#11 floating home remodel – no more leaky flat roof!

When we bought #11 at Mallard Cove we were planning to do a lot of work, but we weren’t planning to replace the roof. We knew the roof had leaked for the previous seller but he had spent $25,000 to have it fixed and it certainly seemed fixed but after a year of us owning it, the week ahead of the 4th of July 2019 we noticed some drywall on the ceiling was a different color :(. It felt damp to the touch and sure enough once I bought a moisture meter and tested it, it was wet.

Replacing a flat roof isn’t a simple fix because most of the time, and this was the case for us, there’s a rooftop deck and railing on top of the flat roof. So to replace the roof you need to first remove the deck and railing, fix the roof, then rebuild the deck and install new railing. And since we lived on a floating home, all this of course required permits but we would also either need a shoreline permit or exemption (an even longer process).

I had a few roofing companies out and received bids from $60k to $120k to replace the roof, deck and railings (but not the ceiling and insulation). In the end we decided to wrap it into our larger remodel as we were already planning on re-siding the house.

With a remodel a year out, we had to stop, or at least slow, the leaking. So I pulled off a bunch of decking and I taped down some poly. It ended up buying us about a year but sure enough we started leaking again before the remodel started.

When they got the ceiling off we found not just one, but four leaks. I’m glad the contractors didn’t listen to me and pulled off the entire ceiling.

Since we had the entire ceiling and roof off, I suggested we re-frame the east shed roof to simplify the design, improve ease-of-water proofing and clean up the home’s lines. We also removed the “solarium” on the north-east corner.

The roof sub-contractor, Loberg Roofing, got the new roof membrane on in a day. Fortunately we had great weather for it. Instead of a totally flat roof like we previously had, this one has a slope to it to prevent ponding. We’re also switching away from batt insulation.

Looking forward to getting a new deck on and custom railing from Dyna’s metal shop. Can’t wait for the next 4th of July!