Attaching a pergola to ledger board on roof

[Gabriel Marusic]

After completely taking over my parents garage for something around 6 months now with my new woodworking hobby I'm on the hook for building them a new pergola. I'm eager to get this built as my mom has wanted one for years and both my parents have been incredibly patient with me considering they haven't been able to park their car in the garage for 6 months now. I am looking to build it 12' x 20' with one side of the 20' length attached to the roof and this is where I'm stuck. Ideally I'd mount this to a ledger board attached to the house wall with some joist hangers but unfortunately it would sit too low due to the soffit so I'm looking at connecting it to the roof instead. I was thinking again use a ledger board with some type of sloped joist hanger to accommodate the angle of the roof but wanted to run it by you guys first. I've seen some full pergola kits for roof attaching with custom brackets that look nice, though they don't sell just the mounts, I'd have to buy the whole $6k plus kit. Is a sloped joist hanger the way to go here? Really not set on that idea but all I could really come up with outside of going custom. The brackets I'm looking at all seem to be interior brackets as well, not sure if that structurally matters but something I definitely want to vet out, especially since I need to get a permit.

[Frank Pratt]

That wouldn't really be a ledger board on the edge of the roof. It's a facia, which is probably just 1X board that is nailed to the ends of the trusses/rafters. There is no structural strength there at all. It's just to close in the edge of the roof structure & make it look pretty.

Post some pics & you'll get better answers.

[Joe Wood]

Take a look at the skylift roof risers, I've been wanting to use them but haven't had the opportunity yet
https://www.skylifthardware.com/default.asp

[Gabriel Marusic]

That wouldn't really be a ledger board on the edge of the roof. It's a facia, which is probably just 1X board that is nailed to the ends of the trusses/rafters. There is no structural strength there at all. It's just to close in the edge of the roof structure & make it look pretty.

Post some pics & you'll get better answers.

Sorry, not putting it at the edge of the roof but rather on top of the soffit or further back. I'll try to get over there today and take some pictures of the space.

[Gabriel Marusic]

Take a look at the skylift roof risers, I've been wanting to use them but haven't had the opportunity yet
https://www.skylifthardware.com/default.asp

That does look interesting, thanks for the tip!

[Ron Selzer]

personally I would support it totally separate from the house
asking for potential water penetration at every flashing
I also will not attach a deck to a house
I will attach a porch however have to be very careful how it is detailed at the attachment points
good luck
Ron

[Doug Garson]

personally I would support it totally separate from the house
asking for potential water penetration at every flashing
I also will not attach a deck to a house
I will attach a porch however have to be very careful how it is detailed at the attachment points
good luck
Ron

OK I'll bite when does a porch become a deck?

[Ron Selzer]

OK I'll bite when does a porch become a deck?

deck is not a porch where I come from, maybe elsewhere, might just be my age showing.
Do have a multi level deck on the back of my house and a small front porch
NO decks around when I was growing up. Rare to see a house without a porch growing up, now not usual to see one
don't like when the porches get closed in to use as "4 season rooms"
let's not get started on stoops vs porches
Ron

[Gabriel Marusic]

deck is not a porch where I come from, maybe elsewhere, might just be my age showing.
Do have a multi level deck on the back of my house and a small front porch
NO decks around when I was growing up. Rare to see a house without a porch growing up, now not usual to see one
don't like when the porches get closed in to use as "4 season rooms"
let's not get started on stoops vs porches
Ron

I like the sound of having a stoop, though I'd actually prefer a porch.

[Gabriel Marusic]

personally I would support it totally separate from the house
asking for potential water penetration at every flashing
I also will not attach a deck to a house
I will attach a porch however have to be very careful how it is detailed at the attachment points
good luck
Ron

We thought about that but with how narrow the patio is we felt we'd be losing too much usable space to make room for the 8 x 8 posts.

[Tom M King]

I agree with what Ron said about not fastening it to the top of the roof.

Around here, a deck doesn't have a roof, but a porch does.

[Richard Coers]

personally I would support it totally separate from the house
asking for potential water penetration at every flashing
I also will not attach a deck to a house
I will attach a porch however have to be very careful how it is detailed at the attachment points
good luck
Ron

Great advice. The first house our daughter wanted to buy had a deck that wasn't long from a rebuild. While the inspector was inside the house I looked at the deck. I took out a pocket knife, and I could bury it into the house rim joist that the deck was lagged to. The builder did not use any flashing and with a joint against the house, it stayed wet all the time and made for a rotten deck frame and structural damage to the house. $20 of flashing or spacers to keep the deck frame away from the house would have prevented thousands of dollars of damage. She did not buy that house!

[Bruce King]

I agree with others, the roof system is no where close to being designed to handle loads or slight movements of the pergola. It would require an engineer to prevent problems, leaks and resale issues later. The requirements for attaching anything to the house has gotten so involved that builders make them self standing. Even a self standing pergola of that size is something that needs an engineer to design.

[Mel Fulks]

I would talk to them about a gazebo. It's a much better feel and nice to be able to see in all directions. You can fit them
with curtains or shades all around. A small gazebo would be cozy and too small to attract spontaneous neighborhood
parties. If the yard is open and sunny a "noon mark" would be nice, it's something that people have used and enjoyed
for thousands of years. There are so many wonderful things that your neighbors don't have and don't know a thing about,
And since a gazebo is not touching the house you most likely don't need a building permit.

[Bill Dufour]

I remember in 2015 when 6 people died in Berkeley when a balcony collapsed due to rot. The attachment to the building was not flashed properly. They decided it was also completed in the rain so the sealed wall was damp inside for five yeas before it rotted enough to collapse under less then a full rated load.
The city soon thereafter closed the public fishing pier and will probably never spend the money to rebuild it.
Bill D.