Hi,
New to the forum. The house I'm referring to is on Cape Cod, MA
I'm at the very beginning stages of investigating what it would take to turn my roof deck into a screen porch (with full roof). I am not ready to call an architect or hire an engineer. I'm just ready to start learning what codes I might have to follow and what the construction might have to look like. Here to learn...
The roof deck is about 21' x 12'. It is built on top of a '4 season' room that was an addition to the house. The 4 season room is about 21' x 10' meaning the roof deck is overhung or cantilevered by about 2'. Currently access is to the deck is only via the 2nd floor through a sliding glass door from a bedroom. The surface of the deck is an interesting product called dec tec which acts as both the decking surface and roof.
In my mind it is as simple as building a roof and supporting it with 4x4's. I have seen, and like, the eze breeze product and think it would work well between the 4x4's. To prevent people from falling through the screens I'm thinking of using a low-visual impact horizontal rail system like cables.
At this point my questions are:
*how do I determine if the cantilevered deck can support a roof? I realize I could call an architect, but I'm looking for something more educational than that...if someone had rules of thumb or references to review I'd appreciate it. I realize that ultimately it will require more than rules of thumb but I'm very early in this process.
*how do I determine the construction details of the roof and roof supports? again, with the same caveats noted above.
thanks for any helpful posts!
New to the forum. The house I'm referring to is on Cape Cod, MA
I'm at the very beginning stages of investigating what it would take to turn my roof deck into a screen porch (with full roof). I am not ready to call an architect or hire an engineer. I'm just ready to start learning what codes I might have to follow and what the construction might have to look like. Here to learn...
The roof deck is about 21' x 12'. It is built on top of a '4 season' room that was an addition to the house. The 4 season room is about 21' x 10' meaning the roof deck is overhung or cantilevered by about 2'. Currently access is to the deck is only via the 2nd floor through a sliding glass door from a bedroom. The surface of the deck is an interesting product called dec tec which acts as both the decking surface and roof.
In my mind it is as simple as building a roof and supporting it with 4x4's. I have seen, and like, the eze breeze product and think it would work well between the 4x4's. To prevent people from falling through the screens I'm thinking of using a low-visual impact horizontal rail system like cables.
At this point my questions are:
*how do I determine if the cantilevered deck can support a roof? I realize I could call an architect, but I'm looking for something more educational than that...if someone had rules of thumb or references to review I'd appreciate it. I realize that ultimately it will require more than rules of thumb but I'm very early in this process.
*how do I determine the construction details of the roof and roof supports? again, with the same caveats noted above.
thanks for any helpful posts!