Carport repairs continued....

Returned from Dallas on Wednesday afternoon and launched immediately into pulling down more plywood ceiling panels so I could conduct a full check for structural problems.   When the house was built, the builders used good quality 1/4" plywood with long nails.  It made it a challenge to pry the panels down but I persevered....but not without the usual annoying aches and pains!

As somewhat anticipated I found two of the support beams contained significant termite damage in a couple of places.  The full beams will not have to be replaced but there are sections that will need to be cut out and replaced with treated 2x6 lumber.  There are four support beams in all stretching from the house to the street side edge of the carport which support the roof joists.  

While the inside beam support posts appeared to be in good condition, there were problems with the outside ones.  From the street, you could see the roof line dropped considerably on the left side.  When I set about leveling that side of the carport the outside post was dangling a good 8" above the parking pad.

Lots of air down there.....

The right side wasn't much better.  When leveled I found a good 4-5" gap at the top of the center post.

Lots of air up there....

If I had to hazard a guess, a thick branch broke off the tree out front and came crashing down on the roof between center and street-side support posts.  I'd hate to have been home when that happened!!  Anyway, the force cracked the beam and drove the center post downward creating a noticeable sag in the side roof line where water would drain rather than down at the front.  From the looks of the tree, I think it's dead and will have to be cut removed (sigh...probably an $800 job).

My carport plan is three-fold. 

1. Remove the existing center support posts so that the usable interior carport surface area is clear of annoying obstructions, and....
2. Extend the street-side roof line an additional 24" so it clears the concrete parking pad by 20".  This will involve moving the outside support posts 24" closer to the street and incorporating new support beams between the posts across the front of the carport area, and....
3. Eliminating water collecting at the front of the house and carport by incorporating better drainage control.  This will involve adding an 18-24" deep french drain directly under the newly extended roof drip line to catch the runoff from both the roof and the street.  At either end of the carport pad, the drain pipe will turn towards the house and run downhill towards the creek were it will empty out.

To accomplish the removal of the center support posts, I'm sandwiching the two existing outside beams with two additional 2x6" treated boards and securing them with 7" hexhead bolts and 3' intervals (more on this in the next post).  The interior beam has a 1/4" steel plate bolted on to the existing two 2x6" boards so I think I will need to add only one additional 2x6" beam to the existing two 2x6 boards and steel plate.  That should provide the necessary span support enabling the removal of the center posts. 

More carport details to come.