Single slope Roof

[Bryan Rocker]

Good morning all, as I am trying to finalize my plans for my shop one of the ideas that has floated to the top is extending my garage roof to my shop roof as a continuous single slope, 3-12 roof. The thought is that the high end will be facing west and I will be able to add lots of windows and probably some on the southern side. My estimation is that the high end will be around 16-20' in the air. The shop is planned to be around 20x35 depending on what the city approves. with the 35' side facing east west. I have even considered putting in a small loft to look out. My question is this have any of you done anything similar and did you like the outcome?

Bryan

[Jim Andrew]

If you were building a building to house a RV, probably a good idea, but if you are adding on to your garage, not so much. Is the side you are adding onto the side where you have the slope coming down to? If that is the case, I would remove the roof of the garage, and buy trusses that would span the entire structure including the addition. Build your new walls the same height as the old, and set the trusses up there, fasten them down and sheet and roof it all as one building. If you were adding to the end, you could save the old roof, or at least most of it.

[Tom M King]

I've done it on several buildings here over the years. One shop building is 24x48 with gables on the narrow ends with 14 foot high walls. I used 2x12x24s, and built a 22x48 enclosure off one side, and will do the same on the other side when I get the chance. This one has been there for a few over 20 years. Another started life as a 16x36 foot horse trailer shed, and has been added on twice going uphill with the roof.

Even one addition on our house is done in similar fashion. We added a 16x44 foot porch roof for the dogs off the back.

[Bryan Rocker]

The current attached 2 car garage is currently my shop it has not quite 9' ceilings. My wife is adamant that I need to get my workshop built so she can park her truck inside. The drive in garage door is on the east side. the workshop will be on the west side with the workshop extending beyond the house about 12 ft or so to allow for access to drive into, probably a single car wide door. As to the roof, my thought is to start the roof at the peak of the current garage and run it to the far wall of the workshop which should be around 33-35 feet or so. I plan on starting at 10' running the 20'ish width of the workshop. One of constraints I am dealing with is that I have to attach it to the house or I am limited to a max height of 13' and for a 10' wall height you can't meet code since the roof will be too shallow, 3/12 is the minimum. I am not wild about 2 roofs dumping all the water to a gutter between the buildings, its just asking for water encroachment IMHO. Will try and see if I can get this sketched up.......

Bryan

PS what a beautiful day it is outside!

[Peter Aeschliman]

So if I understand you correctly, you currently have a garage that has a typical peak down the middle (two slopes), with, presumably, a 3' over 12' slope. You would like to add on to the garage and convert the entire building to a single slope. Right?

Is the current garage attached to the house? If so, and the roof slope goes back toward the house, then obviously you will need to be really careful to make sure that intersection at the house is perfectly flashed and sloped to handle a lot of rain.

The other thing to consider is the cubic feet of your completed shop- if you're right and the roof goes out to 20', you're talking about a lot of volume you will need to heat and condition (I assume you'll do both due to your location).

Check out this dude's shop, which has a shed roof. Natural light seems to be a clear advantage, as you said. Side note, this guy's videos are all really fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge96Qvp-EzE

EDIT: looks like we were both posting a the same time! Yes, a sketch of some kind would be really helpful, as I'm not sure I understand what you're describing exactly.