01
Porch roof
Half on the house, half on posts. The house side needs the wall opened and flashed; the post side needs footings. One structure, drawn once.
We change the roofline and the footprint, and draw the load path first.
A porch roof, a dormer, a covered entry or exterior stairs puts load where the building was never framed to carry it, and makes a new roof plane meet an old one. That junction is the job.
- Scope
- Roofline changes, reroofs inside a renovation, porches, porticos, covered entries, exterior stairs and landings
- Where
- Reno, Sparks, Carson City and the county towns
- Order of operations
- Load path and roof tie-in drawn before anything is cut
- Permits
- Always. We prepare the set, submit it and meet the inspector
- Talk to us
- (775) 200-0648, Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
01When the shape changes
A porch roof is a load, and the wall under it was never framed for one.
Everything on this page moves weight. A porch roof hangs part of itself on the house wall and stands the rest on posts. A dormer cuts rafters that were carrying the roof and asks their neighbours to carry it instead. A landing puts people on a beam that held nothing before. None of it shows in the finished photograph. All of it is what the drawing has to resolve before a saw comes out.
So the first artifact on this scope is a framing plan, not a rendering: where the new load lands and what carries it to the ground. Porch posts and stair stringers get footings of their own, sized for the soil and the depth the reviewing department expects, and inspected before concrete goes in.
02The sequence
Six phases, and the artifact you hold at the end of each one.
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01
Walk the building and the ground
Where the new load lands, what the existing framing is, how water leaves the roof today, and what the soil under a new post will carry. You get a marked footprint and a scope outline
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02
Structural layout
The load path from the new roof or landing down to new footings, the tie-in detail where planes meet, beam and header sizes, and engineering where the reviewing department asks for it. You get a dimensioned framing plan and a tie-in detail
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03
Drawings and selections
Elevations that show the new roofline against the old, roofing to match or to contrast, posts, guards and stair geometry, each against a named allowance. You get dimensioned elevations and a selections list with model numbers
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04
Contract and permit set
A line-item scope with draws tied to milestones, and a permit set built for the counter that reviews your parcel. You get a signed contract and an issued permit
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05
Footings, frame and tie-in
Utility locates, excavation, footings inspected before concrete, then posts, beams and rafters, with the tie-in flashed and photographed before anything covers it. You get passed footing and framing inspections
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06
Dry-in, finish, punch and close-out
Roofing on and the new plane tied into the old, then ceilings, guards and lighting, and a walk-through where the punch list gets written down. You get a signed punch list and a close-out package
03Where new roof meets old
Most roofline failures are water failures at the tie-in.
A new roof plane meeting an old one makes a valley, a sidewall or both, and everything that falls on both planes runs to one line. That line is flashed in an order that sends water out over the finish, or it is sealant and hope. A kickout at the foot of every sidewall, step flashing lapped under the course above, valley metal wide enough for what slides off a Reno roof in March: none of it is exotic, and all of it disappears once the roofing is on. So we photograph it first.
Pitch matters as much as flashing. The new plane matches the existing pitch where it can and meets it cleanly where it cannot, so the eave line carries across without a step. A reroof belongs in this scope when the roofline is changing or an addition is tying in, and nowhere else: on a house where nothing else is changing, it is a specialist roofer’s job, and we say so.
04The line that has to carry across
Ask to see the tie-in detail before you look at a roofing sample.
A drawn tie-in shows the valley or the sidewall, the kickout at the foot of it, the order the flashing laps in, and what the new rafters land on inside the wall. A contractor who can produce one has thought about the junction.
05Footprint changes
Six ways the outline of a building changes, and what each one has to carry.
02
Dormer
Rafters cut, their load moved sideways to doubled rafters, and a new sidewall on the roof with step flashing and a kickout at its foot.
03
Overhang extension
More eave than the rafter tails were cut for, so the rafters get extended or sistered, not just boxed out.
04
Portico or covered entry
A small roof with every tie-in problem of a large one, plus a landing that has to meet a door height that already exists.
05
Exterior stairs and landings
Stringer bearing, guard geometry and a footing at the bottom, drawn to numbers an inspector will measure.
06
Commercial canopy or entry
A frame hung on an occupied facade, sequenced so the door stays open while it goes up.
06Permits, and occupied buildings
A footprint change is always a permit job. We treat it that way from the first drawing.
Adding to the outline of a building or changing its roofline is structural work, and the City of Reno, the City of Sparks and Washoe County each review it. You do not have to decide whether it needs a permit; with us it gets one, prepared for the counter that reviews your parcel. Setbacks and lot coverage decide how far a porch can come forward, so those get checked on the walk, before a drawing you like has to shrink.
On a commercial building the same work happens with tenants inside. A new canopy, a rebuilt entry or a facade change is sequenced around the people using the door: a protected path in and out, phases so one entrance is always open, noisy hours agreed in writing. Interior work behind that facade is on the commercial tenant improvement page; an exterior renovation runs alongside it under the same contract.
07Where this scope stops
If the roofline or the footprint changes, it lands here. If only the surface changes, it does not.
Windows, siding, exterior doors, the openings they sit in, and the trim, soffit (the underside of the roof overhang) and fascia around them are the envelope. On its own, that is not work we quote, and if it is the whole job we tell you so on the first call. A job where the roofline or the footprint changes lands with us.
Decks, patio covers and pergolas on their own posts are on the outdoor living page, and a porch roof that is really the start of a room is a home addition. Call either way; we will say which page you are on before pricing anything.
08Questions
Three questions owners ask before the shape of a building changes.
Contracts, draws and change orders are answered on the services overview. These are about the roofline and the footprint.
Yes. Both change the structure and the roofline, and the City of Reno, the City of Sparks and Washoe County each review that kind of work. You do not have to make the call: every job in this scope gets a permit set prepared for the counter that reviews your parcel, and we schedule and attend the inspections ourselves.
Yes, and that is the right time to do it. Roofed by the same crew in the same week, the new plane and the old ones get one underlayment, one flashing sequence and one person responsible for the valley between them. A reroof on a house where nothing else is changing is a specialist roofing job rather than a renovation, and we will say so on the walk.
Usually. We phase the work so one entrance is always open, build a protected path where the public walks under it, and give the tenants the noisy hours and the dates in writing first. The day the old canopy comes down and the new frame goes up needs an early start or a weekend, and it is planned as its own line in the schedule.
10Start a conversation
Tell us what you want the outside of the building to become. We will tell you what has to carry it.
The first conversation is not a sales call. It is us working out where the new load lands, how the new roof meets the old one, and which department reviews it, and saying so before anything is priced.
Fastest way to reach us
(775) 200-0648
Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. A person answers, and it is somebody who has been on a job site. The form goes to the same place, one business day behind the phone.
Request received.
We will call you back within one business day to set a site walk and look at the roofline with you. If you need us sooner than that, call (775) 200-0648 now: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.