Roof Design & Access

[Mark P]

What is this roof design: "Shed", "Lean to"...?

Also would you have set your ladder up on the garage roof to get to the upper roof? There is nothing to secure the ladder to, the roof pitch is about 5/12, it is around 10 feet from the garage roof up to the next section. Just wondering what others think they would have done in this case.

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[Marc]

I've no problem walking up to 6/12 if the eaves is one story high. I walk up to 4/12 if the drop is 2 storys high and the granules aren't too loose. I like a wide margin of safely. If there's something to arrest my slide, I'll go steeper. I'll do 12/12 if a lower roof with a lower pitch allows me a running start.

I'm ok with calling that a shed roof. It sheds water doesn't it?

Marc

[John Kogel]

I would walk only if I suspect a problem not visible from the gutter or those upper windows. Then I would get pictures from my tall ladder at the sides and rear of that higher roof.

I will no longer set a ladder up on that lower roof to go to the top of the upper roof. My fees are not high enough for that.

I will get closer pics with my pole camera if something looks suspicious or there is an invisible roof plane up there.

[Tom Raymond]

I would have no problem putting a ladder on the lower roof to get to the upper. How do you think they sided it?

That contemporary design was popularized by the famed B.U. Ttugly around 1960 and it stubbornly persisted well into the 90's.

[Charles46]

I would leave my 20' extension ladder on the truck and break out the 28 footer and approach the second floor from the back side. However, I promise you, from personal experience, it really hurts to come off a roof unexpectedly. Like John said, the fees are not high enough to put yourself at risk. Remember, stupid hurts.

[hausdok]

Easy,

Both levels. I'd use my 13ft to get to the upper roof from the lower. If I felt nervous about it, I'd use a cargo strap to anchor my ladder to one of those window casings. Knot one end, run the strap around both sides of the ladder and form a hitch on each side, come back to the window, knot it again and then close the window over the strap at either side.

If your knees feel weak when you climb up on a 6ft. step ladder, don't bother. Get out the binoculars.

Got up on this one yesterday without tying off. Longer ladder got me to lower roof, short ladder got me to upper. Just another day in the life of a home inspector.

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ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[kurt]

Shed roof. Maybe opposing sheds. I don't know. Maybe "pitched" roof. It's immaterial.

Why couldn't you just walk up the right side? it looks like enough walkway to walk to the back shed.

It doesn't even looks steep.

[hausdok]

Why couldn't you just walk up the right side? it looks like enough walkway to walk to the back shed.

The angle is deceiving you. That back wall of the front roof plane probably returns to that front corner of the upper floor and doesn't go up the side of the back half of the house.

It's still a very simple roof to get onto and walk.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Bill Kibbel]

2 single-slope roofs.

I'd access each roof from their lower edges. From here, it sure looks like I'd walk on them.

[John Kogel]

Right, 5 in 12 I would walk. It looked steeper to me last night. []

Since I am only there for a quick look, I don't approach it the same way a guy putting up siding would. It is quicker and safer to move the ladder around the house.

Not long ago here, a mason fell to his death while repointing a chimney from a ladder. Now they are required to put up scaffolding, even for a 2 hour job.

[Mark P]

Thanks for the replies all. Walking the roof was not the question or concern, I was just wondering if you would have set up an extention or telescoping ladder on the lower roof to get to the upper roof. I did not want to approach it from the rear because I would have had to set the ladder up on a wet deck; I don't like wet decks. From the rear it was close to 20' from the deck to the roof. Mike's idea of tieing off to the windows was someting I did not consider; however, I don't think I could have gotten to those windows, they are at the top of a very very tall and fully furnished room.

I imagine that when the house was sided / reroofed something like a 2x4 was nailed to the garage roof to keep the ladder's feet from slipping.

It sounds like some of you routinely set up ladders or lower sloped roof's to get to upper roofs and have no problems with the feet of the ladder slipping. Maybe I just need to grow a bigger pair.

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[kurt]

Save the pair for something better.

Get a couple 20' nylon webbing straps with cam locks; strap the ladder on the wet deck so it can't move.

[Erby]

or a 2x4 with 16 penny nails through it, drop the nails through the cracks between the deck boards.

Though I think I like the web straps better.

[Marc]

I would certainly not have set up my shorter ladder on that lower roof. I don't allocate the time to strap up anything. I do straddle the lower end of my ladder across a ridge fairly often to reach an upper roof. I've fallen but once since the early 90's. It's not in my job description to fall.

Marc

[Richard Moore]

At the ridiculously easy end of the scale, how about this one?

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Found in Anacortes on the rocky headland above Cap Sante marina. At this point I'm mostly over taking HI photos when I'm off duty, but this one made me chuckle.

[John Kogel]

At the ridiculously easy end of the scale, how about this one?

You could twist an ankle stepping off that thing. I'd call for a 6 " step. [:-graduat

My long ladder was in no danger of slipping today. But I had to be careful not to step on the neighbor's gas meter.

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One day last spring, a home inspector sprang into action by way of this handy trampoline. []

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