I have a bottle glass window in my master bathroom. The name of the brain donor thought this was a smart idea in this climate is lost to history. I would like to fit a solar screen over the outside but the former owner fitted an alumashade patio cover underneath.

Sooo, right now I cannot get a ladder up to the window and the word is that these covers will not take ANY weight, no matter how well spread. Given that most of the fixings are short, sheet metal screws, I believe it. See pictures.

The good news is that the beam running parallel to the house is well fixed to the patio support that was built with the house. I have come up with a couple of ideas remove some of the slats and/or somehow disengage the bulk of the thing and shift it sideways to allow a ladder in there. But I wonder if anyone here has faced a similar issue and has a killer fix.

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Release the Kraken

If you are asking how to get yourself to the correct level to work on the project?

I prefer not to work from ladders, but from a platform. Over the years, I have built "tables" to work from. These are 4 vertical legs with stretchers for planks to rest on.

I have built oversized sawhorses, again for planks to rest on.

And lastly, I have borrowed and rented scaffolding. This is best if you feet will be 5 or more feet off the ground.

Ivan

Two guys on two step ladders with screw guns removing stringers starting from the outside until enough of them are off so you can fit between the rafters.From the way it's all attached to the house,I wouldn't let a cat up there!

Rather than disassemble your house
go over and around the problem area



There are more portable versions

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

Hard to tell just from photos how well the rafters are attached to the house but I would cut wooden legs to fit under each one to add additional support. Or you could place a built up beam under all of them with several support legs to hold up the beam and rafters. The outside beam seems to be strong enough to support the far end.

I would then ladder up onto what appears to be a room to the left and lay a sheet of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood on the rafters under the window in question. That 32 square foot surface should spread the weight of one worker and the solar cover enough that collapse should not be an issue.

Obviously you could also rent a man lift or lull and boom a platform over the patio cover but that gets pricey and hard to tell what access you have to that area without seeing your property. The machine might also damage your lawn and then that would need to be fixed.

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James Redfield
LM #497

This right here! I'm going to need one soon too!

You think you had genius? I just had contractors out yesterday. The window in my entrance hallway leaks everytime it rains! They pulled the siding a little and found that the builder never used Tyvek or weather isolation or any channels that go on top of the window to drain water. They installed the window and put siding over plywood!!!!! It gets better!!! The electric box/meter thing is right under the window and seems to be only holding on to the house by the grace of God!!!

House was built in 1996!

Here's how the window should look like.
There should be house wrap, Ridgid cap flashing, flashing tape, and Tyvek. Well there's none of that. Just plywood and siding!!!


Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Your awning looks to be well-built. If I had to guess, it looks like they used a concealed beam fastener similar to this;
concealed beam connector - Bing images

I would just throw some plywood or 2x12's up there spanning several joists and enter from the front. Don't walk on your tile roof. Good Luck

It would have to be VERY portable. The only access to the rear of the home is via a garden gate.

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Release the Kraken

I'm not convinced that it will take any weight. A buddy here who does construction just looked at the pictures and some youtube of how it's assembled and he agrees. The metal on these these is VERY thin.

I got the name of the cover product wrong, it is Alumawood. The metal is very "tinny" when you tap it.

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Release the Kraken

My scheme is to unhook the whole arrangement with support underneath and shift it to the right, to allowing access from the patio concrete. Still a stack of screws to undo and no guarantee that they will go back through the same holes a second time in an orderly manner.

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Release the Kraken

Is there room between the slats to fit 2x6's from the patio floor up thru the slats ? If you had at least 3 of those and screwed a piece of 2x4 across them on the top (and put 2x4's below the slats and at the base of the 2x4's at the floor to tie the 2x6's together) you could then put a sheet of 3/4" plywood from the roof on the left out to the 2x6's , screw into them and it should hold your weight.

