joester

OK, I hired a contractor to add a roof over the front entrance of my house and remove the 3 layers of shingles, then re-roof the entire house.
The roof to be added is a standard gable type, and the new ridge board will be perpendicular to the existing ridge. The new ridge board will also be joined to the existing roof about half way between the gutter and ridge.
My questions:
1. Do the new ridge and joists need to be secured to the existing roof frame (rafters)?
I ask this because he has already re-decked, papered, and shingled the area the new roof will cover.
2. The contractor is adding CDX to the roof surface, but using 3/8 plywood. This is installed over the existing 3/4 X 6 pinewood boards that made the original roofing deck.This "CDX" plywood appears to be standard plywood (not specifically marked CDX). How can I be sure I'm getting CDX and is 3/8 acceptable to NYS codes?

I looked at some of the houses he's worked on and the work looks good, but I'm wondering is he's not cutting corners on me. I do know that the town I live in is rather anal about permits and codes, but I have not seen an inspector onsite yet and the permit is not posted on the front of the house like I thought it should be.

I sure hope I didn't hire the wrong guy....

joecaption

Not many people here are going to know anything about what's code or not code anyplace. there's people from all over the world on this site, for questions like this you need to taking to your local building inspector.
As long as he lined up the new ridge pole on top of one of the rafters in the existing house there nothing to gain by cutting a hole in the old sheathing an attaching it to it on the side, in fact it would be weaker that way from the shear load on the nails.
Each one of the rafters one the sides of the roof spread out the load, if fact there is very little load on the ridge pole at all, it becomes self supporting once the rafters are all in place.
I personaly would have used 1/2 for sheathing but 3/8 since it's being laid over those all board should be fine as long as it's Ext. rated, it should be marked right on the plywood. CDX is a cheaper grade of plywood that's full of voids and knots.
All he's trying to do is get the roof decking to lay flater and cover any weak spots in the old deck boards.
The the old 1 X's were not there then 3/8 would be to thin.

joester

Thanks Joe.
I guess I need to find out where he's getting the plywood and see if it's in fact CDX since it bears no markings or painted edges.
I was thinking 1/2 inch would have been better too.
For what it's worth, the plywood appears to be reasonable with respect to defects... not too many knots or voids that I see. It's just not marked or coated in any way.
I was discussing the whole job with a DIY guy here at work, and he said that when he re-roofed he used CDX grade that wasn't marked. It depends on the manufacturer from what I was told.
I would have preferred to do the job myself, but I don't have enough hours in the day and the 7/12 pitch makes me uncomfortable.

Any input on Tiger Paw from GAF instead of tar paper?
It looks like a winner to me and it's what he's using.
Thanks again!

Joe

joecaption

This what it should look like when framing.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/qa/tying-new-roof-to-old-one.aspx
And yes that Gaf is good stuff and cost more so if he's using it that's a good sign.
I've been working on houses since I was 14 and the only plywood I've seen with no markings is interier grade sanded and sometimes marine grade. Not exterier.
Any building inspector would be looking for a grade mark. We install it so the grade mark is on the inside when building a roof on an addition so he can be standing inside and read it when doing a framing inspection.
I hope he's not planing on using 3/8 on the new additions roof?
That permit sign has to be visable from the street, if there is no permit and you get cought, if your lucky you will have to pay double the normal price for one, if your not lucky the whole thing will have to come down. It was up to you to make sure there was a permit before the work began.

joester

It's been a month now and I'm NOT HAPPY with the work done so far.
1. The job included adding a roof over the front steps on the house. This meant 12ft posts or beams to support the front of the roof. Contractor got 8ft 6X6 pressure treated timbers, and put them on top of 4 ft sonotubes filled with concrete. I know the sonotubes going down to the required frost line are 8inch, not the 12inch that you see in this photo. Now he wants to replace the 8ft 6X6 posts with the 12ft I originally wanted, and at an additional charge. I can get the 12ft timber at Lowes for $32, he claims they are $100ea.
I'm not paying twice to get the right posts in there, and I'm not sure about 12in sonotubes "cemented" to the top of the 8in ones. Sound right to you?
2. Drip edge for the new roof is a couple inches above the drip edge for the original roof. Contractor got into some "custom drip edge" gutter he wanted to build, but I told him I wanted a simple gutter for my simple house. Now we have to either add an extension to the rafters he cut too short, or replace them. I say replace them on his tab since I had not approved the "shortening" of the rafters. Maybe it's just me, but I was under the assumption that a contractor in this case would just build a darn roof to match what was already there instead of whatever popped into his head.
Here's a couple photos of the rafters. 1st shows the "mock edge" to try to show what it would look like. 2nd shows the actual rafter ends on the opposite side.
3. The mess. This particular mess has been here 2 days now, and the extension cord on the top of the pile was thrown there after I removed it from the bottom step on the side entrance. Nothing like a trip hazard to add to my frustration. Oh, and that's my brand new 100ft garden hose too.
OK, my questions:
1. What ducks do I need to have in a row to seek legal action? This job has been "in process" for a month now, and I still don't have 1/2 a roof, let alone the added one over the porch.
2. Is there a "Contractor Board" that I can approach to complain to?
3. If I get another "We'll be done by next week" or "I'm going to take care of it and make it all good" I just might fire him on the spot. Since he has not performed the work requested (failed on his contractual agreement) what monies can I expect to recoup?

joecaption

In VA there is a board of contractors that can act as the middle man. And there is also a fund to compinsate customers but most of the time it's only used when the contrator skips out on a job.
A lot depends on what your contract with him says. If it's not in writing what you wanted then you could be stuck.
I just quit a job with a contrator that did all the same things your complaining about and he tryed to use me as the fall guy and say I made the changes.
Customer would say there wanted semi gloss paint he would use flat, say they wanted 6 X 6's and he would use 4 X 4's, customer would give him a two page punch list of stuff that was wrong and he would take years to fix them, if he did it at all, I could not deal with it any more.

joester

Thanks for the reply.
I looked over the contract and there is a bit of grey area where the construction portion is concerned. 6X6 on 12 inch sonotube is one of the requirements, but there is no mention of how far out of the ground the sonotubes would extend.

I dropped a line to the town code enforcement officer to ask about the legitimacy of capping a frost line 8 inch sonotube with a 12 inch tube when the 12 inch tube starts at ground level. With luck, It will be non conforming and need replaced anyway.