Old House Sagging Roof

A sagging roof line may original from the ceiling s horizontal rafters.

Old house sagging roof.

If you notice that there is a visible dip in your roof chances are you have a problem with one or several rafters and you may soon be facing more issues like water leaks bowed out walls or your roof caving in on you. So what happens with those elements is that you get more sagging and delamination of the roof sheathing. The first step is to the basement first. If the line does not continually follow the bottom of the beam and the bottom of the beam is below the line the beam is sagging.

Occasionally a house wasn t engineered properly for the type of roof that has been applied. Roof design should provide wind resistance most old homes and many not so old homes simply are not built to take extremely strong wind. They just had rafters and one could be broken or sagging 5. If your roof s structure is unsound because of leaks or termite damage you may start to see bowing in your roof.

Typically the roof sheathing is about three eighths of an inch thick. Remedies for a sagging roof there are a number of remedies for traditional rafter style roof frames depending on the problem and its severity. Houses built before the 60s didn t have trusses maxfield says. Cracked rafters and trusses can cause sagging.

When the framing of the roof is put together quite frequently two of the ceiling rafters will be fixed together as this will create a much longer span. Sagging rafters can lead to serious problems with the entire roofing system. And in a 30 year old house you tend to not have very much ventilation. A real problem in old houses maxfield says is multiple layers of roofing.

If the sagging roof is due to rotting or warping roof decking the repair will be much easier. The other thing that causes this type of sag is an excessively long roof rafter without proper bracing and in old house that s not so unusual. Check the ceiling for sagging by attaching a string on one end of the beam and run it along the bottom edge of the beam. If a roof dips in between rafters or trusses it s probably because the sheathing is too thin for the span.

You can simply have the old sheathing replaced with better material when it s time for new roofing. Often the framing can be bolstered and beefed up internally but if the roofing material needs replacement anyway it may be best to tear off. Use instructions from my page how to fix a sagging floor before you continue trying to fix the roof sagging issue. You will need to remove the shingles and the old decking however which means there will be an exposed hole in the roof.

If the framing is sound and problems are not found elsewhere but the roof still sags the problem might have originated because of poor installation of the plywood sheathing or shingles. This may be problematic in winter months but allowing the roof to continue to sag can lead to greater problems such as a cave in. 1 2 inch thick angle iron.