Good afternoon,

Help, the roofers are here as we speak!!!   In roofing best practices, what quality/grade of pine lumber should be used when replacing damaged roof deck boards? 

Our insurance company has authorized roof replacement as a result of damage from a recent hail storm.  The roof deck of our home (60 year old building) is 1 x 8 inch pine.  We specified that the roofer must replace like material with like but did not specify what GRADE of pine lumber should be used.

Can anyone help us?  We want to make sure that the roofing materials are good quality.

Thank you kindly! 

I am in agreement with Kevin.  You haven't told us what kind of roof you had...was it woodshake or cedar shingles over spaced board decking?.. or was it asphalt/comp shingles over the top of shakes?...how many layers?

If it's any of the above--and the roof decking is 60+ years old--you surely need new decking with a nailable surface.  Now, if it were me, I wouldn't want 1x8's regardless of the quality.  Too many courses of shingles/nails hitting the cracks & so on.  Most building codes will require 5/8" & up for decking, again depending on where you live.  Ice/water shield, again, depending on where you live.  But I'd go with the CDX plywood, not the waferboard.

If your neighborhood covenant requires that you go back with woodshake/cedar shingles, then the spaced board decking might be an option but there are new procedures now days for the breathing necessary on shake roofs.

You haven't told us what kind of roof you are going back with, nor why the decking has to be replaced.  I suspect the adjuster put in decking just for the purpose of providing a nailable surface, or maybe the old boards were rotted.  And if that's the case, you got a gift.

We have a claim where the roof was comp shingles and we discovered that beneath that was slate. We paid for the comp shingle and slate replacement, but depreciated the slate 90%. There was extensive interior water damage as a result of the roof damage. The insured is not happy because the city is requiring him to replace the slate roof, because the home is in an historical district. The depreciation of the slate (underlayment) represents $1000's of dollars. How would you resolve this issue with the insured.

Also, what is the method of applying comp shingles over slate, without doing alot of damage to the slate.

As an owner, I have renovated many houses in historic districts including the re-roofing, and did one house that had slate roof as a contractor about 24 years ago.  First of all, there there is no way to install comp shingles over slate without tearing up the slate.  That is probably why there was water damage in the house.  The local and federal regulations on the exterior of houses in the historic districts generally allow for composition roofs to be put on these days.  However, if the house is a "declared historic house", the rules change and probably would have to have a new roof that "looks like" the original slate.  There are some imitation slates available.  I have always gotten approval to put laminate shingles on in the historic districts because that is the prevailing type of roof in the Dallas area.

As an adjuster, I would look at the circumstances before depreciating the slate.  Slate can last forever.  I have seen roofs over 100 years old with the original slate.  What was the reason it was re-roofed with composition and was it covered under insurance when it was done?  Is there a possibility of subrogation against the roofer who installed the composition?   If the comp was put on due to storm damage, the layover should never have been approved.  The one slate roof I took off was due to hurricane damage in Galveston where debris broke a lot of the slate and lifted a lot of them pulling nails out.  We removed all of the slate then installed the composition roof.  At that time there was no replacement for the slate so the insurance just paid for a normal re-roof.  We were able to sell the slate to other contractors who used it to repair other roofs that did not require a re-roof.

Not knowing how old the composition roof was on your claim, I would guess that someone owes the homeowner a new slate or similar roof to meet the historic requirement.  This is not an upgrade since the slate is still on the house. If statute of limitations is not up, the roofer might even get sued for destroying the slate. Also, how did anyone get approval to overlay with comp in the historic district?  Check for permits or CA.  A CA (certificate of acceptability ) must be issued by the landmark commision before any exterior work can be done in a historic district.  These rules have been around for many years.  If the comp was put on before the area was declared historic then it is grandfathered in at its current condition and should be able to go with composition.

If you have more specific details, post them here along with what city the property is in, and I will answer any questions about the historic requirements that I can.

This is a response to the original topic, decking material.  Most older homes (pre-1940) have tongue and groove 1" pine decking and would have to be replaced with such.  Up at least to 1930 in the Southwest, the roof structures were usaually framed with 2x4's and the houses were balloon framed.  The decking, which sometimes was shiplap instead of t&g, held the structure together.  Even newer houses with cedar used 1x material to hold the rafters in place.  These can not be torn off without risking a roof collapse or shifting of the roof and walls.  With 1x, you lay the decking over and nail to the 1x4's.

The procedure is to tear off any rotted decking and splice in decking of matching thickness.  Sometimes you have to price in 1" material purchased from salvage yards.  There are a number of yards in dallas where I buy used shiplap, t&g pine, and old hardwood flooring.  If the decking is so bad that it all has to come off, or the 1x4 strips are bad, they have to be removed as the 4x8 decking is installed to keep the rafters and walls plumb and square.  This requires a higher cost for tear off and replacement labor on the claim report.

While I am at it, I will add one more item that most adjusters would not spot if they have never worked on a balloon framed house.  If the damage is due to fire or tornado and rafters are also damaged, the cost can go up dramatically.  On a traditonal framed house (1930's and up), the rafters are notched and sit on the top plate of the wall.  On a baloon framed house, there is no top plate.  The ceiling joists, which are usually 2x4's with shiplap run crosswise, are nailed to the outside end of the ceiling joist which is resting on the shiplap wall and suspended above the attic floor., putting weight on the cantilevered ceiling joists which extend out about 30" creating the soffit.

I had a fire in one and the structural engineer's report said to brace up the walls from the outside and inside before removing the rafters that burned because a spring effect would cause the walls to move and become wavey with no way to straighten them back up.

Depending on the extent of the damage, you may need to allow for an architects drawing to rebuild a roof structure to todays code since 2x4's are not acceptable for ceiling joists or rafters.  It also requires modification of the existing wall to build in a top plate for the replacement roof structure.