considering buying an extremely old house
 

need some advice on roofing! :D

Its an 1822 house, so 190 years old, very small at 900 square foot. It has a cedar shingle roof, which appears to have reached the end of life, most of it is covered in moss, and other stuff, and its coming off.

I was doing some research, and if I buy this house, im going to have to replace the roof surface, and do some work on one wall. Price is right though, its on short sale and a steal.

Ill know more after a home inspection is done on all the house systems, but I can tell just from looking at it the roof will be needed soon.

My question is what are the different substrates between the cedar shingle, and the asphalt roof material? Whats the best way to get the shingles off? Ive been watching youtube videos, and think it looks straightforward, but any advice would be appreciated.

The cedar shingles are affixed to 1x2 lattice that is typically nailed to the roof rafters.

The shingles are quite soft and can easily be removed from the lattice. Leave the lattice in place if at all possible due to the work of removal.

Lay 5/8" or 3/4" plywood on the existing lattice and finish with 30 lb. felt, ice and water shield at the edges, and 30 year shingles.

I had it all done on this house for $4500 in labor about 10 years ago. The materials added another $2500. or so. It is 17 square. The roof is an 8 pitch which they walked.:eek:

It depends. The originals on my 1890 victorian were wood shingles on skip sheathing with asphalt shingles and rolled roofing on top. I went with a metal raised panel roof once I had the old one removed. Metal roofs are forever. Why do you think there is asphalt under the cedar shingles?

Is the house in an historic district or subject to any sort of ordinance requiring historically accurate roofing? If so, then they might not give you much choice about the type of roofing you use.

im sorry, I was unclear in how I phrased it, I want to replace the cedar with asphalt. Im not sure whats under it, but there is reason to believe the entire roof was redone in the early 80s, when a small extension was made to the house.

Im thinking the asphalt would be a little tougher with some of the shaded areas of the home, and would be within my budget as well

thanks! very informative

fortunately, no. Whats interesting is that the house is actually a former 1 room school house, centrally mounted wood stove and all. It was a 1 room school house for 100 years, before being turned into a small residence, still one room. Its now a cabin deep in the woods, and I like the area, lakes are nearby, walking distance, and im only 30 minutes out from work

In the late 70s, early 80s, an extension was made to the back of the building, making it a 2 bedroom, one bath residence, but I find the building unique, in that the one room school house main space was preserved, making for an extremely large feeling of space in a tiny house with a high ceiling.
Additionally attractive to me is that it was owned by a succession of cabinet makers, so its filled with space saving custom cabinetry.

Other additions were a small porch, and a deck. My understanding of the area is that there are no restrictions on how I can modify the building if I buy it, but im checking on some of the finer points

Prices have gone up. I just had about 20 square torn off and replaced after hail damage. Price around $20k.

Are you in an area with enforced building codes? If not, and Brian's description of a lattice underlayer is correct, you could avoid the sheathing step and simply put raised panel roofing on top of the lattice.

this is on the metal roof? wow, good to know. I will be doing all the work myself when I get into this.

I can jump off the roof, so my #1 fear of death is less of a worry with this building :D

im definitely in an area with enforced building codes, another thing im considering though is insulating while I do this?

Ill explain, so the large space around the central stove was originally a nearly 1.5 story peaked structure with rafters and the peaked roof above. One of the residents installed a drop ceiling for insulation, and above is quite literally a farmer constructed roof steeped in history.

What id like to do is knock out the drop ceiling, and expose the old structure of the building.

I dont want to lose the insulation of the drop ceiling though, so I was wondering if it made sense to remove the existing roof, put down plywood on the lattice, or whatever's there, install 2.4s on the outside of the plywood, and put in insulation, then cover that with plywood, and roof over that.
Right now im just talking out of my *** saying whatever seems reasonable, I have no idea whats acceptable or legal.

No, that price was for architectural asphalt shingles. 3 tabs shingles removed, sheathing put down and new shingles put down. Outrageous in my opinion but paid by the insurance company.

I don't think that will meet code.

research time then. Monday inspection will be done, and I can see if im serious

that does seem like an outrageous price! 1000 bucks a square foot? No damage to the structure?