some roof questions

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I had 2 contractors come over. One was a local guy , who I never heard from again lol. The other was a larger , I'm told reputable company. He obviously couldn't make any structural changes . He gave me an estimate of 34-36 K to redo the structural as is on the 2nd floor and reroof the entire house. That's already double what the insurance company gave me.


So with the help of the PPE +drawings I'm planning on demoing the entire second floor (except existing outside walls) and building a true 2nd story.

A guy at work just built a nice garage 32x40 footprint . 10' walls with 2x6 , Trusses and plywood cost him about 7K .
 
If you are going to rebuild the second floor, would you not want to increase the size of the floor joists at the same time?
 
buffalo said:
A guy at work just built a nice garage 32x40 footprint . 10' walls with 2x6 , Trusses and plywood cost him about 7K .
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You're comparing an apple and an orange for a garage and finished living space. Figure around 10-12K alone just for demo and roofing on a house your size and his estimate isn't as bad as it seems.

You can always go back to the ins company and ask to revisit the claim. I have customers do it all the time when they miss items to be repaired on their summary sheets. Just because they send you a check doesn't mean that's the end.
 
nealtw said:
If you are going to rebuild the second floor, would you not want to increase the size of the floor joists at the same time?
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He did a calculation while he was he on that and said I should be good by 20%.
 
oldognewtrick said:
You're comparing an apple and an orange for a garage and finished living space. Figure around 10-12K alone just for demo and roofing on a house your size and his estimate isn't as bad as it seems.

You can always go back to the ins company and ask to revisit the claim. I have customers do it all the time when they miss items to be repaired on their summary sheets. Just because they send you a check doesn't mean that's the end.
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Yea , that's what I'm told. Honestly the insurance guy seemed to really get me the most he could. But he couldn't cover the 2nd floor structural because of rot. I'm not sure if I should mess with it or not. He gave me money to Re shingle and Re plywood the entire house and garages. They were long overdo as is.

I'm not saying it's a bad estimate. I'm just comparing lumber costs , and could easly swing that number if I did it on my own. Obviously alot more has to go into it like drywall , insulation ect.....but I'd have a safe structure over us.
 
The 2x6 span is 9'3" wall to wall on a load bearing wall. He did say the living room may need somthing. It's been 2 weeks with no word yet so I just emailed him . Guess I'll have to wait and see.
 
I have tryed to put myself in your place and think of how I would do it.
The temptation would be as you are thinking leave as much as you can and build from there.
That might be the fastest way to get the roof back on.
But if the floor joist in the rest of the house have to be increased, then what? You could raise the new floor so it is about 7 inches higher so you have a step up into the new rooms.
The engineer would not like you to raise the back walls 7" but you could order trusses with a step in them to fit old and new walls. This might be your best bet.

Just raising the old floor to match the new would demand a replacement set of stairs

The other thing I have been thinking about is the trusses themselves and what design would be best for a beginer to install.

Your house has a gable on the front, to get that again, it will require a gable on the outside edge and 1 or 2 ply girder that spans the space that have the other trusses hung off of it and a valley set to extend the peak back onto the other trusses. Not a big deal but maybe not anything you want to learn when you are triing to get it up fast.
The truss company could make regular looking trusses to fit to widest point and and the move the bearing point for the rest of them to sit on the wall that has the 1 ft setback
The cut back for the front porch would likely just be short trusses with a different roof line in the front.

You want to get the exact measurements of the foundation and interior bearing walls and get that to a truss company for there ideas see what issues that might see.
 
Sorry , it's upside down.

I want to open the dowstairs walls up so I have to do some beams. I believe the only spot that needs attention as far as the joist length are the blue doubles in the living room. If I run a beam separating the ding room and kit hen wall , I can extend that beam all the way to the other outside wall and run those joists the opposite way to fill in that small section of l8ving room and stairs. Then I won't need a step up.


I wanted to ask you about Trusses, do you think I may be better off building the roof? One raising walls though , one Co tractor said he could nail 2x4 on the top of the existing to take it up a bit. You told me a while back the dimensions for a slider door as far as framing , I need to look into that.

I was thinking just a gable gable deal , easy for me to learn.
 
