Building sofits/ extending rafters

[mrcaptainbob]

Either another tarp or just get one large one to do it. Nail a keeper board on the top along the ridge, as you'll be redoing that part anyway. Feel free to sacrifice the tarp for this project. Also, you'll just flip it over when you do the other side and won't have to set it up again. Will certainly save time, as I'm well aware how limited it is between getting home and darktime...(I've been to that movie!)...I sure like the way you're planning ahead and considering everything...

[Umby]

If it isn't rain, its darkeness, if it isn't darknest it's mosquitoes...
Wednesday night storms moved in so I didn't go out. Last night I tore off the first 24" of shingles and paper. I've got to get a picture of this. The sheathing stops before reaching the edge and there are (rotting) 2x4's to end the roof! I.e. the drip-edge is nailed to 2x4's. Rain appeared to be moving in by the time I tried prying up boards and 50-yr old framing nails. I'd like to find the guys that built that back section and pull their underwear over their heads. After I get the 2x4's removed, I may not be cutting the sheathing back very far. Since I have tore off the shingles for 24" up the roof, and if the 2x4's are gone, I may have enough room to get my rafter tails in there. We'll see.

[mrcaptainbob]

I hate that! A looong time ago I started putting on the new shingles. It was around September and we were working 10 hour days. The next week we were put on 11 and each week added another hour 'till we were doing 13 a day. Needless to say we were doing Saturday's and Sunday's as well. Along with this, the days were getting shorter daylight-wise. By the end, I just left the ladder against the roof. Came home, changed clothes, started nailing (back then it was hand nailing!!) 'till it was too dark to see the nails. Spent the rest of the meager light-time to haul more shingles for tomorrow night. Then I went in and ate dinner, played with the rugrats and off to bed. Sure do miss those those days!

[Umby]

I took pix of the rotted 2x6 at the end of the sheathing and the rotted 2x6 facia/frieze. But I can't post them until I get back to work on 8/1 because my machine here (at home) is USB 1.0. I'm sure I contributed to the damage with my hammer/crowbar/chainsaw-type antics going after ice-dams. But there it is. I removed the 2x6's and the frieze/facia, (and the ants/wasp nests), and the first two courses of AL siding and everything is wide open. Tomorrow I'll get the 2x6's, and cut the bird mouths and tack them in. Sounds simple...
But the gable end (on the west side) has a (horizontal) dead 2x4 used for nailing up the ceiling drywall/sheet rock, tacked half on the north-south plate on the western wall. This comes in along side the (western-most) end rafter and runs out over the northern east-west plate, and will (drastically) change the bird mouth for that end rafter. This will complicate the end-to-end rafter string alignment thingy discussed earlier. I'll post later tomorrow if I get a chance but I really wished I had rented a scaffold...

[mrcaptainbob]

Well, use the first rafter in from the end and then just extend past that. 'Coarse, you knew that. Man, don't you hate meeting up with that rotted stuff? I ran into some of that on my last house. What a pain. It sounds like you're doing a real great job on a difficult task. Didn't you say you were in south-east Michigan?

[Umby]

Yes I'm in Troy.
Well here's the status:
Because I was alone, working around severe weather and not working on a scaffold,
the job basically ground to halt mid-week last week. I never did start on the other two sides over the deck.
But here's what I got done on the north west roof.
On 7/23, I pushed back all of the fibre glass insulation and cut and nailed in 11 rafter
tails using the same bird mouth measuring technique using a builder's square. This took me 7 hours to do!
The good news was that outside the house, the tails lined-up perfectly using the
string technique discussed earlier (thanks!). The bad news was that they looked really
ugly inside the attic. Every tail ended about an inch below the existing rafter. I used 4 or 5,
3" galv. nails for each tail and went into the attic as far as I could (~ 2.5 to 3 feet).
On 7/24, I pulled the insulation back into place and slid in the soffit baffels.
I then tacked on 24" of plywood along the 14' east-west run and layed a 3' strip of ice shield under the
last row of existing shingles (by about 6") and over the existing and new plywood. This was not easy!
This stuff is meant for cleared-off/new roofs and tricky to work with once the backing has been removed.
On 7/25, I cut plum cut the rafters with a level/pencil/jigsaw the exact same distance from the edge
of the sheathing. This turned out remarkably well with the exception of the western-most rafter.
Because of the earlier mentioned larger bird mouth, this rafter came out about .75" beneath the others.
So I used shims to tack the sheathing on to it. I then tacked down another 4.5" of sheathing to overrun
my rafter tails in preparation for the sub and final facsia. I layed down another 18" strip of ice shield,
partially under the upper row of existing ice shield and out to the edge of the sheathing.
On 7/26, I then layed two courses of 30lb. builders felt and stapled down.
This is where I have stopped. I'll try to post some pictures, but I have some tricky areas to "box in"
underneath the sheathing, and until I do this I can't be nailing on drip edge and shingles yet.

