Andre Milbradt

Thanks for the all the replies. I just checked back and I’m blown away by all the information you all supplied to me in the last couple of hours. Thank you. With respect to my inspector, I’m actually quite grateful that he found this issue. I looked at the roof structure a couple of times myself and didn’t really see anything that concerned me, but I don’t posses any skills when it comes to judging these kind of things. He on the other hand actually tapped on the 2x4s with a metal stick and with that uncovered the rot by breaking through the bottom of some of the 2x4s (it was not visible from the outside prior to that). After he found the rot damage he instantly showed it to me. At the end of the inspection he suggested to have either a roofer or finish carpenter (or both) come out to further determine the amount damage that occurred and how much it would cost to fix it. Today I have the superintendant of small, local builder come out to further inspect the damage as well as a roofer to give us a number for reinstalling the roofing layer on top of the fixed 2x4s. The reason I posted my question on this board is to get another set of opinions on how to address this issue and if we should just walk away from the deal if we cannot determine the full amount of rot damage. This home is an absolute dream home for us (we’ve been looking for the last 2-3 years), but it is on the higher end of our price range (some repairs factored in). So the question I’m pondering over is if 5 years from now we will feel that buying this home was either a great decision or a shot in the head. Thanks for the suggestion on using a moisture meter. It’s something that we didn’t think of so far. In terms of shortening the eaves, that is the current plan to take off the grunt of the rot damage. We’re thinking that taking off 2-3â€

This is my first post and at the same time something that you might not have seen before. My wife and I made an offer (that got accepted) for a home built in 1954 that features an unusual roof construction. The problem is that our home inspector found out that parts of the roof structure are rotten, but we are having a hard time evaluating what that means to us in terms of it being a deal breaker or not. Here's a photo of the ceiling. Click to Enlarge 44.86 KB The roof structure consists of 4x2 Cedar studs laid on edge. The studs are running from the inside to the outside and are supported by 5 beams. So the the ceiling studs plus the beams are basically the roof structure. The problem is that in 1997 the roofer installing a torch-down roof did not wrap the roof layer around the edges of the roof/ studs. Instead he just put a cap on the fascia board. Now whenever the gutters got clogged up water did drain over the fascia board, but also penetrated into the the roof studs. Click to Enlarge 51.39 KB This caused rot to the very end of the roof studs as shown here. Click to Enlarge 42.62 KB We are having another look today, but the challenge that we are facing is how to determine if a stud is affected by rot or not and how much it is affected (without taking off the torch-down roof or cutting into the studs). It's easy to tell for the ones that are rotted through all the way (like shown in the picture above), but rather hard to tell for the ones that are not as badly affected. I'm looking for any kind of advice or opinion that helps us making a call on this being a deal break or not. Thank you for your help, Andre