can I fix an unsupported roof with bowed walls?

[royspencer]

I just moved into an 18 yr old house that has a large bedroom suite over a 3-car garage which is separated from the main part of the house by a breezeway. We noticed a couple of the doors in this room swing open by themselves, one having been trimmed to make it fit. I used a 4 ft level and found all of the exterior walls bow outward by at least an inch (maybe two). So, I went in the attic (it has a hip roof) and the only support I saw was a single 2x4 placed vertically a few feet off the peak..the only other one had obviously been removed when the A/C unit was installed. There are no other purlins or collar ties. The brick veneer exterior does not seem to be bowed outward...or is much less so. Should I just go ahead and ad collar ties and purlins, or try to force the roof back up some first? If so, how would one do this?

[Rich]

You can cross tie between the walls to bring them back in line and then add your ceiling joists or collar ties. To do this you may need some heavy duty eye bolts. Take one in the center of the wall at the top of the wall - you should be able to get it into the double top plate. Then take another in the opposite wall at the bottom. You can then put a come-along between them (you will probably want to angle the eye bolts to be in line with the come-along) and cinch it up until you see it start coming in some. You'll then want to do the exact opposite bottom to top with another set of eye bolts. Tighten these up also until you see it start moving some. You'll then want to wait a day or 2 and tighten it up some more. Wait another 2 days..etc..etc.. until you get it to where you want it to be.. it doesn't have to be exact but should be close. If the length of your wall is too long you will need to add more of these cross tie locations. You'll be hearing cracking and popping as the structure moves back to where it should be.
The main thing to remember with doing this is take your time - it's not going to happen in a day. Once you get it all where you like it you can add in your ceiling joists or collar ties.
Hope that helps.

[royspencer]

Thanks for the reply and the advice...I assume I'll have a bunch of sheetrock patching to do after this is done (like in the corners where the walls now meet at a different angle)?

[Rich]

Yes - most likely anyway. Unless they framed it that way to begin with I would assume it's already cracked there. Or maybe it has been patched previously.

[royspencer]

OK, I took your advice.....sort of. I put the comealong in the attic, attaching each end to not one but two rafters 4 feet apart (with an extra 2x4 to help stiffen them). I realize that the walls might not move back by the proper amounts with this solution, since I could have controlled each wall's movement with the cross-tie suggestion you gave....but my wife didn't want to be stepping over high-tension cables for the next couple of weeks (and I think I have the comealong at it's design limit anyway, which would make me nervous sleeping with it right over our bed).

In any event, after 24 hours, our tilted door is now binding in its jamb, even though I can't measure the change in distance between the rafters in the attic (at least not to about 1/16'' precision). So, at this point, it's an experiment.....at least the roof shouldn't be sinking any more.....thanks for the advice, and I'll let you know how it goes.

[Rich]

The way our two solutions differ is just what you stated.. being able to control which wall moves where. But if it works - great.. let me know how it goes.