[Land Raver]

Looking to possibly store my Series 3 88" roof by hanging it from the garage rafters. I need to know if they are definitely strong enough? It's a single garage, gable roof attached to the house - house built about 25 years ago if that's any indication of regs at the time.

I was thinking of just hanging it by two ropes under it holding it like a cradle. Its just the top roof bit I'm thinking of which also has the alpine windows in it. I will store the side panels separately as I know they are very heavy as they have thick glass.

What do you reckon? How heavy are just the roof panels without sides?

 

[Dragonwalker]

Not that heavy, I can lift one, that has been unbolted, by standing inside the vehicle with it on my back, cumbersome but doable.

 

[Land Raver]

When I put the hardtop on it was complete with sides attached. Took 3 of us to do it carefully. This time I'm separating it from the sides so it's more manageable and easier to store (hopefully)

 

[blue beasty]

I've removed and replaced roof and sides alone like DW described, they are awkward not heavy. Certainly lighter than a decent fall of snow over the area of a roof.

If your worried securely screw a length of timber to 3 or 4 rafters to spread the weight, but roofs are designed to take weight in terms of tons.

 

[Land Raver]

Thanks BB. My main concern was that the bottom rafters which run wall to wall (forget the proper name for these ones) are not designed to be load bearing like the pitch ones. I suppose the overall weight will be shared by the 4 rope mountings.

 

[Bobsticle]

Not recommended. Yes they will take snow but not snow and a tratter roof.

If I wuz going to have a go then I'd put some straps across several rafters under the tile and drop a few vertical ones down to fixing points. Creating an hupside down stillage. With a bit of luck you might get away with it.

When I took the roof off henry I thought it was ruddy heavy for a lump of ally.

 

[Al2O3]

I climb up in to my garage roof and step from rafter to rafter. If your worried, lie a couple of 6' fence boards across the rafters (about 6' apart) and put a screw through the board in to each rafter. Cut a V in the end of each board to take the rope. Tie a rope across each 6' board to sling under the roof. If the rope is coming down from each side of the boards it shouldn't pull on the roof at an angle and bend it. I would still be using something to protect the roof where the rope is in contact with it.

 

[Thor1950]

Thanks BB. My main concern was that the bottom rafters which run wall to wall (forget the proper name for these ones) are not designed to be load bearing like the pitch ones. I suppose the overall weight will be shared by the 4 rope mountings.

called a cross tie

 

[Land Raver]

Thanks Thor.

I wonder how much those solar panels weigh that people stick on their house lids? Makes you think.

Think I'll just stand it up in the garage along the wall then until I'm sick of it being in the way and then sell it!

 

[Thor1950]

Thanks Thor.

I wonder how much those solar panels weigh that people stick on their house lids? Makes you think.

Think I'll just stand it up in the garage along the wall then until I'm sick of it being in the way and then sell it!

you need to look how the weight is spread out on the roof, called loading
With hanging you roof, the weight is located on what 4 points to bare the weight which creates uneven loading

 

[blue beasty]

Thanks Thor.

I wonder how much those solar panels weigh that people stick on their house lids? Makes you think.

Think I'll just stand it up in the garage along the wall then until I'm sick of it being in the way and then sell it!

Ah, some confusion over terminology.

The rafters are the sloping timbers forming the pitch and take the load of the roof. Standard concrete tiles weigh about 50kg/m2 and there's a massive snow loading margin so spread extra weight isn't an issue.

The cross or ceiling tiles aren't designed to take weight but to prevent the weight on the rafters from spreading the walls apart though they will obviously take weight depending on their cross section and span.

As suggested a few verticals from tie to rafter and spread over several will transfer the load from tie to rafter with no issues.

I honestly can't imagine it would be a problem but if you want a decisive opinion measure the timbers and post a couple of pics of the structure.

 

[Al2O3]

Sorry, that was my fault. I meant joists not rafters.

 

[brianp38dse]

If your that worried bolt some 6x2 full width of garage to existing timbers, that will add a lot of strength , or if you don't want to bolt to rafters use wall hangers to support the joists.