I am interested in replacing the roof of my house with a popped up one complete with clerestory windows. I think a prefab solution might be in order here (where prefab is really just pre-cut and drilled steel beams, and a roofing system). Is this something that seems reasonable? How do I go about designing for that?

Ben

Ben,

Where are you located? I JUST completed a project very much as you describe. We used glulams and SIPs to add a low pitched gable roof to an existing home, whereby we gained ceiling height and clerestories. It cam out incredibly well.

Mark Meyer

I am in Oakland CA. I am definitely considering glulams as well as steel (in all likelihood cheaper than steel and still in keeping with the modern character of the house).

Did you actually have your structural members pre-manufactured? How did that interact with the existing building (you know, nothing is ever really square)? Pre-designing and cutting seems to me to be the best solution but I get a lot of resistance to the idea from the experts.

I am checking out your website right now, do you have photos of the place? I'm very curious.

Ben

Clients are supposed to get their certificte of occupancy tomorrow, so finish ophotos to follow soon. We actually ended up using the longest glulams we could get (47') which worked out just right for the overhangs we wanted. The SIP roof panels were steel skinned 6 EPS core panels (4' wide by however long we asked for up to 32' with an 18' clearspan). So in essence all of the roof structure was pre-manufactured. There were three steel lally-columns (where the glulams were significantly spanning past their supporting walls), as well as a steel framed wall-of-glass with an 8'x8' slider and site built fixed windows. Those things were just cut and welded on site.

Mark