Demo and Framing the Roof

Once the decision was made to rip off the old roof and replace it with new, we just needed to figure out the details.  This involved a little measuring, a little work on the computer and a few strings pulled so we could properly visualize the new roof line.  Once these things were settled, it was time to get going.  Once again, things were made needlessly complicated because I was working above our bedrooms, where we were living.  I needed to get the old roof structure out, along with all the debris, and frame the new roof and get it water tight all while leaving the existing ceiling in place.  We only had the weekend to pull it off, and hoped for no rain.

So to make things as quick as we could, I cut all the rafter to a pattern on the ground.  Once this was done I tore off the old roof, and cleaned out the existing bays in sections, leaving just enough structure in place to hold up the old ceiling.  I then framed in the new roof framing over the old ceiling, a section at a time.  I did this in about five or six sections. When done, the old roof structure was gone, leaving a handful of rafters to hold up the ceiling, all the old insulation, mouse poop and other debris was gone.  The new roof framing was in place, ready for the sheathing and tar paper to make it weather tight.  We did have one exciting moment when it began to rain late at night, and I had not taken the time to tarp in properly.  Luckily it did not rain much and there was enough old insulation left in the roof to soak up most of the water, and I had at least gotten some new tarps on site, so they were handy.  So with a little exciting late night tarping, we were able to stave off disaster.  I learned two valuable lessons from this: don’t be lazy and skip a step, and when it really matters, check the hourly forecast, not just the daily.

By then end of the weekend, we were able to get the old roof system off, avoided disaster, and the new roof on, and weather tight.  There were still details and the finer points to be dealt with, but the bulk of the work was done.