I had a busy Labour Day weekend working on a home reno project. I am pretty proud of the results so I am showing it off. I replaced the flat roof balcony upstairs with a sloped roof for better drainage and less leaks. In the process I added a much large and better deck than the one I had in the back.

It is about 80% complete. I still need to put up a railing, stairs, soffits and fascia.

This project was mostly a one man job. I had the generous assistance of my neighbour for some of the heavy parts like the posts and beam for the roof, but other than that it was determined, steady work. The nice thing is that this deck gets the afternoon and evening sun - a nice place to wind down at the end of the day.

Before


Roof Joists


After - the roof is 12ft wide x 16ft deep.


Roof Post and Beam


Deck - need stairs and railings, it is a little high.


All in all, I am amazed at how well it went. The house is 80+ years old and nothing is straight/square or solid so there is usually surprises along the way. Not this time.

 

nice ...after hurricane season you can come down here and do the same thing to my back porch.

 

o wow. that's quite a project! nice work!

 

That's badass...

Get a permit???

 

Yeah, sure... Permit...

I was careful to follow code, but I didnt get a permit for a couple of reasons.

1. The permit isnt expensive, but the engineering drawings I would need would have cost almost as much as the project.
2. They would have never given me permission to put a deck that close to the property line.
3. I didnt need a permit for the roof structure.
4. Technically I need a permit for the deck (permits required for any deck more than 3ft high), but technically I was repairing an existing deck, a permit is not required for repairs.

I would have no problem getting a permit at $75. The problem I have is that you need to produce engineer approved drawings. I would have had to have surveyed the existing structure, inspected the framing of the existing conditions, soil stability test, had drawings done and approved, the list goes on. If I was lucky the engineering would have cost me $500.

If I get any grief, I will lower the deck surface 1ft to get me under 3ft where I dont need a permit.

Oh yeah, and a city engineer was just out on the street during the work - they are doing road reconstruction. So either he doesnt care, or he is going to rat me out later.

 

lol

Anything I do in my town requires a permit... Seems like if I want to take a dump, I gotta check with the town first.

Good for you... I've yet to get one.

 

And to think I was all proud of ripping up a carpet over the weekend