Waterproofing or Under-roofing a Back Deck

[cowboydoc]

This is what I did on my deck as well. I have the exact same situation as you do at my house. I just built a frame angled to the outside edge and covered it with tin. Put a drain tile in where it drains off and you have a dry space under your deck.

[hayden]

Wow, that's no fun. Would you attribute it primarily to the heat? Glenn's in Connecticut where it's much cooler than TX, and the roof (whatever he picks) will be both shaded from the sun and protected from hail, snow, etc. by the decking. Regardless, your experience suggests it should still be avoided.

[PTRich]

Did not know Glenn was from CT. I live in Willington CT. (my old name was WillingtonPizza) I live by the University of Connecticut. We have extreme weather in CT, from one extreme to another. They used to say if you wan't the weather to change just blink your eyes. January you could have a day that is 60 or -5 degrees. Two years ago we used 2 cords of wood to heat our house, last year we used 4 and ran out![img]/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif[/img]. The summers are just as bad, weve gone thru a summer using our AC only once or twice and other summers we have had to use it for weeks at a time.

PTRich

[Bird]

Peter, in Connecticut it might work all right, but I'll bet metal would work better.

Bird

[Henry]

I helped a fellow build a desk system on a new house once (a really long time ago), with a "simple" roofing system underneath the desk. I was the teenaged hired hand (stong back / weak mind) and the owner was some kind of nuclear engineer, turned home builder on the weekends. The deck was about 8 feet wide and ran with width of the house (maybe 25 feet). We constructed a lightweight roof made of styrofoam sheets (1.5 inches thick x 24" wide x 8' long), covered them with tar paper (I think he glued it) and reinforced it underneath with a 1" x 2" simple frame. These styrofoam roof "frames" were attached to the underside of the deck with hinges on the end closest to the house. On the outside end, the roof frames hung on detatchable wire hangers. The roof frames were sloped, which allowed the rain water to drain into a gutter system that drained away the water. As I recall the gutters were attached to the deck posts. The styrofoam frames could be lowerd periodically to clean off debris that fell thru the cracks in the deck. From the deck, you really couldn't see the roof system below (because it was black). This roof system was a little wacky, but it did work.

Basically, the idea of a lightweight roof that can be removed for cleaning does the trick!

[JohninCT]

I'm with those that have suggested a corrogated roof either metal or plastic underneath. I was in a Lowes store recently and saw two kinds of corrogated panels. One was the standard translucent stuff - pretty light weight. The second was much heavier. It was some sort of fiber stuff - maybe fiberglass, but heavy duty. I think I've seen it on a couple barn roofs.

You may want to check out this web site for some ideas:

http://www.buildingonline.com/sgi/

John

[GlueGuy]

The fiberglass stuff is what my sister-in-law uses up at her place. Not exactly see-through, but it does let through light. Been over the workshop/garage for many years in full sun, and under her back deck for probably almost as long. Doesn't look like it will die anytime soon. A lot quieter than the metal jobs.

The GlueGuy

[HarveyM]

Another type of roofing that you might look at is Endura (I believe I have the name right. It is an asphault panel (about 6'X4' panels). Our barn is roofed with it, cost somewhat less than metal and it, at least so far, appears to have a lot more wind resistance than most anything I've seen.

[PTRich]

I saw those panels at lowes this summer and was thinking about using it on our barn. I was wondering, when you put up those panels can you walk on them? If you can't how do you put them up? I ended up using arcitectual shingles, they look great and nail real easy but at 90 lbs a piece they were not fun to bring up a 28 foot latter [img]/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif[/img] !

[HarveyM]

The panels are strong enough to support you if you are walking on the purlins. The panels worked great on our barn (made a wonderful green roof) but the installer hadn't worked with them before so ended up putting some holes in them. Asphalt patch closes the holes well.