Comments on repairing neighbor's car port L beam

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Trying to give my 73 year old neighbor some assistance with the corner 4x4 support of his flat car port roof. I don't think that one corner is major support as the house itself has 3 foot overhangs all around it without external support. The left side of the car port has 3 - 12 inch brick columns supporting and the right side is attached to the house. Obviously there is a leak above on the roof in a 6x4 ft area. No sense in patching the roof with obvious rot in the wood under it.

It's a hollow roof as there are numerous vents underneath. Last person up there a few years ago slopped some stuff around to patch the leak though that stuff has cracked/failed again. Looks like plywood upper and lower layers. The vertical I beam has a bit of damage on the upper 1-2" or so, could be minor. I'm not sure how far that horizontal beam goes into the house. Temp support might be found at the center front of the car port

First question is would I need to get someone with a state contractor's license or can I do some of the work under the "supervision" of the owner? Just looking for ideas. Owner is not in a financial position to pay more than a few hundred $$ to get it fixed. Don't see any other leaks around the rest of the underside. House was built in the 1950's, not sure about the car port.

Slide show

]L Beam[/url]
 
You can "help" your neighbor fix the roof.

I would fix the "L" beam area first or support that area before you stand on the roof section to fix it.

Be prepared to go farther than expected to eliminate the rotted wood.
 
It's not a difficult repair if you know what you're doing. As was stated above, there is more rot there than you're seeing, so be prepared to go further than you expect.

Depending upon your local ordinances regarding property repairs, you may need a permit or an inspection. It also looks like someone did some shoddy electrical work at some point in time (looks like romex that's been painted over). That will also need to be addressed, cleaned up, and done to code. Fair warning-if you do need a permit/inspection, depending upon the inspector he may see and require other work to bring other parts of the building up to code. For example, if the electrical wiring in the photo really is as bad as it looks, you may end up doing a significant amount of rewiring of other areas are visible and done as poorly. Things like that are a red flag for an inspector to look further.
 
The screen is off that end of the gutter and the later looks like there's debris in it. Is there any metal flashing between the roof deck and fascia? Doesn't look like there's any where the beam cuts through the fascia.

Looks like water has rolled down rotting the fascia, horiz. 4x4 and the ply soffit. It could also have leaked through the roof decking, rolled down to the fascia, and soaked it from the inside as well.

Water is lazy: It always takes the path of least resistance.

Stick a sharp knife or icepick in various places to see where you have sound wood. I too expect you'll find a lot more rotten wood once you begin to tear it out.
 
I would start by removing the ceiling around the support. Look for water staining on the gable of the house. The peeling paint is the clue. Quick and easy would be to remove some or all of the ceiling to allow the space to dry out. The looks to be a 6x6 If the top bearing area is punky. you can cut it back and add short pieces of 2 by as a dutchman. Flashing isn't rocket surgery, but plenty of guys screw it up. Flashing is just little shingles used to lead water down out and away. You can't make water run uphill. that will leak.
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If the beam is rotted badly enough to replace. Put up an A shore or 2 to carry the corner and then dig out the rot and replace with good wood .
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
The screen is off that end of the gutter and the later looks like there's debris in it. Is there any metal flashing between the roof deck and fascia? Doesn't look like there's any where the beam cuts through the fascia......

Stick a sharp knife or icepick in various places to see where you have sound wood. I too expect you'll find a lot more rotten wood once you begin to tear it out.


The house overhang gutters have screens on them. That end near the car port beam is just bent up a bit and not a source of water. I did poke a flat edge screw driver entirely through the 4" horizontal I beam without much resistance. Carpenter ants are living in there. I can easily move and shake both the horiz and vertical beams which suggests they aren't carrying much load.

Quote:
Looks line antenna or telephone cable on the beam.


That's all that is. The main 120v ac power goes up over the car port and into an inverted metal "J" pipe near the peak of the house.

Quote:
If the beam is rotted badly enough to replace. Put up an A shore or 2 to carry the corner and then dig out the rot and replace with good wood.


There's no alternative temp support points that I can see, that's why that put that "L" beam in place to begin with. Any support beam would just be directly up against the underside ply wood or end trim. Though it might be enough to take up whatever weight is being carried by the "L" beam. If the car port's right side is supported properly along the other 85% of the house, and it looks to be, I don't see why this 5-6 ft beam would be carrying much load. Then again, how would they have tied that 50 ft run into the length of the house?

There is metal flashing capping the peripheral roof line and running down 3" or so. It's tightly in place.

Thanks for the inputs.
 
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