Roger Feeley
10-18-2015, 8:41 PM
We are building a house and want to connect two structures with a curved open breezeway. I don't yet know the radius exactly. Our architect sort of pulled an estimate out of his hat and said that the difference between building a straight breezeway and a curved one was going to be between $10-20K. I'm considering doing the whole breezeway myself.
I'm mentally going through the complications for a curved breezway.
-- concrete isn't something I would do but I don't imagine that curves are that much worse that straight. They do that all the time.
-- Posts are posts.
-- Curved Lintels. I did bent laminated lintels for a pergola behind my current house. It will take some time but I'm not afraid of making them.
-- Rafter trusses: Some applied geometry there.
-- Sheathing. I'm guessing that I will have to cut a piece of sheathing for every couple of rafters.
-- Roofing felt: Hmmm. That stuff doesn't stretch. Going to be some funny looking pieces there.
-- Drip edge. How do I curve that stuff? Can I use PVC drip edge, cut slits and glue it with pipe glue?
-- Shingling. this will take time. As I understand it, I have to take my architectural shingles and cut the 3 tabs apart and cut special angles and nail them down individually.
So I have loads of questions. Is there anyone out there that has experience building curved roofs. Eyebrow windows don't count.
So why do I want a breezeway?
We are building on our daughters land to be near our new grandson (due in January). The idea is to build a pool house that we will live in. Local zoning calls this an 'accessory dwelling unit'. As such, we can't have a fully functioning kitchen. BUT, if we connect the pool house to the main house (breezeway), the ADU becomes an addition and we have can have the kitchen. Upon further questioning, we found that we can have a fully functioning kitchen except for a stove and oven. We can have a fridge, sink, dishwasher. We can also have hot plates and toaster ovens. We just can't have a cooktop or built-in oven.
The rules are the rules. It was actually some city employees that helped us navigate the breezeway 'loophole'. Kudos to them.
So our idea is to build and occupy the house using a hot plate and toaster oven. Then I can take my time building the breezeway. I just need to figure out how to do it.
I'm mentally going through the complications for a curved breezway.
-- concrete isn't something I would do but I don't imagine that curves are that much worse that straight. They do that all the time.
-- Posts are posts.
-- Curved Lintels. I did bent laminated lintels for a pergola behind my current house. It will take some time but I'm not afraid of making them.
-- Rafter trusses: Some applied geometry there.
-- Sheathing. I'm guessing that I will have to cut a piece of sheathing for every couple of rafters.
-- Roofing felt: Hmmm. That stuff doesn't stretch. Going to be some funny looking pieces there.
-- Drip edge. How do I curve that stuff? Can I use PVC drip edge, cut slits and glue it with pipe glue?
-- Shingling. this will take time. As I understand it, I have to take my architectural shingles and cut the 3 tabs apart and cut special angles and nail them down individually.
So I have loads of questions. Is there anyone out there that has experience building curved roofs. Eyebrow windows don't count.
So why do I want a breezeway?
We are building on our daughters land to be near our new grandson (due in January). The idea is to build a pool house that we will live in. Local zoning calls this an 'accessory dwelling unit'. As such, we can't have a fully functioning kitchen. BUT, if we connect the pool house to the main house (breezeway), the ADU becomes an addition and we have can have the kitchen. Upon further questioning, we found that we can have a fully functioning kitchen except for a stove and oven. We can have a fridge, sink, dishwasher. We can also have hot plates and toaster ovens. We just can't have a cooktop or built-in oven.
The rules are the rules. It was actually some city employees that helped us navigate the breezeway 'loophole'. Kudos to them.
So our idea is to build and occupy the house using a hot plate and toaster oven. Then I can take my time building the breezeway. I just need to figure out how to do it.