Hello fellow home repair experts,

I have a 12 year old house, with the original roof. On one side of my
roof, there is a sunken rafter which is causing a dip in the roof.

Here are 6 pictures:

http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South1.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South2.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South3.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South4.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South5.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South6.JPG


I was told that it would not move or sink anymore, but I would love to
get your opinion on this matter.

Questions:

1. What caused this to happen?

2. How severe is it?

3. Is it likely to get worse?

4. How common is this problem in other houses?

5. Any other comments or advice?


Thanks.

On 2 Dec 2006 09:53:36 -0800, wrote:


Hello fellow home repair experts,

I have a 12 year old house, with the original roof. On one side of my
roof, there is a sunken rafter which is causing a dip in the roof.

Here are 6 pictures:

http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South1.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South2.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South3.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South4.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South5.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/phul/roof/South6.JPG


I was told that it would not move or sink anymore, but I would love to
get your opinion on this matter.

Questions:

1. What caused this to happen?

2. How severe is it?

3. Is it likely to get worse?

4. How common is this problem in other houses?

5. Any other comments or advice?


Thanks.


Getting "Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable." when I
clicked on the links.

Good luck,

tom @ www.WorkAtHomePlans.com

I can't get to the pics either (Geocities has a max of 3 megabytes
transfer per hour).

Assuming this is more than a trivial dip:

I'd wanna know who said it wouldn't get any worse and what they base
that on. You could have a cracked rafter (only seen one of those
ever), and I'd rather jack it up and fix what's wrong than have the
dip. It cannot get better on its own, only worse, and when you go to
sell eventually, any potential buyer will either be put off by it or
make you fix it.

I have a 12 year old house, with the original roof. On one side of my


roof, there is a sunken rafter which is causing a dip in the roof.
I was told that it would not move or sink anymore, but I would love to
get your opinion on this matter.
1. What caused this to happen?

My guess is that the framing member wasn't nailed down properly if at
all. Has any other part of your house shown the problem? Any problem
with the ceiling inside? If not then it has to be the framing.

2. How severe is it?

I think it's pretty bad. Residential roof are always wildly
overdesigned and failures are rare even in old houses. That house is
pretty new and there's no way that is right.

3. Is it likely to get worse?

I don't think so. Since the problem is at the top of the house there
is no weight bearing on it save the deck and the shingles. Even if the

rafters are on 24" centers that leaves adequate support for now.

4. How common is this problem in other houses?

I have been up on few roofs as a roofer and haven't ever seen one like

that.

5. Any other comments or advice?t

Just document the damage and wait until the roof need to be replaced.
Then you will be able to do something about it.

Claims on the builder can be difficult to pursue but something worth
considering. If you can bring a claim against the builder right away
they might agree to address the sitiuation when the roof is replaced

Item number 3 below, "Is it likely to get worse" may need one additional
question to be answered before coming to the conclusion that no additional
weight bearing will occur. Specifically, is the roof located in a climate
(like mine) where heavy snow loads are common in the winter?

Smarty


"Lawrence" wrote in message
ups.com...

I have a 12 year old house, with the original roof. On one side of my


roof, there is a sunken rafter which is causing a dip in the roof.
I was told that it would not move or sink anymore, but I would love to
get your opinion on this matter.
1. What caused this to happen?

My guess is that the framing member wasn't nailed down properly if at
all. Has any other part of your house shown the problem? Any problem
with the ceiling inside? If not then it has to be the framing.

2. How severe is it?

I think it's pretty bad. Residential roof are always wildly
overdesigned and failures are rare even in old houses. That house is
pretty new and there's no way that is right.

3. Is it likely to get worse?

I don't think so. Since the problem is at the top of the house there
is no weight bearing on it save the deck and the shingles. Even if the

rafters are on 24" centers that leaves adequate support for now.

4. How common is this problem in other houses?

I have been up on few roofs as a roofer and haven't ever seen one like

that.

5. Any other comments or advice?t

Just document the damage and wait until the roof need to be replaced.
Then you will be able to do something about it.

Claims on the builder can be difficult to pursue but something worth
considering. If you can bring a claim against the builder right away
they might agree to address the sitiuation when the roof is replaced

Lawrence wrote:
I have a 12 year old house, with the original roof. On one side of my



roof, there is a sunken rafter which is causing a dip in the roof.
I was told that it would not move or sink anymore, but I would love to
get your opinion on this matter.
1. What caused this to happen?


My guess is that the framing member wasn't nailed down properly if at
all. Has any other part of your house shown the problem? Any problem
with the ceiling inside? If not then it has to be the framing.


2. How severe is it?


I think it's pretty bad. Residential roof are always wildly
overdesigned and failures are rare even in old houses. That house is
pretty new and there's no way that is right.

I can't see the pics (geocities won't let me, says bandwidth exceeded)
but I was looking for a place a couple months ago and I saw LOADS of
houses with atrocious dips in the roofs (they were offered for what I
thought was extortionate pricing too, so I politely declined to make an
offer.)

nate

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