# rafter tail rott



## mohamie (Sep 26, 2006)

hello, about to get a 1921 house reshingled and ridge vent installed in a 
couple of weeks. gutters/softit shortly after. i got up on a ladder to 
see why a couple of gutter nails were coming loose. only to find that
part of the gutter board gone from rott. also the rafter tails contain 
rott as well.

now i would like to fix this situation before the roofers get here,
because my wife is going to school full time and not working i cannot
put out a whole lot of money at this point.

i have researched this, but not a whole lot of information out there on
this subject. 

the house is a stick framed house. so should i find where the rott has 
stopped on each rafter, support it to the ceiling joist, cutt rott off
cut new piece of treated lumber and replace by screwing deck screws
end to end?

or scab a piece that is 3-4 ft longer then cutt off rott and move to the
next one?

or another idea?

thanks


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## K2eoj (Aug 14, 2005)

Chances are the sheathing/decking is rotted also. The easiest way to do this is to strip the old roof and do everything at once. If a good roofing crew knows what the situation is in advance they can have this all fixed while you drink a cup of coffee and supervise. I know you said you had limited funds but if your time is worth anything let the "Men with Nailguns" do it and you can sell some sh..uff on ebay. 

It is great that you spotted this before the new roof. These roofers are piece workers and if you don't see it they don't see it. Cover it up and get a check is how they would deal with it. 

I just saw one two weeks ago. Brand new roof on rotten overhangs. Permits pulled and passed inspection. The owner called me when the gutters and the facia came off in a 40 ft. section.

In my opinion your best use of time and money in this situation is to drink coffee and supervise. 

If your roofers say the won't fix this find one that will.


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## inspects (Sep 4, 2006)

hammerslammer said:


> Chances are the sheathing/decking is rotted also. The easiest way to do this is to strip the old roof and do everything at once.


Exactly!


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## mohamie (Sep 26, 2006)

yea i think you are right, they would most likely do that and i would be
living with this problem for some time.

when i have this fixed, would it be done end to end or scabbed on?


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## K2eoj (Aug 14, 2005)

mohamie said:


> yea i think you are right, they would most likely do that and i would be
> living with this problem for some time.
> 
> when i have this fixed, would it be done end to end or scabbed on?


Scabbing would be fine. We scab tails in new construction for a number of different reasons. That's why nail guns would be inportant in a repair like this, you can reach up and get nails in places that you would not be able to with a hammer.

The scab should be 3x the overhang. 2 ft. overhang =6 ft. scab. Probably be best for the guys to take up the first full sheet of plywood,( if it is plywood), do the repair, then put down a new sheet of ply or osb. 

Of course you don't want it to happen again. I suspect your pitch is 4/12 or less?? Ice and water shield, drip edge, pressure treat on the scabs and facia would help. 

The biggest mistake i see for creating overhand water leaks is when the guys leave the facia sticking up above the roof plane in places. They do this to keep the facia straight but it makes a pocket for water to collect. The facia cannot be above the roof plane especially on lower pitched roofs. Power plane it, cut it, whatever it takes.

I have a building I built 20 years ago and left some facia sticking up and fought it for 20 years. We're reroofing in a month also and I will be out there taking care of problems i whish I had known about 20 years ago.


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## mohamie (Sep 26, 2006)

yes its a 4/12 or so, fairly flat

now would scabbing be ok if the rot reaches past where the rafter sits
on the ceiling joists?

the sheathing is 1x and no i dont want the next homeowner to have to 
worry about this. so should all the rot be cut out? or is ok to scab to it
and leave the rot there?

about the facia, you mean like put a bevel on it so it buts right up to
the roof line?

sorry for all the questions im just trying to get a mental picture of this

thanks


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## joasis (May 28, 2006)

One thing to know about rot in wood, is that when your remove the source of moisture, the rot stops when the lumber dries. That is why scabbing would be ok in this circumstance...


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## K2eoj (Aug 14, 2005)

> now would scabbing be ok if the rot reaches past where the rafter sits
> on the ceiling joists?


Does the rafter sit on the joists or the wall?? is it a truss?? Is the joist rotted too?? Can you take a picture ??

Cut the rot out.

Facia doesn't need a bevel unless some of it ends up above roofline. They you could plane it even. With drip edge and or gutters the facia can be lower than the roof plane by a 1/2 inch or more, just don't let it be above which is the tendency of most guys.


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## mohamie (Sep 26, 2006)

sure thing ill take a picture, its raining pretty hard today. so when it 
lets up i will.

thanks hammerslammer and joasis


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