I need a new roof - bad.
My house currently has wood shakes but will have to be replaced with an asphalt shingle. I'm looking for a nice dimentional shake that is better than the old style, plain, boring, etc.
That said, my existing roof has issues. When the house was built in 1949, they spanned the roof too big with not enough support under the roof rafters. This has caused the roof to have minor sagging and some wavyness.
I've talked to a few contractor friends and I'm trying to find out what I should do to make the roof surface perfectly flat and what's the best way - I get different answers every time (but, in fairness, nobody has actually ciimbed into my attic).
I've explained that I currently have solid sheathing. That is, 1x6 boards that have no spacing between them. Not spaced sheathing and not plywood or chipboard. The roof has a couple of minor leaks so there is going to be some boards that will have to be replaced due to rot (I'm sure).
What I think I need to do is add supports (similar to trusses) to hole up the 2x4 rafters. The rafters are currently 24" centers and have collar ties. It also looks like someone at some point tried to brace up the rafters but only did part of the house and I don;t think it is done right.
MY Questions:
1) do I replace the entire roof with plywood and shore up the rafters once the sheathing is reomoved? Seems the most exxpensive.
2) do I remove some of the sheathing (for access) and shore up the rafters.
3) Do I remove all of the collar ties before doing anything and then replace the collar ties after the roof is flat.
4) I'm on a limited budget and the roof is 40 squares, so removing the whole roof and starting over is not an option. Plus, it's made it 60 years so it couldn't be that bad.
5) There is a load bearing wall running the entire center of the house (basically equal to the roof ridge), however, it shifts 4' over in the center (at livingroom) and then back to the center. I'm guessing that walls that seperate individual rooms are also load bearing - I'm saying this because I think any supports need to be above a load bearing wall. The ceiling trusses are all 2x6 and are 16" centers.
6) The roof is 70' long, not counting the garage which is detached but is still part of the overall roof - the breeze way would basically have two load bearing walls.
My ultimate goal is to have a new asphalt shingle roof that is not wavy as I think the shake roof hides a lot of the imperfections.
I put some attic photos below that give a general idea. The roof is long and flat with no gables and is 4&12 slope.
Thanks for any and all advice........Vern
