Dining Room Roof

DINING ROOM ROOF

So back when the co-vid thing was starting I thought I'd add a deck and change the roof line over the dining room. The above shot is on a gloomy day with all the crap that accumulated over the winter around the back door. The roof I'm trying to cover is not flashed correctly(metal stapled to siding), older, and ugly.  The roof is a slanted(towards the back yard) hip.  Which is hard to comprehend how to make and it's hard to imagine the reason you would want to do so. It should have had a shed or gable roof.  It would be simpler to build, provide more space above the room, be easier to gutter, and look better.  The roof when finished should correct the flashing problem, be better looking, give me a chance to finish the siding on the house gable(vinyl), add a new gable vent, and will also eliminate the gutter going all the way across the back of the house. 

Above is the start.  I put the ridge in place with a couple of temporary pieces and starting cutting the rafters.  I would rather of used 2x6s, and skipped the vertical braces but where the back of the new roof line would meet the front would be too close. You can see here the old round vent('kinda rotted) which will be filled in, and replaced with a new aluminum roof vent.  One of those adjustable Larmco ones.  

You can see the new aluminum vent at the top of the gable in this pic.  It's an adjustable one made by Larmco.  As soon as I cut the hole you could just feel the heat pour out of the attic. I'm going to do one on the front of the house too.  I'm eventually going to add ridge vents to the main house when I do the roof.  I like passive things that make the house use less energy. You can't really see it, but I covered the original wood siding with with vinyl siding.  I used a reflective bubble wrap as a barrier and to level out the nailing of the vinyl siding. This will help with mitigating some of the heat and make the a/c run less. 

The above 3 pics are the rafters going in.  Since the roof slanted down I had to measure and do each one a bit differently.  I did not think this through quite right at the beginning, but it all worked out.  It was a good 90+ and humid for a lot of this.  I generally did not work past 2:00, I'm 65 and 'kinda lazy.  After my day, I would generally make a pineapple smoothie, take a shower, have lunch and read comic books or play in the studio until supper.  I sheathed the roof in 5/8" flakeboard(OSB). Normally I would have used the 1/2" but the 5'8" is a bit thicker and is really much stronger.  Since the roof was up over 12' off the ground, I cut the 4x8 sheets into 2x8 sheets, which made getting them up the ladder and nailed down a lot easier for this old man.  I built silos one summer but never got used to working up off the ground and I've never been that great at working heights-still don't like it.  

The above 2 pics are the gable end almost finished with sheathing, then it's onto covering it with plastic siding.  Crappy lighting. 

What a difference good lighting makes!  Here's the back gable finished in vinyl and  some wood trim boxed up with aluminum.   I'm real happy with it.  With the dead, insulated, and vented space, above, it will make the dining room warmer and cooler with no energy usage.  If you look to the left, the plant obscuring the lattice, you can see my, soon to be 7', fig tree.  It has fair amount of figs on it and it's not even August yet!  My apple trees are looking good this year too.  

Here's a shot of the shingles partially installed.  I put down a self stick underlayment first and then went over that with some shingles.  The shingles are what's called "architectural" and are a bit better/thicker than the usual 3 tab shingles.  They look a bit nicer and are supposed to last a bit longer too.