roofers help me

I have a 50's prefab house. Roofer had shingles roof delivered, and noticed within a day that walls were seperating. Roofer has basically said "OOPS" but nothing he can do. There is an I beam running down the center of the house, with the ceiling joists strapped to it. How can the house be pulled back to square again?

Take Pictures

First, take several pictures of the shingles stacked on the roof. Pay particular attention to how they are probably stacked in one or more big piles rather than distributed uniformly over the roof. And take a bunch of pictures of the damage in your house.

Then call your homeowners insurance company and tell them of the damage caused by the overloading, as a resultof not distributing the shingles over the area of the roof.

Bundles of shingles should never be stacked together on the roof of a finished house, and never more than one bundle high. The best roof is probably not designed for more than 40 pounds per square foot in the north, and 20 pounds per square foot in the south.

Then call the roofer and ask him for the number of his insurance company so you can report the damage caused by the fact that he stacked the shingles in such a was as to exceed the load capability of the structure.

Then let his insurance company make an assessment of how the house can be pulled back together and refinished, and contract to get it done on their nickel.

Thanks, just wanted someone elses opinion. In one spot, basically in the middle of the roof, they piled approx 12 bundles directly on the peak, in the space of a bundle by a bundle. Building material company came back out, and offloaded the roof, but by that time, damage was done. Their reply is that the house will probably move back in time. However, am worried about roofers being on roof, if there is structural damage.

"In one spot, basically in the middle of the roof, they piled approx 12 bundles directly on the peak, in the space of a bundle by a bundle. Building material company came back out, and offloaded the roof, but by that time, damage was done. Their reply is that the house will probably move back in time. However, am worried about roofers being on roof, if there is structural damage."

The house will move back into its original position when the cracks in the wood glue themselves back together, and the nails that were partially pulled out drive themselves fully back into the holes, and gravity reverses direction to lift the rafters and pull the displaced walls back together.

Hey Bob, you forgot "...and Hell freezes over."

I don't doubt the roofers came back and took those shingles off the roof in a hurry.

Many houses built in those days had a feature in the roof framing called "collar ties", which were essentially a 2x4s or boards nailed to the rafters about half way between the eave and the ridge. That was supposed to help keep the rafters from pushing the walls out.

That kind of framing put very high stresses on the rafters. Someone should go up into the attic and inspect for damage to the rafters or the attachments to the rafters.

One evidence of damage will be if you go onto the roof and stretch a string tightly along the ridge line from one end to the other. If there is space between the string and the ridge in the middle of the roof, then the roof has sagged.

The roof supported several hundred pounds of shingles that have now been removed. If the roof is not too steep to walk on, it should be safe to support a couple of people checking out the damage.

thanks guys, like I said, just wanted to get another sane mind. The roofer has assured us that he "will take care of it" however, I don't see how. Roof is very slight pitch, barely enough to crawl through. Rafters are still square, and level, believe it or not. Problem is, one outside wall is about 3/4 to an inch out of square.

Have you tried the string along the ridge line, outside? That is the place it will probably show up. Because of your shallow roof slope, you may not be able to see the ridge from close up. It will require getting up on the roof and stretching the string.

If the walls at the ends of the rafters have pushed out, then the ridge line has to have sagged.

If it is a sagged roof with walls pushed out, then the solution is to jack up the ridge from inside while pulling the tops of the walls together with long rods and turnbuckles along the line of the ceiling joists. The rods should stay in place and the inside should be refinished.

The rod ends must be very securely attached to the top plates or rafters at the walls.