[Umby]

Here are the pix...
This is of the rotted 2x6 sheathing and fascia. The lesson here: DON'T HAMMER ON ICE DAMS!!!
Note the 7 to 8 layers of shingles at the top of the image, this is where the valley comes in. I do not know yet how I will marry in the new shingles with this mess. The rest of the roof had only two layers of shingles, so I'll double layer this as well.

Here are the new rafter tails. They come out from the exterior wall by exactly two feet. I would like to have gone farther but then I would have to go farther into the attic and this would made the job a nightmare. The attic temp is at 130 F. and I would have to go in it, lay on fibre glass to finish nailing. Note the 6" of missing "sheathing" (2x6) and the string at the end of the rafters.

This after I have plum cut all of the tails and nailed on the two pieces of sheathing. Note 4.5" strip of sheathing over-running the tails. I would never attempt nailing drip-edge to this until I have a sub-fascia under it. I can't be nailing up sub-fascia until I figure out how I wil box in the corners. I'll post later about that problem. If you look closely at the last tail (farthest away), you might be able to see it's lower then all of the rest. The ancient 2x6 at the top of the image is used to hold down tarps.

Here's the ice shield; one 36" strip above the 18" out at the edge.

Here is a the baffle in place. I am thinking about "propping" these baffles down a little more to get more air above fibre glass. Whatya think?

[Umby]

Here's the issue I am having with the end rafters at the east and west ends of the roof run. I need to box these areas in, in order to tack on vinyl 1x6's and siding. The western end will be easier but still needs a false rafter to complete the end of the box.

This is what I am thinking. Flush nail a couple of 2x4 segments or ripped 2x6's to the wall. (I haven't measured this yet)

Then cut and nail to those pieces a false rafter piece made of 2x6. (Not shown will be the 2x6 sub-fascia and of course the sheathing)

Here's the eastern rafter issue. You'll see four 2x6 ends. Going from left to right: the first one is the eastern most ceiling joist on the new addition, to its right is a 2" space that leads right into the attic, and then another ceiling joist, and then the existing rafter, and finally the new tail. Like the western side, I want to box this area in, but I would also like air to get into that space and travel up the sheathing.

So I am thinking:

Then (sloppily drawn)...

What do you think?

[mrcaptainbob]

Umby! Good to hear from ya'! Yes, we have been having some rough weather. Wish there was something I could do to steer it some other direction for you, as it passes over us a couple hours before it heads your direction! Great job on adding those eafter extensions! That's coming along really well. I think your idea for the ends will work fine. Same for making sure there's more air sapce on those airdams. That's kind of a tight rope to alk there. On one hand we need superior insulation, on the other we need good airflow. Are you planning on a possibility of powering the attic air out of there? That could give you the chance of maximizing the insulation and still getting the airflow through a more 'minimum' airdam.....

[Umby]

No, I don't want to go to a power vent if I can avoid it (I'm not confident in my electrical abilities...I sound like a depressed superhero...).
But do you think I should go ahead with the ridge vent on that section considering only the one side will have soffit venting? I'm also re-thinking the end rafter issues:


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