Saturday, September 25, 2010

Raising a Roof

My first task is done! And just in time too, Since I'm going to Alaska here in a few days! There were a few delays, mainly weather related, but my Dad and I managed to completely strip off and then replace the roof on our garage that my grandfather built. I'll just give you a before-and-after shot here so that those of you not interested in reading through the process can appreciate the work without having to hear all the hoobajoob:
Before

After!

So! A long, arduous process was begun on the 13th of September. The roof was in shambles. The roof covered both the garage and a small 24'x12'  section behind the garage. It looks something like this:

 I imagine the shelter was there originally to park another car or something, but it had, through the years, just become another junk pile behind the garage, though this one had cover, so it had all the junk that somebody wanted to keep out of the rain. Which didn't work, as it turns out, because the stupid thing leaked like a sieve. The garage roof shelters a number of things; originally for someone's car and some tools, however it has now become a Cat hospice. Here is a video of my mom:



Kidding!!!!!

Anyway, the leaky roof needed to go. It was old and had holes in it. The Cats were getting wet :-( . It was made out of nothing but plywood, which had deteriorated, and asphalt roofing rolls. The cheap stuff. There was something like 3 or 4 layers of the stuff in some places, because when there started to be leaks, Grandpa would simply roll out another layer!

Also, if you take a look at the following picture, you'll notice that the slats supporting the roof in the garage are uneven:
Garage rafters AFTER a full day of cross-bracing with custom cuts for stability
The uneven rafters are a result of the fact that the plywood Grandpa used for the garage roof was a size that was inconvenient for the structure he built. Solution? PUT ANOTHER RAFTER WHERE THE EDGE OF THE PLYWOOD WOULD LAY! This is consistent with what we found with the rest of the structure: it was all SOLID, but nothing was built to any standard or code.

We had two options: adapt any new construction to the existing garage, or tear it all down and start anew. I'm not sure which would have been easier, but we decided to keep the existing garage and adapt new construction.

The biggest hurdle I personally had with this whole project, is that I kept expecting things to be square. Nothing was. The construction was basically based around 8 railroad ties placed in the ground in a L  pattern that outlined the garage and back shelter. It was frustratingly non-square. Which is fun when you're using, you know, rectangular materials that are made to be square (hip to be square?).

(On a tangent, does anybody else think that Huey Lewis' backup band should have been named the Dewies? Huey Lewis and the Dewies?)

As a result, the cross-bracing we decided was necessary to stabilize the structure, OSB decking, and the actual metal roof that topped it all off had to all be fit in custom proportions.

As you may remember from a previous post, this is also being done so that the shelter behind the garage can be used as a waterproof enclosure to put the goat(s) in during the winter. That is part of another, larger, project that involved moving the cars that were sunk into the dirt behind the garage, tilling the soil to get any farming artifacts from years past out of the ground so the goats don't eat them, and fencing in a 75' x 25' area to house more than the one goat we have. And just cause I know you like looking at the goat (I don't blame you, she IS cute!), here she is again, this time peeking out from her current shelter that will be replaced by what was just roofed:




Now, without further ado, Here is the progression in picture form of the entire process:
The Roof Prime

After the original Shelter was torn down

Re-Framing of the Shelter

Framed shelter, roof off Garage, One car gone!

After 2 days of the most boring thing on this job: cross bracing for stability.

OSB used as Decking, with many Thanks to our right-hand man, Cousin Josh Essinger, who helped us out with just going out and getting us supplies while Dad and I were on the roof all day.

With Roofing felt atop the OSB 
Roof 2.0!
The delays from weather were the two days that we didn't dare get on the roof with 12'x39" metal sheeting in 25-35 MPH winds. On the morning of Friday September 24th, the winds were manageable enough to dare climbing on the roof, so we got up, and the sheets screwed in rather easily. That is, after we realized we got screws that were too short, ran to home depot to exchange some and get longer screws. We were done with the top caps by 5:00 PM, just in time to let the evening wind down, and me to forget to take pictures until about sunset time, which is why the last picture is so blown out with the sun at the edge of the roof.

In the process, however (And Dad tells me this is how it is everywhere), we did excavate quite a few exciting things, what with pulling the 2 cars out from where the goat pen is going to be. Check it:

Yes, I believe that is a shoe. There was more by the time we were done.
And since I know you like it when I end with pictures of cute things, I offer this one:
Mummycat!!!!
And now the Portrait:
Lookitthecutelittlewhiskuuuurs!
Cheers.

-Jon E