I put up an Alumawood awning that covered the width of my back patio. I figured out how many of the horizontal tubes I would need to remove in order to get a ladder up through the awning to the house. It was about 7 or 8 of them. For those tubes I only fastened them on the ends so they would be easy to remove in the future. You could do the same...figure out where you would place the ladder and the cut the screws between the tubes and the beams. There should only be one screw per beam...they are 3 inch screws. Once the tubes are loose they are easy to remove because they don't weigh very much. Number them in the order you remove them so they go back in the same position. When finished only screw them on the end beams...or as far in as you can safely reach and it will make it easier if you have to access the window again in the future. The vertical posts are steel, covered by the Alumawood skin, but the rest of the structure is only thin aluminum and won't support very much weight. Good luck!

Become one with your inner graffiti artist self and think... how would a punk tagger get up there? Better yet, hire a punk tagger to paint over the window. Cannot some sort of screen/shade be applied from the inside of the window.

After looking at the Alumiwood website I take back everything I said....except about the tile roof. I thought I was looking at aluminum clad solid wood rafters. If those are aluminum tubes I wouldn't put any weight up there at all. I like your idea of moving the whole shebang as a unit. I think it might be easier to slide it downhill though...enough to get a ladder in there.

There are plantation shutters on the inside, but they are next to useless. The sun shines on that thick glass and transfers heat through into the room and up into the wall. The mass of glass continues radiating into the room even when the sun has gone. I need a solar screen on the outside to prevent the thing heating up in the first place.

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Release the Kraken

Home improvement call Tim the toolman Taylor!!!! Sorry couldn't let this go.

Run a pair of 2-2x6 rafters along the outsides of rafters 1 and 2( left side facing house). Support each end and center with short beams with posts under each end. Wooden rafters must be snug to cross pieces. Slide 3/4 inch plywood on top of cross pieces. If cross pieces are weak, cut pieces of 2x4 to span wooden rafters, place on edge and then put plywood on 2x4s.

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Old Guys Rule!

My daughter lives in Las Vegas and it's sad to see how the houses are built there. It doesn't seem to matter what the price range is, they are all built the same way. Lousy construction, poor insulation, cheap materials. Terrible heating and cooling system making high energy costs even worse with the temps there now hovering around 112 degrees. The prices for houses in her neighborhood are, at least in my opinion, outrageous.

Trying to deal with any home improvement there is difficult.

This sounds like a project that you'll wish you hadn't started.

I think you just defined most home improvement projects!

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Release the Kraken

How about 2 or 3 sections of scaffolding on either end and some telescoping extention boards spanning between them resting on the scaffolding?

It would have to span both patio covers. That's about 30'.

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Release the Kraken

There is no way that I would remove the patio cover or try to move it to access that window. It is attached to your home and probably caulked in place and I would not disturb it.

If you are concerned about the cover being able to support your body weight, then build wooden staging and slide it up through the rafters.

On the ground you could assemble what would basically look like a staple or an upside down U out of 3 - 2" x 6"'s. Take strapping and secure two diagonal cross braces like an X to give stability. Build two or three of those and place them up through the rafter openings that correspond with the window opening. Obviously, they would need to be tall enough to go above the rafters by a few inches. Once the three legs are up, you could also tie them together left to right with some additional strapping in an X pattern. Lay some 2" x 6" or 2" x 8" lumber across those two or three legs and you have your platform to work from.

If you use screws to assemble everything, you can remove the screws after you are finished and the lumber can be used again with minimal damage for another project or sell it second hand.

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James Redfield
LM #497

If the opening between the slats is over 1 1/2" lay 2x4 on edge between the slats. Take some 4x4s long enough to reach the bottoms or the 2x4s. lay 4x4 down and X brace pairs of 4x4 4' apart with a 2x8 across the top. Make a set for each end of overhead 2x4s and a center set if 2x4 span over 8'. Stand each set up under the 2x4 in slots. Lay plywood on top of 2x4. go to work.

You can aways use the 2x4s 4x4 and plywood on another project or sell it on craigs ist for 1/2 price when done.

This structure can be temporarily supported from below in order to support the weight of a worker or two. But as others have said, the manner in which that structure is attached to the house appears quite weak. Perhaps a ledger should be added to the house, supporting the rafters and using the proper metal fastener/hangers.

