Raising the roof, literally

[dealmaker]

Driving home today I saw a pretty cool thing. I'm sure we've all seen mobile homes that someone has built kind of a "carport" over. This gives a true composition roof as IMO mobile home roofs have a life expectancy of about 1 year to 18 months, LOL.

Anyway one of the (MANY) older, pier and beam, wood frame, (possibly asbestos sided) houses in town is getting a major facelift. The guy built a "roof structure" over the house, it looked like probably 4 X 8 posts at the corners and the centerline. The roof was the way cool standing seam metal roof.

They've ripped the top 4 feet of the siding off and have extended the studs up to tie to the structural part of the roof!!! I'm guessing they'll then re-side and have a pretty cool unit. The best part is that it gave me an idea for a couple of really cheap places that I've passed on up to this point.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

Talk about thinking outside the box. This guy is building the house, OUTSIDE THE HOUSE.

Gotta go get a closer look tomorrow, or whenever the weather gets better.

dealmaker

[Dan Auito]

I've never heard of this Frank? I wonder how hard it would be to get a permit for this type of thing? Would it have to be professionally engineered? I would go ask those resourceful folks just what this type of improvement entails! I look forward to your finding out! Wow, and I thought I had seen it all. :smiley7:

[OKRICHLAND]

Driving home today I saw a pretty cool thing. I'm sure we've all seen mobile homes that someone has built kind of a "carport" over. This gives a true composition roof as IMO mobile home roofs have a life expectancy of about 1 year to 18 months, LOL.

Anyway one of the (MANY) older, pier and beam, wood frame, (possibly asbestos sided) houses in town is getting a major facelift. The guy built a "roof structure" over the house, it looked like probably 4 X 8 posts at the corners and the centerline. The roof was the way cool standing seam metal roof.

They've ripped the top 4 feet of the siding off and have extended the studs up to tie to the structural part of the roof!!! I'm guessing they'll then re-side and have a pretty cool unit. The best part is that it gave me an idea for a couple of really cheap places that I've passed on up to this point.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

Talk about thinking outside the box. This guy is building the house, OUTSIDE THE HOUSE.

Gotta go get a closer look tomorrow, or whenever the weather gets better.

dealmaker
Can you get pictures of the process and send them as an attachment,
or are they done?
If you can, I would like to see the stilts.

[dealmaker]

Well I drove past a few more times and never saw anyone so today I stopped and walked into it. Well, it's basically a shell of a house. What they did was built "pony" walls on top of the exterior walls, and build a bit more of a framing structure to make the roof line more of a straight gable type, fewer corners and then put a metal roof on it.

I didn't see any permit anywhere and it didn't look like any work had been done lately. The weird thing is that someone would try to "salvage" this hull of a house. Buildable lots are plentiful, even in town like this one is. It seems to me it may have been easier to just scrape off the slab, maybe expand it a bit and start from scratch.

Sorry I don't have a digital camera to upload pictures, I'm too "tech phobic"

dealmaker

[OKRICHLAND]

Well I drove past a few more times and never saw anyone so today I stopped and walked into it. Well, it's basically a shell of a house. What they did was built "pony" walls on top of the exterior walls, and build a bit more of a framing structure to make the roof line more of a straight gable type, fewer corners and then put a metal roof on it.

I didn't see any permit anywhere and it didn't look like any work had been done lately. The weird thing is that someone would try to "salvage" this hull of a house. Buildable lots are plentiful, even in town like this one is. It seems to me it may have been easier to just scrape off the slab, maybe expand it a bit and start from scratch.

Sorry I don't have a digital camera to upload pictures, I'm too "tech phobic"

dealmaker
At times I see houses and think the same things.
Usually they are burnouts.
I have seen houses that are 80% unsalvageable in lower / middle class neighborhoods and the investor is having them worked on.
I thank that that is the lowest form of life and I am ashamed to be in the same profession as them.

They will hire drunks and derlicks to do the shotty work and they will do as little as possible to squeeze by. It's all about saving a buck at the buyer or renters expense.
I have seen them sister up to burnt lumber and then throw a bunch of Killz on it to try and hide the smell.
Then the unsuspecting family that moves in has to live with the shotty construction.

Maybe John Michael can tell you just how they get away with it.

[Dan Auito]

Hmmm :thumbdown Doesn't sound like a very happy ending on this one :SM126: Ahh, all in a days work, they all can't be goldmines. :SM029: