Remodel / Addition questions

14 years ago

Not quite sure if this is considered a "remodel" or a "build" forum question. It's a bit of both...

We're thining about adding a mudroom off the back of our 2 story home. Since it's easy to do with home-design software we've extended our idea to run the entire length of the back of the house...approximately 35 feet. What was the mud room is now a mudroom and kitchen addition.

One of the problems we see already is that the peak of the roof might intersect one or more of the windows off the back of the house on the upper floor. Estimating whether this would actually happen in our case is made more difficult because the home design software can only have 1 plane for the main floor. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem, but it is. Our "main floor" starts a few feet above grade - for no real reason we can see except that is does - and that's fine. We think the mud room can ( and we'd like it to) start at ground level (perhaps simply on a poured pad) at the rear of the house, something that we can't simulate in the home design software.

SO....(after all that)...my question for the builder types here...

I know there are various pitches of roof, ours is a bit steeper than the normal suburban home as we live in a rural area with a pretty significant snow load. What (yes this IS the question) is the height from the top of a wall to the peak of the roof. I guess I'm thinking exterior roof. Perhaps it might be helpful to know the height from the sub-floor to the roof peak, since I can actually measure that outside.

Sorry if my terms aren't industry standard, I'm no contractor, just trying to figure our what will work and what might not.

Thanks

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Comments (4)

Jon1270
14 years ago
The question doesn't make any sense as written. The height you're asking about is whatever it is, or whatever it's designed and built to be.
macybaby
14 years ago
I live in an area where snow load is a concern (SD) the oldest part of my house is 130 years old.

I have roof pitches from 3/12 to 12/9. In fact I have 3/12 roof pitch OVER a 12/9 roof on one side LOL!! The house has two more "sections" on the back side you can't see from the front veiw.

What you need to figure out is what the minimum pitch could be based on your existing building. You'd also have to deterimine if you can safely attach a ledger board to the wall to support the roof or if you need something different.

This is just the roof for a small deck. We had rebuilt the wall so knew it could support this.

And showing that snow is an issue at times. . .

That front roof is 4/12, the upper roof is 12/12.
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cj47
14 years ago
We start digging on our home remodel on Tuesday. It started with a mudroom...then a kitchen addition, and now includes a 10 foot addition across the entire back of the house. :-) We hired a design/build company to do the work, and they had an engineer on staff that calculated what would have to happen with the roof to make the project work. It's really not something for laymen to do, unless you have some sort of engineering background. You may be able to do a poured slab if code in your area allows it. In my area--also an area that gets a lot of snow--we were required to dig a crawl space or basement in any addition to the house. You'll need to find out what the rules are in your area. Any contractor you have out for a bid will know.

Good luck!
Cj
joe_mn
14 years ago
any attached addition needs frost footings. or at least footing that will not shift or settle. whatever is required in your area will be signed off by the building inspector on your permit.