Anybody know how to fix this? It's on the upper story roof, which means it will be a pain to get to. Do I sawzall out that whole section of rafter and try and shape a new piece of wood to fasten into its place?
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
How about using one of the good ones as a template and slip it into place right after removing theat piece? Just a thought. -P
yeeps! honestly, i'd probably hire a guy to deal with that, unless it's somehow easy to scoot out that window in the picture and stand and safely work.
i agree that you could take measurements of the adjacent supports and thus have a piece ready-made and be ready to slip in. maybe that'd at least save you on the bill, if you provided the "materials" in the form of a new support and just hired someone to do the labor?
the thing that gets me though looking at this picture: *why* is that one support looking like that, when the other supports look ok? somehow water is getting to that one particular support. can you get the attic and look around that area, to see if anything else is amiss there? it's possible that a new support slipped in there might be subject to the same problem if the root cause still exists, though i imagine it'd take many years. it might not be a bad idea to get the other supports checked too while someone is up there looking at it
Looks like it's just the overhang, maybe the edge of the roof is allowing water in - possibly something at the gutter causing water to sit there. You may want to sandwich the bad support on either side with good wood. Cut the rotten portion of that rafter out first, until you get good wood. That's what she said. Michael Scott
Other commenters have made the point- the fix is one thing, figuring out why it rotted is another.
The exposure of the rafter tails below the gutters has me scratching my head. There should be a facia board, a 1x(whatever) between the rafter tails and the gutter, well caulked. The deal is, even the best gutter will have water get behind and over it. For your gutters, that means that the rafter tails- end grain- are GOING to have water on them. You can paint and caulk end grain until the cows come home, but they are basically little straws that LOVE sucking water. Bingo, rotten wood. Adding a facia board to the rafter tails, however, is a bigger job, removing the entire gutter, making sure the roof edge flashing covers the facia, replacing the gutter making sure the ends meet with the added 3/4" depth.....
As for the immediate fix, if you have access to the attic inside, you may see that the rafter tails are not really rafter tails. My place on Yellowstone had fake rafter tails that were face-nailed onto the actual rafters. If that is the case, it'd be a (slightly) easier fix to replace just the tail.
And for the record, ditto on JR's Sawzall comment. You need to brandish that thing from time to time, even if you don't actually use it.
Working from the outside, you wouldn't get me near it unless you had scaffolding. I HATE ladders.
Thanks to all for comments and suggestions. Once the roof is safe to climb on again (ie no rain/snow/ice), I'll head on up and take another look at the gutter....
7 comments:
How about using one of the good ones as a template and slip it into place right after removing theat piece? Just a thought. -P
yeeps! honestly, i'd probably hire a guy to deal with that, unless it's somehow easy to scoot out that window in the picture and stand and safely work.
i agree that you could take measurements of the adjacent supports and thus have a piece ready-made and be ready to slip in. maybe that'd at least save you on the bill, if you provided the "materials" in the form of a new support and just hired someone to do the labor?
the thing that gets me though looking at this picture: *why* is that one support looking like that, when the other supports look ok? somehow water is getting to that one particular support. can you get the attic and look around that area, to see if anything else is amiss there? it's possible that a new support slipped in there might be subject to the same problem if the root cause still exists, though i imagine it'd take many years. it might not be a bad idea to get the other supports checked too while someone is up there looking at it
Looks like it's just the overhang, maybe the edge of the roof is allowing water in - possibly something at the gutter causing water to sit there. You may want to sandwich the bad support on either side with good wood. Cut the rotten portion of that rafter out first, until you get good wood. That's what she said.
Michael Scott
I agree. that gutter looks stained like it has a pinhole in it or something. Slap some caulk in there and see what happens.
And yeah, break out the sawz-all. But make a big scene about it. Dress like Rambo or something. That tool friggin' rocks.
Pool Boy:
Other commenters have made the point- the fix is one thing, figuring out why it rotted is another.
The exposure of the rafter tails below the gutters has me scratching my head. There should be a facia board, a 1x(whatever) between the rafter tails and the gutter, well caulked. The deal is, even the best gutter will have water get behind and over it. For your gutters, that means that the rafter tails- end grain- are GOING to have water on them. You can paint and caulk end grain until the cows come home, but they are basically little straws that LOVE sucking water. Bingo, rotten wood. Adding a facia board to the rafter tails, however, is a bigger job, removing the entire gutter, making sure the roof edge flashing covers the facia, replacing the gutter making sure the ends meet with the added 3/4" depth.....
As for the immediate fix, if you have access to the attic inside, you may see that the rafter tails are not really rafter tails. My place on Yellowstone had fake rafter tails that were face-nailed onto the actual rafters. If that is the case, it'd be a (slightly) easier fix to replace just the tail.
And for the record, ditto on JR's Sawzall comment. You need to brandish that thing from time to time, even if you don't actually use it.
Working from the outside, you wouldn't get me near it unless you had scaffolding. I HATE ladders.
Hope this helps, know it won't... much. :-)
Bugboy
You're not going to like this answer, but it's the right way to do it:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Roofing-1598/Roof-raftor-dry-rot.htm
Thanks to all for comments and suggestions. Once the roof is safe to climb on again (ie no rain/snow/ice), I'll head on up and take another look at the gutter....
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