Do I need steel in my new roof?

[GCarnegi]

Guys,
I'm hoping to add an extension and loft conversion to my end terraced house (with hip roof). THere's already a single storey garage on the side of our house (about 1.5 x normal single garage width) but it's built with 6" block when apparently it should be 9" if it's to hold a second storey.

So hell, if I have to knock it down, I might as well build the new garage to full double width instead of 1.5 width.

So I am looking for a roof structure with a full height gable on both the front (above the garage door), and on the side, with the gable above the garage door forming a sort of "full height dormer" if such a thing exists.

I was also hoiping for an "almost" full length dormer on the back of the house.

I don't think our local planners like flat roofs so the rear dormer will have to slope slightly (maybe all the way to the "crown", shallowing the rear pitch altogther? Or perhaps Mansard at the rear, with sloping top - I have about 10ft of headroom to the "crown" inside my loft at present.

I think this will make for a pretty complex roof structure, and because I need to inhabit this area with a loft conversion, I was wondering if it'd be better built using steel "rsj's" - almost like a commercial property.

Can I expect major problems?

Does any old building contractor take on this kind of work, or will I need a specialist?

thanks
Guy

 

[noseall]

i haven't worked on an extension yet, where the planners have allowed a hip roof to become a gable roof.

 

[Ossy]

Sounds like you'll need an engineer to design something for you, whether it's steel or not.

There's no reason why a normal builder couldn't do something like this. You might need to get the steel made up by a specialist steel fabricator who can do all the cutting/welding for you.

Once it's fabricated it'll all go together like meccano Hardest part will probably be lifting heavy steels into place...