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buffalo

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Hi all glad to be here. I have a ton of work to do on my house I bought 2 years ago. Major work , entire roof is shot , half of it is tarped. I'm sure theres a lot of rotten wood within , needing some structural replacement , ill expand on that later.Deffinatly on a budget , so I'm looking to DIY as much as I can. Support a wife and 3 kids on my salary , wife's currently looking for a job.
Had to move as we lived in a 2 bed house . With some suffering and determination I'm sure we can pull it off. I know very little about carpentary . I am a 37 yr old journeyman Forman for a commercial mechanical contractor, so I have all electrical , heating , plumbing covered. Just need a bunch of help with the structural .
I plan on starting a bit come summer so noes the time to learn.:banana:
 
If the tarps are holding back the weather you want to start at the bottom and check for damage below and work you way up if you can. You want to check for moisture and rot in crawlspace or basement. Check the floors for level, sag and bounce. The trick is to find what needs to be fixed or has to be fixed before you tackle the roof.
Give us some idea of the tools you have or intend to have.
 
Hey Neal , thx for the reply. The house has a basement throughout. It's has an inlaw single story attached to a half 2 story ( not sure the proper name, half pitched roof , half flat roof). The inlaw is basically used as our mater bed. Kitchen , bath , living rm , bedrrom . Me and Mrs just sleep in it. The inlaw area is tarped , but the entire roof( inlaw and main house) is shot.

I ripped a portion of the main house wall off and I could crumble the wood in my hands , installed some 4x4 I had on hand and put the siding back on . I know water damage has to be all over. It's was near the electric meter , which I replaced with a new box , 200 amp. The basement had water , but in negotiating the purchase the seller paid to have draintile installed in the basement. Now no water . But its a block basement and you can see moisture on a lot of blocks after a rain. The contractors that came in with bids told me the block was in fairly good shape , but my personal opinion is eventually the external of the house needs to be excavated and the block water sealed from the outside.The gutters are basically ineffective though, so that's not helping . The joists in the basement seem uneffected from any water damage.

As far as tools I have the basics. Hand tools , circ saw , sawzall , drills , compressor , mig welder , grinders , a bunch of auto tools lol. Anything I don't have I can probabaly borrow. I been in construction for 20 years so i have friends to mooch from.

All in all my plan was to attack the inlaw roof come spring/ summer. All the walls are load bearing , I want to open it up to one master bed approx 24x24. I had first consired totally re trussing but at my financial point now I'm thing of adding beams. A year ago I accessed the attic and I believe it was ALL 2x4. I won't go back up till weather breaks to confirm. I worry its just not built to standard. I live in the burbs of buffalo ny and we get a good snow load.ill end here cause I could go forever. I made a post in the framing forum. Looking for a good book on framing.
 
Pics

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What I would eventually like to do is rip off the roof and create a full 2nd story and put a real roof over that.
 
I am a fan of re-doing the perimeter drain on the outside, but now that that money is spent you may be able to improve it. They should have drilled holes in the bottom of the block to let the water out so the blocks don't fill with water and then draiped it with a waterproofing membrane to allow water comming thru the wall to drain below the floor like the one in the photo which is on the outside.
If budget allows making it a full second floor would be the way to go if the roof structure needs to be replaced anyway. The only way to go would be engineered trusses.
Even if you couldn't finnish the new space, the structure wouldn't cost all that much or at least worth looking at. That would be a summertime job giving you plenty of time to get the stucture below in good shape.

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Yea that's how they did the drain tile , as you described.

What's your opinion on building the second story roof structure on the ground and having it craned into place when its done. I could virtually do it myself until crane day. It would fit in my driveway . Just don't know how hard it would be to make a perfectly level work platform. The driveway was a small parking lot at one time ,but it is pitched to drainage . I know an operator with a decent size crane and good rates. It would be so nice to do that on the ground for speed , safety , and me and 1 other guy. 100% finished roof ...either shingles or standing seam metal.
 
I have herd of the roof going on in one peice, never seen it. We have a crane set trusses on the walls and stand them up. Good sized crane and they only lift maybe 12 at a time and then you are going to add to that sheeting and maybe roofing. Big crane!! This would not be the place to re-invent the wheel. With simple trusses like you would have a good crew of 2 or 3 would have it ready for roofers on the third day which is improtant if you are dodging the rain. Third day if you have the house prepped.
 
Gotcha , I understand. I got some reading and pricing to do. Thank you for your help.
 
I would consider re-claiming the space taken for the goofey roof line it the back and you will have to look at the chimneys too.
 
Hello,
I would consider re-claiming the space taken for the goofey roof line it the back and you will have to look at the chimneys too.
 
Hahaha , for what its worth , that's a work shop attached to the garage. Used to have a funky old coal burner boiler , auger and all. I'd like to put a flat roof over it and have a nice balconony some day , but that's my last stop.
 
Ok , I see . Yea its my sons closet....which dosent fit much.
 
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