just looking for some advice ……. have a client who wants a second floor addition .. What is the best way to do this without alot of rain damage? Some of you might do this alot, but I’ve never done one before (been in bus. about 18 years mostly old historic restorations for private or museums) Can I build walls first and punch through the roof to existing top plate and brace to existing roof then build new roof over and sheath walls and rafters to get in the dry and then tear off old roof and add my new second floor joists to avoid rain damage? no big hurry ….just need to know whats the best way to go. Bill D. QWC , in wet rainy So. Md.
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Start with an engineering assessment to be sure the soils and foundation can support the extra weight.
Excellence is its own reward!
You can definitely do it the way you mention (assuming the house will support the weight, as Piffin mentions). We have done quite a few jobs by erecting walls first, framing the new roof, and then excavating the old roof out from under. The main two things are to make sure you know how to weatherproof in the interim, and to do very careful research into where things are going to go before you start.
We have done a few of these. I researched the topic on the JLC cd rom and found some good articles.
The critical skill is efficient, bomb-proof tarping. A couple of the articles were written by guys in the pacific northwest, where rain is not a possibility, but a definite and they had some good tips on tarping. We can button down a 40 x 60 in a few minutes after the initial setup.
Ideally, I like to look for a window of good weather for the 1-3 days that the average project would have the greatest exposure.
Oh, and by the way, no rain damage is acceptable, catstophic weather conditions not withstanding. I went over my coverage in this area with my insurance agent prior to doing the first one. My agent told me that you must take reasonable measures. I don't want to argue that one after the fact when the customer's rare book collection is soaked.
Tom
Edited 6/13/2003 10:41:30 AM ET by Tommy B.
"My agent told me that you must take reasonable measures. I don't want to argue that one after the fact when the customer's rare book collection is soaked."
Well I think that one reaonsable measure would be to put in your countract that while care will be taken that you can't guarantee that there won't be weather damage and it is the responsibility of the customer to remove that rare book collection.