Anything new should have 2x6 exterior walls.
Which walls do you want to add 2x4s to? Not on the exterior if you are hand framing the roof as rafters push the walls out and you would be creating a bending point!!
We use a threee man crew tro stand trusses that are landed by crane on the walls. 7 hours, two men to sheet the roof one man on the roof one man on the 6 hrs Add fasia to the gables 1 1/2 . ready for roofing in 2 days. That includes drywall backing, catwalks, and tee bracing for the engineer.
Hand framing including schafolding, design for snow load, God only knows
Interior sliding door width x2 plus 2" eg, 30x2 +2 =62" As the finished frame for a slider goes in before drywall,frame the height to fit the set up you have. It seems they are not all the same.
Exterior sliding glass door is a window and is framed to the size of the window eg 72 by 80 is framed 72x80 and the window will have 1/4" space all around.
 
Ok I need an opinion on this structural engineer. I had to pay him 350$ for him to come out , which he then was supposed to write up a report for me on what we went over and he saw. Then he told me he would charge 45/hr for CAD , and 85/hr for structural . Seemed pretty reasonable to me , as another guy told me 120/hr.

I received no report or contact so after 2 weeks I emailed him(thsee were the weeks of Christmas and new years) . 2 days later I leave a message on his phone. 3 weeks and a day to the inspection he finally emails me and says $1500 will get me a full set of drawings. This includes the 2nd story and all the load bearing walls I wanted to adress on the first floor , basically he will come out again and we will go over everything I want to adress. Kinda thought that would happen on the first visit .

I still haven't received any "report". His deal was $250 for a verbal inspection , 350 with a report. So this coming Tuesday will be a month. He is supposed to write up a proposal for 1500 to finish. I'm wondering how long this will take.

So I'm thinking the price seems reasonable? What do you think?

I'm more concerned though , about how long everything takes as far as call backs and this report I still don't have. A friend of a friend is an engineer who will do the hourly rates.
 
That's a tough one.
I believe if he writes this report he has to send a copy to the city also, he might be afraid the city will condemn the house and you would have to move. Or he might be a crook?
What happens here, the designer draws the plans, that would be you. Then you would take it to the city, after a week or two you get them back and they tell you what they don't like and want an engineers report on that. The engineers do a rough set of plans with little information on them mostly concerning with the areas the city didn't like. Then when the inspections are done the engineer is responsible for the inspection of the things he asked for and the city looks at the rest.
I know you would like to save the floor upstairs but the dickering back and forth over it may not be worth the time and energy and still might not work. I would take your rough set of drawings to the city, make an appointment and let them know you are a home owner that wants to make it right. You might get away with more or less but changing the floor probibly wouldn't cost what the engineer would charge all said and done.
It would be good if you knew a builder or contractor in your area to learn the ins and outs there.
 
I took my drawings down to the building depth last year and they told me as long as I get a stamp from an engineer I'm good. Right now I think I'm ok with the basic plan goes as far as the town , and being able to do it.

I'm just concerned the engineer is either taking on way to much work and being so busy may complicate things , or is just a slacker. He Deffinatly knows what he is talking about , I can tell by talking to him.

I just can't keep paying 350 for an interview.
 
Suggestions anyone.
We are working out how to re-design the main floor for a more open concept the lower floor is supported by an insuffecient beam so we are triing to land bearing points in line with the posts that support that beam. New footings and post may be required to make the lay out work. Once we have that looked after we will be able to replace 90% for the upper floor, because of some silly building practice we will be able to do this well above the existing floor which can be removed later.

After that the plan will be to use a crane to remove old roof and land pre-built walls and the pre-assembled truss sections, all in one day of crane time.
I have never pre-built walls or roof section before, I have no problem with the set up and how to's but there are always pit falls, so anyone with experience that ran into problems, I would like to here from.
Thoughts?
 
buffalo said:
I'm willing to spend the money on the crappy roof , lol. If I can sister and beam it for a few hundred , it beats redoing a new roof structure. Trusses are not going to happen. But your right , onto the house. I downloaded 2 other videos the other day.

House exterior roof

Interior 2nd floor
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Crap!!!!!!!! for some reason I missed this , Wish I had watched sooner. the second floor one won't come up but the other is good.
 
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