Up on the Rooftop

>>1035624
Sorry, feel rude now. Please and thanks to anyone out there that can offer advice.

>fuck all here to be apologising for.
Post pic(s) if possible bro.

>>1035636
Thanks for understanding.

I'll see what I can do. I live in a pretty identifiable area though and quite a few people I know peruse this board. I might be gone for a few hours - I need to do a lot of cleanup. It just finished raining and stuff is flooding.

>>1035624
>kitchen roof has fallen in on itself
>household is poor
been there...still there really
but yeah, had plastic on the ceiling and dealt with leaking roof for a long time

for the immediate situation, tarp it as best as possible

for the longer term, you can try landscape fabric coated with roof patch...I found driveway crack filler worked even better

one of the suggestions I read said to use foundation coating; it's thinner and would be a lot easier to brush/roll on....probably for making patches as well

Short term, see if your local dump has a buy back, or call around some local builders, tell em your a student working on some bullshit project. Either way score secondhand shit. Eg, dump shop here reguarly sells corrugated iron sheeting(used with nail holes), 800 wide x 6000 long, under $8 a sheet.

Use cheap stud pine attached to the structure with batten screws, make sure to use offcuts to support it also so the rest doesnt cave in. Screw tin or plastic or whatever to it. Voila.

Try gumtree or craigslist or whatever selling crap is local to find secondhand. Local hardwares also often sell offcuts of timber at cents in the dollar, may not be perfect but its cheap.

Just remember to make it somewhat supported, not just hanging off whats about to fall also.

>>1035624
what the fuck you expect the internet to do? go ask your neighbours for help.

>I live in a pretty identifiable area though and quite a few people I know peruse this board.

Why hide your poverty? They might be willing to help. I have a few poorbros and there's no shame in that game.

There are MANY ways to be a professional poorbros and some of these guys are beast /diy/ers. If you will never have money you'd damn well spend every waking minute learning how to get by.

Also post your DETAILED economic situation, family size and State of residence in /adv/ without info to connect you to this post.

Many people aren't as versed as they should be about government aid they might qualify for, or they get childishly angry instead of treating the question as a matter for research.

Find odd jobs off the books for cash. If a Mexican can walk into the US and find work so can you. Human networking is key so be social and do it.

If at all possible join military. The disposable income even for noobs is considerable, you can often declare parents as dependents if you provide for them, and there are many useful programs.

>>1035624

Alright everyone. Progress update. Thanks for the moral support and advice. I've been talking this over with my mom mostly as my dad isn't totally "all there." He's better than he used to be but this kind of sent him into shock I guess. On the bright side we turned out to have enough in hard cash and credit cards to bump up our spending to just under $200.

I worked cleaning up until about 2 AM last night. Helped some family with another thing, came back home, and just finished cleaning more debris after about 4 hours. I'm holding off on any more progress for a bit here because the next few steps will be really obvious to any code enforcement folks patrolling the neighborhood. We've had trouble with them in the past, trying to avoid it again.

I just want to say that that was some of the nastiest debris I've been around by the way. Mold, etc. It hurts to breathe in there to be totally honest.

We've cleared out all of the fallen lumber from the roof and drawn up some plans for replacing it. We know we don't have long-term money right now so we're going with some shorter-term improvements. We're going to go around the outside of the sunroom and create a frame with some pressure-treated 2x4s and 4x4s. We were going to go with standard and seal it ourselves but the area we live is just so humid and damp that nothing would dry before the next rain. We're going with a couple of sheets of galvanized steel roofing and we're going to see about getting some flashing or joiners to keep water from running back into the kitchen.

Cont.

>>1035890
Cont.

We're also going to run some rafters with some 2x4s and set a second layer of plywood underneath the tin but on top of the rafters. I think I've explained it pretty well here, but I'm not totally sure. We know that this method is pretty good, though. We built our shed in the back yard the same exact way and after nearly 15 years without any upkeep it's just now getting the smallest of leaks.

We should be coming into some money soon. My loans and scholarships will be here so I'll be able to drop maybe $500 on this. My dad should finally be getting some disability checks, God willing.

Now to reply to ya'll directly. As I'm typing this the more my contempt grows for whoever thought this addition was a good idea. It's so badly done it's embarrassing.

>>1035645
Thanks for the suggestion. With the rain coming in a tarp sounds great. Unfortunately we don't have a tarp big enough. There's also the problem of that portion of the roof being flat from the get-go, so tarping it doesn't work so well. We'll probably leave it untarped for this reason - if the water pools and the tarp fails, we have to deal with all of the water at once. But the floor under this area was built on just a very simple frame with the thinnest of floors. This water should go straight through the floors and drain into the ground likity split. I'll see about taking a hammer and knocking out a bit of a trench if the rains come before we can do anything. We're going to end up tearing up the floor anyways since it's so rotten that standing on it will almost certainly lead to falling through. There's also the issue that a bright blue tarp or the like really catches the eye. We've had people come in and out of our yard all day and someone only noticed when we pointed it out. I like your suggestions, though. We might see about doing that between the tin and the plywood.

>>1035782
I like all of this. I'll see about contacting some today. We are friends with someone that does this stuff exactly - buys cheap, sells high.

We'll be sure to ensure support. The idea is basically that this new roof will be almost entirely self-supported. This structure is just a facade at this point. We just need to keep up the facade a bit longer. Thanks.

