Folks,
Have a job coming up that involves opening the flat roof on a two story building, steel frame, wood rafters (?? on hangers, I guess) and sistering a number of the rafters to support additional telco equipment o the roof.
Close up roof, install 4x4s across rafters to hold the gear.
Having never done a roofectomy, I would appreciate any tips, lessons learned, or Watch Out Fors on this process from those who BTDT.
Figure to use one of my Slightly Used crap blades to cut thru the built up roofing and ply on the incision.
Wonder about tricks for stuffing the sister rafter into the rafter space. I can’t imagine this part going well. Expect the wood version of a Blivet.
The ToolBear
“Never met a man who couldn’t teach me something.” Anon.
Replies
Spud shovel for removing the roofing. Even with hot-mop or torch down, they usually use those nails with the square washers for the felt. Spray silicone on your beater blade to keep it from gumming up with tar too quickly.
The rule of thumb I always use when doing demo - take it apart in the opposite order it went together. Have a roll-off handy to keep the demo crap out of your way. Build a temp. ramp if feasible.
No easy answer for your project. I don't envy you, but hope you're being compensated handsomely for doing the diry work! Maybe you could let us know how you did it, how it went? Take some pics to share - I'd love to see the project in action.
Edited 12/15/2005 10:12 am by Huck
Good point on the nails and shovel. Found them on a job in Cypress.
Can take pix. Always have the camera along.
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
My first thought is to do this from the inside!
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Piffin -
Yes, we would like to do this from the inside.
But, no.
Telco - they promise $$$ in rent, pay all the costs and don't disturb your tennants with the project. In short, roof down and we are Sooo Busted if it rains. We just cut several gaping holes in your roof.
You ought to see the current one at a hotel. The antenna arrays are going to be behind faux chimney stacks. The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
I am still shaking my head on this concept.
It sounds like it will involve a total re-roof after the rebuild of structure. pitch pans for the 4x4s
has this been engineered and designed? Seems like a good engineeer could come up with a support system that would not involve tearing half the building apart. Something is missing for me to understand this.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin -
We have engineers, blue prints, zoning review and approval, inspectors, and a brass band. Plus pitch pans. Cost $3 k in roofer fees to dry in the last project. Worth it. Got a leak and they were there next day. 12 mo. warranty.
They are all a bit different but all try to find some load bearing walls to load up on.
This one is billed as "adding some additional equipment."
The Cypress project had galvi steel girders about 12" high supporting a large set of equipment enclosures on open steel decking, all resting on 5" steel posts thru the roof to load bearing beams. Pitch pans at all posts and the grounding --- they ground everthing with exothermic welds. The normal ground wire is 2/0 CU, but we had some 4/0 too.
From the platform the cable trays run around the roof, sitting on 4" square PVC sleepers on 3/4" rubber pads. The conduit from the telco room is 4" (in which I pulled four Cat 3 cables). 200A electrical service in 3" conduit.
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
What's under this roof? Is it open 20 ft. to the floor, like a warehouse? 20" of attic space, like an apartment building?
-- J.S.
JS -
I understand there are offices under it. They will love the sawing and banging.
I wonder if I can use screws. Failing that - the Paslode. Often can't swing a hammer in these spaces. The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
Don't know if this tip will apply to your situation or not - but several times I have had success cutting through several layers of flat, built-up roof (with rocks removed of course) with an old carbide blade and WD-40.
I just spray both sides of the blade as it's slowing down, then cut for about 5 feet, then repeat. It's worked great for me for quick removal.
Cutting roofing...
I have selected a few old blades from the collection and will put a can of WD in the tote. Tnx.The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
without seeing it... I think I'd look at using a few (4)pitch pockets putting 4 posts thru the roof to something that would hold the load and span it with a couple I beams or bar joists ... 4 holes in the roof... high enough to have access to the roof for future repairs and ur done...
p
Pitch pockets ...
That is the normal approach. We have 5" dia. hot dipped steel posts on one project and some rather massive HDG girders for the deck of the equipment enclosure.
Here they are adding another piece of gear and just want to carry the load, cheaply.The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
Are you sure there are wood rafters in there?
Wood rafters???
The engineers seem certain, but I will find out on Monday when we look it over.The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
Without knowing what the spans are or what the additional equipment is it's difficult to know if the following will work in your application.
About 10 years ago a client purschased a restaraunt and decided to upgrade the heating and AC. Space was an issue so the only real good place was on the roof, the problem was the previous owner had just installed a new rubber roof and turning it into a hack job seemed counter productive. We located the bearing points of the rafters and welded up several small I-beams to span the distance between them. In this case 14 ft. 4 large foot pads were welded to the ends of the beams to distrabute the weight with rubber spacers between the roofing and steel pads raising the metal about 1 1/2 inches off the roof. The equipment was installed on the steel structure. No damage to the roof resulted, no other structural changes were needed. In another situation the code required everything to be bolted down so again the same concept was used except before the steel went down the underside of the pads received a layer of mastic effectivly sealing the lags against leakage.
I should have the blue prints on Monday. Sounds like those designing roofs on these commercial buildings should plan for a lot of extra stuff up there besides the air handlers and beef up accordingly. The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
FEEDBACK from the rooftop...
NEW TO ME... 2x14 rafters. It had them. We bought more. Lumber bill was over $400 for this and that. Inspector's eyebrows went up when he saw them. Not that common? First I have encountered. Most of the stuff nowadays is TJI and the like. Wet heavy brutes to hand hoist up two floors.
Older building, bit tatty round the edges, but the roof deck is quality - double 3/4 and the deck below the joists is ply, so your foot will not appear in the office below (BTDT).
WHERE THERE IS SMOKE... Yes, there is fire. We were kicking up sawdust and trails of blue smoke on exploration day. Had to stop and get a trash can of water. Wet down the kerf and all was well. Made sure all the dust was out of the space below. Next day I had a gallon of water and two sports bottles to apply. Not needed.
Shows one disadvantage of trying to use your crap blades on a roof with a fibreglass topping. The stuff is absolute murder on carbide teeth. I am down four blades thus far. One ran all the carbide teeth off when we found the metal lath and mortar base on one cut. Golly, sure a lot of sparks flying. Let's stop and see.
Our protocol was to use the new, about to be crap, Irwin blade to cut just the glass topping, then switch to the DeWalt framer blade and cut the ply under. Job for two saws.
WHO HAS IDEAS FOR A BLADE TO CUT FIBREGLASS?
2X14 OR 2x14? Had to rip three of the four sister joists. They were from 3/8 to 1/2 higher than their old 2x14 sister.
TOOL TOTES ... I am using 20 and 32g Brute trash cans and a hand truck to move the tools for this job. Working out well. Everything but the lumber comes up the elevator, thence to the stairwell. A pair of the 20s will stack on the hand truck. The 32 is full of compressor, hoses, and all thins air.
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.