Posted by  JWmHarmon on February 08, 2002 at 08:45:35:

In Reply to:  Re: Cape Cod second floor dormer posted by Jean on February 08, 2002 at 07:25:10:

I would not give any advice on your project without seeing it in person, but here is a similar example.

I did one project where we removed a portion of the roof of a one-storey house to create space for a second floor room. This house had a 1X6 ridge board. We screwed a 2X6 perpendicular to the top ends of the rafters, a 2X6 to the ceiling joists, and 2X4 studs to hold up that section of the roof. We installed sufficient 2X6 temporary rafters on the side where we were to remove the roof. These were there to brace the ridge in place.

We cut the nails at the ridge and at the top plate and cut the roof to be removed into large sections using a chain saw. The temporary rafters served as supports for these roof sections as we pulled them down into a waiting flatbed truck. If we had wanted to save the roof section we could have attached it to the ridge with barn door hinges (bolted in place with adequate washers or metal plates to prevent pull-through or splitting), placed temporary bracing under it at the top and bottom of the rafter ends and jacked up the wall end of the roof section. This may be what your father did. WARNING: This is extremely hazardous, life threatening work. There is NO room for error. Demolition may be a safer alternative.

Once the roof sections were removed we placed adequate floor joists next to the ceiling rafters and attached them with screws. We built a plywood floor and then conventional stud walls, installed the roof trusses and did the finish work. We had to work around the temporary rafters until we had three walls in place to provide sufficient bracing for the old section of the roof. Then we removed the temporary braces.

On the side of this second storey room that was next to the old roof, we used clerestory windows.

We then began work on a two storey addition that attached perpendicular to this second floor room. We used all the temporary bracing in parts of the new addition.

The project added 800 square feet of living space to a 1200 square foot dwelling. The second floor included a master bedroom, bath, and nursery room (computer/office/sitting room). I designed the addition in the same style as the original house so that one would think that the whole house had always been designed that way. The original house had four gables. The design of the new part added three more gables plus one more small gable over a back door necessitated by a clearance problem.

Several years later it was included on a local charity's fundraising tour of homes.

Best wishes on your project.

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