>>1035816
You have a good point and I appreciate your honesty. Unfortunately, though, our neighbors are all either elderly, unfriendly, or isolationists. We don't speak but to one family around here. The rest are kind of trouble. The types that always have the cops coming out, etc. We had one of them trying to break in our house the other week. I'd rather not invite them in. Little did they know they could've climbed through the roof if they'd waited. What do I expect the internet to do? Jack shit, honestly. I mostly came here for some support and some advice on goods or where to get them. I've gotten just that. If nothing else came of this post after this I'd be fulfilled.

>>1035823
You're right. I actually told them last night. They've always known I'm pretty poor but I don't think they knew how poor. Unfortunately they aren't in a situation to help me economically and it isn't practical to have them help me physically - they live a 40 minute drive away. Not to mention I think my parents are just outright ashamed. They do everything they can. They are the inspiration that has pushed me to go as far as I have. But we haven't had anyone in our house in ten years or more. It's just bad. This isn't the only spot in our home that needs work, but it is the only one that needs work right now.

I can completely agree with you on the front of figuring out how to get by. Strife breeds ingenuity.

I might try out /adv/. Thanks for the tip. I've browsed there before but this felt more like a /diy/ thing. You also suggest to keep it separate from this post? Are you suggesting this as a way to find out what aid we might qualify for? If it's of any help we've gone to every church, food bank, community outreach center, and government building regarding this stuff. I've gone to multiple counselors on campus as well. It really seems like our last hope is my dad getting disability.

I've been working odd jobs for cash, actually. I do a lot of online work. That brings in maybe $60 a week on a very busy week. On a slow day I might make a dollar. On a good day I might make $30. Some of it is taxed, some of it is truly undeclared.

I have some family that works in construction that pays mostly off the books, but they're fully staffed at the moment. I did have the opportunity to work at a tomato packing plant under the table but that opportunity died somewhat quickly. I might see about bringing that one back.

I've considered the military in the past. It might need to be considered again. Again, family has done it. Looks okay.

Gotta take off now, sky opened up. Gotta see about knocking a few holes in the floor I guess.

>>1035624
Alright, scratch all the design stuff I previously said. This is beyond repair. It is cheaper to knock it down and build a wall where it used to be.

I'll post some before and after pictures in the next few days. This board seems pretty slow. I should last until we're done.

>>1035905
>I might try out /adv/. Thanks for the tip. I've browsed there before but this felt more like a /diy/ thing. You also suggest to keep it separate from this post? Are you suggesting this as a way to find out what aid we might qualify for? If it's of any help we've gone to every church, food bank, community outreach center, and government building regarding this stuff. I've gone to multiple counselors on campus as well. It really seems like our last hope is my dad getting disability.

/adv/ has a fair number of people engaged in the system who have disabilities. They could offer specific data to your state. It's good you are trying to engage and because programs CHANGE keep monitoring them.

As for the military, that's better than most jobs if you play it right and no other job you're going to get will let you have a Federally protected retirement in twenty years with lifelong medical care for you AND your dependents. You can position yourself so you don't have to work for the LAST THIRD of your life. perhaps the last half. I'm there, and it's exceedingly nice. Create a military career thread if you move further in that direction.

Your parents will get older and sicker. We all do. With them as dependents you could qualify for BAH (base allowance for housing) or on-base housing at some duty stations. There's a useful support web in the military which doesn't exist in the civilian world. It's worth a shitload of money if you use it.

BAH helped pay for my houses when I bought property.

http://www.monterey.army.mil/Legal/military_law/Make_Relative_Military_Dependant.pdf

The modern corporate military feeds the modern corporate military and government civilian workplace. It's a wonderful, useful web of opportunities most civilians have zerofuckingidea exists. Most junior enlisted aren't curious about it. They should be.

BTW join the Air Force, and even if you don't, pick SENIOR enlisted and officer brains for advice.

>>1036084
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAZI4ydY6R8
- jist sayin..

>>1035624
City/state ? If you are in my area, i could help. Others might too.

>>1036092
Shit, I'd love to have had Lee Ermey as a Drill Instructor and he was one before acting. He applied stress to prepare his troops for the vastly greater stress of combat. That's fully understood and he's well regarded by the Corps.

The Air Force is totally corporate and has been since the late 1990s. No stress at all. It's so laid back I've spoken with young Airmen who wish it was more disciplined. It's never been Full Metal Jacket. Maybe Full Metal Coffee Pot.

These might sound obvious, but having been in a similar situation, I know the seemingly obvious details get lost under all the stress

Wear eye and mouth/nose protection when you enter the kitchen. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, a scarf wrapped around the lower half of your head and some wrap around (sun)glasses you have lying around or can borrow from a friend will work just fine. Mould damage to lungs and mucous membranes can be longlasting, and the last thing you need is getting sick on top of everything else

Also, if you can at all, redesign the roof so it's no longer flat. It doesn't have to be a pronounced slope, but there has to be enough of it that rain and debris fall off

If you don't have a tarp, a pool cover, tent cover or sturdy plastic bags can sort of work for a short time

Take out everything. Every small thing you rescue is something you don't have to replace. Try air drying stuff before giving it up as water damaged. Even water logged electronics, as long as they haven't been turned off since getting wet, can be dried and reused. Shut off the gas whenever you're not using it.

I honestly wish I could do more to help. What you're doing so far sounds good, though. Plywood + corrugated works wonderfully.

>>1036106
I'd love to give him the chance to chew me out... guy is honestly hilarious.