How to build a CMU (CONCRETE MASONRY UNIT) & CONCRETE GABLE where there is an existing wooden ga 2

[Bear Claw]

Bear Claw:

I am interested in building a roof gable with CMU & CONCRETE where a wooden one exists can someone shed some light on this?

Thank You in Advance

 

[oldestguy]

Pretty vague question. No way for any one to give useful advice without knowing much more as to details. I'd suggest calling one of the consulting engineers from the yellow pages.

 

[Ganesh Persaud]

Your question makes no sense, why are you building a gable roof out of masonry units, for reasons of unnecessary cost in construction and material, also an unnecessary heavy load to the existing structure.

You should provide a sketch and it should be properly labeled.

 

[Bear Claw]

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 badly damaged thousands of roofs in South Florida where my home is located, my home was built in 1990 and consequently has a wooden gable,after Andrew the Florida Building Code was changed so gables cannot be built out of wood, but have to be concrete and c m u, please advise me on wether or not it would be a sound engineering practice to retrofit the concrete and c m u gable in an existing home.
If someone can provide a sketch of how its built that would be great.


Thank You

 

[Ron247]

Bear Claw,

There are multiple questions someone would have to know the answer to for them to begin to answer this. I know South Florida has gotten stricter, but I do agree with oldestguy, you probably need a local engineer. For someone to adequately answer this, they would almost have to do a full design. Here are some questions I have:
1. You can have wood walls but not a wood gable? That seems odd to me. Is you current wall concrete or CMU? That would make more sense.
2. Is the requirement for new homes or new remodels only or does this mean everyone has to upgrade their houses?
3. If I did not have to do this, I doubt I would.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Caveat: I don't practice in Florida, so I'm not familiar with FL specific codes.

Andrew the Florida Building Code was changed so gables cannot be built out of wood, but have to be concrete and c m u,

That just doesn't sound right. Most of the hurricane provisions (that I'm aware of) relate to how the roof connects to the walls. Also, there are some provisions again platform wood framing at a gable roof because there is a hinge in the top of wall (below the gable) that is unsupported. My guess is that this may be the portion of the code that was pointed out to you and you mis-interpreted it.

My belief is that wood framed walls are still allowed as long as it is braced at the level of the hinge (which was always good practice anyway). I can't see any way around a wood roof system though. Not without a lot of extra cost for residential construction.