Wood stove fire leaves hole in roof-please help!!!!!

digitaldreamz · Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:14 am

Hi everyone, very informative site, I am part owner of a trailer court in Wa. state. heres my situation we recently sold a trailer to a lady, and she had a wood stove fire, she burnt everything in it, what a idiot, well we just repoed it back from her, now we are left with a hole about 8' x 3' above the wood stove.
we had an estimate on it, and it was $6,000!!!!!!!! WOW, I know i can do it a lot cheaper myself but I don't know where to start, probably with the wiring, the trailer is a 1972 ridgewood, in very good condition -the hole! I will have to replace the trusses, and put a new roof patch on the top, the rainy season is almost here so I have to work fast. I want to take out the wood stove and just make it a wall. the burnt area extends into the first bedroom also,
can anybody give me some help on what to do, and what to start with. I would really appreciate some input on this situation, I dont want to pay $6,000 on a trailer that is only worth about $12,000
thanks alot !!!!!
Also i have lots of pics, how do I post them on here?

digitaldreamz · Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:24 am

I posted 2 pics in the album section under exterior projects if anybody wants to see some of the damage, I can post more pics from different angles also. thanks!!

JD · Fri Oct 10, 2008 4:55 pm

It looks like that was very close to being a real bad situation. But from the pictures, it does not look too bad as far as the work goes. I am not sure what it is you are asking, but you should probably rebuild that truss. Char on sheathing can be scraped off if it is not too deep. You can paint everything with a couple coats of Kilz original to seal in the char smell.

What kind of roof do you have? Metal, Comp shingle?

To post a picture directly into your post, use the following link for instructions for uploading pics.

viewtopic.php?t=2414

JD

Demolition · Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:13 pm

All I know about Mobile Homes comes from doing my Demolitin Business... so dont take this as the Gospel.
You might could get a big piece of sheetmetal for the roof and patch it in. Dont weld it but use some patch to seal the edges. The interior is just pulling out the paneling and bad insulation and sheetrock.
I live in a Mobile Home built in the 1960s so for Electrical I put All New wiring. I put it on the outside of the paneling and did not use any of the old outlets or even the old breaker box. Have a Real Electrican do the wiring.

digitaldreamz · Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:51 pm

It has a metal roof, real flimsy though, I think what I will do is take down one truss that is still in pretty good shape, just a little burn on it, and make 1 with exactly the same measurements, than duplicate it 5 times, I need 5 trusses total.
If I take out all 5 at once will the walls still have support until the 5 trusses get built?, I don't want a sudden gust of wind turn a bad situation into a nightmare! The hole is a little bigger than I thought, more like 15' x 10' . any specific kind of sealant for the roof seams, what is up there now looks like a tar sealer that is about 6" wide across the seams.

Thanks a lot for the input and tips!!!

JD · Sun Oct 12, 2008 2:38 am

It would help a lot to see a picture of the roof damage. Is there an actual 10x15 hole? You can buy the same galvanized roof material used on a factory metal roof from www.all-rite.com. The stuff can get pretty expensive with shipping. Maybe there is a different supplier closer to you. All-Rite also sells rolled aluminum roofing, but you have to be extra careful to insulate the two dissimilar metals.

Using one of the trusses for a pattern is a good idea. But I would swap them out one at a time and not take down all the trusses at once. Attaching them back on to the top plate of the stud wall properly could be a problem. Also reconnecting any metal straps from the wall to the truss could be a problem too. I am sure there are ways to do this without removing the roof, but they may not be approved methods. If there is no roof in this area (10x15 hole), then no problem.

JMO
JD

digitaldreamz · Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:12 am

Thanks JD for the input, replacing 1 truss at a time is a good idea, the old roof is still on, put it is curled and burnt up, so I will probably just peel it back until the trusses are done and installed then cut out the old section of burnt roofing and replace it
I have been doing some research on the other posts and have a good idea of how to do the roof, the main thing is making sure it is waterproof! as it rains here 8-9 months a year, supposed to be decent through next week so I need to get a move on this project
A family member will be living in it so some things won't need to be "Approved Methods", also as far as I can tell there is no metal straps of any sort from the wall to the truss, would it be wise to add some for extra support and strength? from looking at the construction from the ceiling up it is made with the cheapest of materials, are all trailers built like this, or is this a Liberty Homes "Trademark!" I wonder if I did a search on the web, if I could find blueprints to this model of trailer?
I have never tackled a project of this size so I want to make sure I do everything right the first time and not do things twice, but I also need to hustle before the rainy season is here in southwest WA.
I will post some more pics this evening including some roof pics.
Thanks a lot everyone for the help, all the input and tips are appreciated.

justapoolman · Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:31 am

I may be making the situation worse by putting my two cents on this but if it were me I would take a skill saw and finish blade turned around backwards.Then cut the roof out square (this would give me the room to replace the trusses more easily), get all the truss work and new insulation in. From there, if you can't get the metal roofing from a local supplier go to a sheet metal shop and buy a piece of galvanized sheet metal of the same or like thickness of your existing roof material.It may take more than one piece. Overlap the edges of the new metal at least an inch or so. From there take a good professional grade exterior caulking and run a heavy bead about a half inch from the edge of the cuttout all the way around the entire perimeter.Use a helper and lay the new metal down and press along the edge of the overlap to get a good caulked seam. Take a pop rivet gun and drill holes thru the two metals and rivet the seam about every 6" or so. Now you can take some black roofing sealer and seal the joints on the top. From here you can roll on a coat of aluminum roof coating and match everything together on the top. That should take care of the outside of the problem and allow you to deal with the inside repairs rain or shine. I may be wrong but if it were me that would be my approach.

JD · Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:54 pm

I think you have the right idea there poolman. The backwards saw blade works great except I wouldn't cut over the trusses. There is not much wood there and you wouldn't want to have a truss break while you are on it. But you could cut that 2" with snips. Going across the mobile home, I would cut a couple of inches to the inside of the truss towards the damage side. That way the metal patch can extend a couple of inches to the far side of the truss, giving you plenty of overlap and room to drive rivets or screws without going into the truss.

Personally, I would run butyl rubber putty tape under the patch edge where you will be putting the fasteners and seal the top side with a heavy coat of Ames Elasto-barrier. Let that dry to the touch, then go over it with seam tape and two more coats of elasto-barrier. Then I would top coat the Elasto-barrier with Ames Maximum Stretch. The Lowe's Snow Roof products would work too, but I like the Ames rubber elastomeric better. A gallon of either product will do approx 100SF (usually less), so a gallon of undercoat and a gallon of top coat should be plenty to do a 6" seam around a 12x15 piece of metal. The 4" seam tape is $25 for a 100' roll, so one roll is enough. On the putty tape, be sure to use the dark gray butyl putty tape and not the standard light grey window putty tape. You can get this stuff at any RV supply store. Difference of night and day in performance. If I used a caulk, it would be a polyurethane sealant. You have to let that stuff cure for a couple of days before coating.

That is how I would do it anyways. Basically the same, but I do not use asphalt based sealers on metal roofs, even Aluma-seal.

JMO
JD