a similar situation was to add several "toughs" between the roof rafters to allow the water to drain in more of a pitch than the roof allowed from its surface. Roofing suppliers have the troughs in different widths and lengths or you could bend your own on a siding brake.
Let us know what you deciede to do and good luck
Namaste
Andy"Attachment is the strongest block to realization"http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
You could pitch it any way you want to with an EPDM membrane roof but the shylights will make it expensive.
Therre is a product for green house type applications. It is almost clear, waterproof and somewhat structural. It is a series of
[][][][][][][][][][]
box channels. I think the name is a polymer or co-polymer???????
I'll try searching....
Excellence is its own reward!
OK,
Double wall or triple wall polycarbonate is what you might want to investigate.
"polycarbonate panel
Sunlight panel is the common name for polycarbonate panel which is a kind of transparent hot-moulded carbonate resin with strong impact property.
* Varieties: Single-layer PC panel, twin-wall PC panel, triple-wall PC panel and the corrugated PC panel.
* Color: Clear.
* Main Properties:
Optical Property: Light transmission 50%---92%.
Impact Property: The impact resistance strength of PC panel is 200 times of the same thickness of common glass and 30 times of the organic glass.
Climate Endurance: All physical indexes of the PC panel would be stable under the temperature ranged from minus 40---plus1200C.
Anti Condensation: When installed the PC panel and outside temperature is zero degree, the temperature is 23 degree and relative humidity inside greenhouse is lower than 80%, the inner surface of panel is not condensed.
Flame Resistance: The PC panel is resistant to flame upto first class.
Sound Isolation: The sound isolation of PC panel is 3---4 times higher than glass'for the same thickness.
Easy installation: Various shapes of piece parts would be made from single-layer PC panel by means of vacuum-shaping & press shaping and twin-wall PC panel would be machined into shapes by cold-bending at normal temperature.
Light weight: The weight of single-layer PC panel is half of glass at the same thickness. And weight of twin-wall PC panel is one fifth of glass at the same thickness.
Duration: Under artificial climate, by weathering test 4000hours PC panel would be ¡÷YI=2 and ¡÷LT=0.6%.
Energy saving: Coefficient of thermal conductivity, (K-value) is low and it has super heat isolation property. It would save energy by 1.5---1.7times of that of glass at the same thickness. "
also go here,
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Construction_and_Maintenance/Remodeling/Sunrooms_and_Atriums/
http://www.suntuf.com/frameSuntufPanels.htm.
Excellence is its own reward!
Edited 2/6/2003 10:46:54 PM ET by piffin
I had not thought of looking at greenhouse supply ideas. Something like this is probably very close to the HO's vision. I had thought of the cheap corrugated plastic stuff, but immediately dismissed as being way to cheap for this customer and this neighborhood.
Pif -- you're the greatest. Thanks a bunch.
Dave
This used to be called "exolite" from one manufacturer...not sure if that company is still making it-but I have seen it available from various suppliers in the years since exolite made it's debut.....solarium manufacturers are a good thread source to locate it from. It is great stuff to work with....also check out the products from the company that makes "sureseal"....great DIY glazing sealing products.
I am doing a porch restoration in DC and will be removing a bubble dome on a front porch (Historic District Designation). I am using glass block instead of a skylight. The joists can be rebuilt to any OC spacing to handle our snow loads. ( the dome caused massive structural failure- badly headed off)
Extending the flat roof might not look very good, and you could run out of headroom keeping the pitch going. Any sort of roof lower than the existing flat roof is going to be tough in terms of headroom, and little light will come in from the low edges.
If you wanted to build a nice pitched roof higher than the existing flat roof(with gable end facing flat roof), you could build pitched 'diverters' to redirect the water away from the new sidewall (to the sides of the flat roof). Struggling to explain, these would be similar to a very large chimney cricket. I've seen this before. I've also seen this problem solved with a simpler 'curb' design to redirect the water, which may be adequate without snow.
With the higher roof, and some skylights, it would be a bright space.
Actually, now that I imagine this, a hip roof might look better