Simple...

No caulking I can see. Go to time 6:15 on this video to see how it attaches to the house. No mention of caulking.


Bt removing the transverse screws, I release the beams but the fixings remain on the house.

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Release the Kraken

Man-lift. You could even put a light on it and do the job at night when it's below 100°.

Make sure you have plenty of cold beer.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Can't get a lift/cherrypicker round the back of the property.

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Release the Kraken

Bosun's chair rigged from the other side of the house.
One line rigged on the far side of the roof peak, the other across the flat.
Little shaky, probably hard on the knees but a definite maybe...

Write to Ask This Old House, and wait for six months to see if they reply.

Ummm, See my thread on extension ladder safety.

Call the Man! Not the guys who installed it. Or just get a paint ball gun and "tint" the block glass.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Adding a little more detail to this. What you will have is 4x4 supports that reach just under the slats. The 2x8 cross beams and and X braces make the supports steady. There is no load on your slats. 2x4s placed vertically between the slats on the 4x4's and/or cross beams provide the support of the plywood attached over the slats. This gives you a work surface above the slats with no load on them. If the space between the slats will not allow 2x4's, get some 5/4 deck boards that should fit.

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Corripe Cervisiam

Correct. No load on slats or any of the sun shade. You are building a scaffold deck through the existing structure. The 2x4 form a grid through the tubing

The 4x4 structures support the 2x4s and the plywood lays on top the 2x4s. The 2x4 lay between the aluminum tubes. 2x4s touch the aluminum beams but are not supported by them rather they are supported by 2x8 on top of 4x4 structures which just touch bottom of 2x4 and aluminum tubes. Tops of 2x4 that supports plywood should stick up above aluminum tubes.

about 6-8 16' 2x4s, 2 sheets of plywood, 6 4x4s of a length just long enoung to go from ground level to bottom of aluminum tubes and 12' 2x8 sawed in 3 4' sections, 6 8' 2x4 for x braces. Bunch of 16 penny nails or better some 3" deck screws for assy of supports and you have a 16' long 4' wide deck to access and remove and replace window. Maybe $300 for materials You might want to tie the 3 sets of support columns together on one side.

It will work, its simple to build and if you use torque head deck screws simple to tear back apart and either use for something else or resell.

.

Having watched the video, I am revising my suggestion. I think that the structure is strong enough for one person to walk on. As long as you move gently and are not planning on holding a line dance competition, I feel that there is enough structure to hold the weight of one average sized man unless you are over 400 lbs.

Throw a moving blanket over the cover to prevent scratching and then lay a piece of plywood on the blanket just large enough to work from.

The weight from standing on the cover is straight down and the attachement brackets are lagged into the side of your home. It would require a lot of shear pressure to break those lags.

Again, you are not holding a square dance up there. Walk out, attach or apply the solar cover and then get off.

Remove the wood and blanket, grab a cold beer and go sit under the cover and enjoy the rest of the day.

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James Redfield
LM #497

Really feel for the OP.
Structural engineering and $100's for an awning.
Knock the darn thing out and hang an insulated window in the hole.
Single hung or solid... pebbled if you need the privacy.

But remember everything is held together with three eighths long sheet metal screws and the Alumawood is very thin aluminum. It was not designed to support any weight other than the structure itself. Having built three of them myself there is no way I would consider trying to walk on top of one. Plus, in order to reach the top of the window it appears that a second ladder will be needed to do the work. Easiest solution seems to be to remove enough horizontal tubes so that a ladder can be extended up though the awning to the window. That's what I used to do when I had to paint the trim on my house.

This project has so many hold my beer and watch this opportunities... We definitely needs in-progress pics and video if possible.

My idea too. I would layer up three 2x8's or 2x10's and use it as a beam under the aluminum structure... one in the front and one near the house. make legs the same way... layer 2 or 3 2x6's or 2x8's and have them go from the ground up to the beam and screw them in place, sort of like making the frame of a pergola under what you have now. With a few sheets of ply wood on the top it should hold you. but make sure to support it so it doesnt just pull away from the house and fold in...lol