Tough economic times often compel homeowners to put off conducting some needed home repairs. However, those homeowners may not be able to tell that some issues are structural problems that should be given prompt attention. This article discusses two key indicators that your roof may have developed structural problems that must be sorted urgently before worse damage occurs.
Sagging Floors
How can a sagging floor be connected to a defective roofing system? Many roofs have a system of rafters onto which the roofing material, such as metal roofing sheets, is anchored. Unfortunately, the members that make the system of rafters cannot usually span the entire width of the roof. Consequently, those members require braces onto which other members can be interlinked in order to span the entire width of the roof.
The braces are usually subjected to a lot of downward pressure exerted by the roof above. Those braces can easily give way if they are not supported from below. That support usually takes the form of weight-bearing interior walls. The braces rest on those walls and distribute the downwards forces through the walls and into the ground.
Sometimes however, roofers may make a mistake and use interior walls or partitions that were not designed to be load bearing. This may be because those partitions or walls are closest to the location where the roofer wants to support the system of rafters. Those non-load bearing walls will gradually sink under the load they are subjected to. This can cause sections of the floor to sag or sink.
Outward Leaning Exterior Walls
Structural problems may also exist in your roof if you observe that the exterior walls are leaning outwards. This usually begins when the connectors linking the joists at one end of the home to those at the other end become loose. These metal plates can weaken because of faulty installation practices. The result of this looseness is that tension forces will begin pushing the walls outward as the roof exerts a downward force on the rafter network. The walls can eventually collapse if this roof problem remains unchecked for long. You therefore need to act promptly to fix the problem before it gets out of hand.
Ask expert engineers to conduct a structural inspection of your home in case you notice the symptoms above. That inspection will reveal which structural repairs need to be done in order to restore the integrity of the roof over your home.
Share21 October 2016
I really want a cool old fixie like some of the people at my university have, but they are actually more expensive than I had first thought. Then I was going through the shed at home, and I found a really old rusted bike my dad used to use. The bike needed a lot of work, so it's been a project for the last few months to get it working properly and get it looking great again. This blog has all of the repair and restoration steps that I have used, and pictures of my progress as the project progressed.
