Generally speaking…..
Is it worth it (or even possible) to put a second floor on a house by lifting the current roof of the attic and bulding walls under it? Assume the 1st floor structure etc is strong enough.
Or …. Is it worth re-using the lumber from the present roof if you could carefully remove it piece by piece without destroying it?
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
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Replies
Is it worth it (or even possible) to put a second floor on a house by lifting the current roof of the attic and bulding walls under it? Assume the 1st floor structure etc is strong enough.
It's possible. Could be worth it.
Or .... Is it worth re-using the lumber from the present roof if you could carefully remove it piece by piece without destroying it?
No. At least not from an economic standpoint.
(Generally speaking.....)
Would be a waste of time piece by piece for most types framing, but I have seen a couple photos/articles where truss roofs were lifted as a whole with crane, floor laid in, preframed walls were placed, and the roof reset, all in a couple of days
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Patch,
We do this all the time, it makes great sense to me. If yo have the room go up instead of out, saves a lil money. However, I wouldnt be too concerned with reusing the same material. You'll never be able to save the sheeting on the roof so you are really only talking about saving the rafters and if your house is 30+ years old chances are they are undersized anyway. Just not worth it to me. Enjoy the process, its fun.
I think FHB did an article on this - do a search on the main (not forum) page, you may have to pay to view the article.
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An article on raising the roof intact to add below it? Or on lumber re-use?
If the article is from within the last 9 years or so, then I have the mag somewhere here.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Phil,
Generally speaking, is it worth while to invest in equities vs other securities?
;)
dozens of variables that affect a decision.
For instance,
is the existing foundation up to supporting the added load? How 'bout headers?
Is the lot large enough to expand laterally
given existing size and layout, how much will the floorplan suffer by losing space to a stairwell?
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
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Oh, I understand your first sentence. But I was asking about *just* raising the roof intact (I had said in OP that the 1st floor structure was strong enough).
I am just curious if it could be done and worth it, maybe being a net savings. Besides the "waste not want not" thinking, you'd also have to pay to have that lumber hauled away.
Just a *little* different, last Summer I saw a small single story house lifted off foundation, a new foundation poured and a new first floor added. Then the original house was lowered and attached.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Theres one big company here on Long Island that does nothing but dormers and they use the old roofs a lot when doing half and full dormers by raising them.
Haven't seen them around in awhile so I'm not sure what that says about them
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I can see doing that with a dormer. Keeps the roof shingles matching. Cuts some dumping fees. Almost like putting a hinge at the top and lifting up at the bottom.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?