what kind of roof for the room addition??

[brotherdon]

I am in the process of enclosing my covered patio and making it into addtional living space for a rather large family. The patio is approximately 21 x 18 and is situated within a 90 degree area where a pitched roof from the main part of the house meets a pitched roof from an add-on den. Presently the patio is covered with fiber glass which until a few months ago had pretty frequent leaks. I added a 10 in strip of flashing underneath the last row of shingles coming off the den. There was already some flashing on the other part of the roof. That seems to have worked pretty well. The leaking seems to have stopped except for a nail hole or two. Otherwise not much problem.

My question now is how to adapt the roof to the new addition. Should I keep the flat roof style and simply switch out the fiber glass and cross pieces (2x2s) for plywood, felt paper and rolled roofing OR should I go to some kind of pitched roof. I have talked to a few roofers, and it seems each had a different idea about how to build a pitched roof.

My latest thought if I go for a pitched roof is to go up higher onto the main part of the house to get an adequate pitch and from the backyard corner where the den roof meets the patio cover run a diagonal up the side of the den roof to the new roof line.

Or should I stick with rolled roofing since it seems to be doing fine at this point. It seems that by adding a solid layer of plywood with felt paper and rolled roofing, that should make it pretty water tight.

What are your thoughts? Is my description clear enough??

Thanks,

Don

[Jack the Contractor]

The first thing you need to do is to check with your building and code enforcement office. Roofs for houses are different then patio roofs. You will need it to have at least a 40lb/sq ft load. If this is not done correctly, your home owners insurance will be void. If your room is the dimensions you spoke of, your roof will be a major operation. Good Luck