New Roof

[Lightspeed]

Contractors have at last arrived to start re-roofing our little house.

New roof is a coated steel construction with guaranteed 50 year technical life. This we hope will be largely maintenance free, which is the main reason we have specified it.

This is a scary process on an old house like ours as the original tiled roof surface has to be removed, waterproof underlay ( Tyvek) installed, then battens to level the surface and support the tin roof, and only then can it be accurately measured. Measurements are passed to the manufacturer, who exactly cuts the sheets of material to the dimensions supplied. The snag is that the material cutting and delivery process can take a couple of weeks, during which time we will effectively living under a paper tent!

Of course 20 minutes after first section of tiles were removed, it started raining...

Unfortunately all but one of our barns adjoin the house and their roofs are being changed at the same time. That leaves just one smallish barn and the wood store as fall-back covered areas if everything goes tits up.

We are hoping for the best, but this process feels akin to that of a hermit crab changing shells. Our ass is going t be exposed for a fortnight and this makes us nervous.

At the same time as doing the roof, we're having the chimneys externally clad in the same steel material atop rain hats are being added.

Hopefully when complete, the roof will at tast be leak free, impervious to wind, will shed snow more quickly, and will be a clean surface for rainwater harvesting.....

.... hopefully

Fingers crossed.

[Midnitemo]

Good luck , I have my fingers crossed for you

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No integrated power cells in this new roof?

[Devonian]

Once the tiles are off which shouldn't take long, they should be able to get the Tyvek and battens on reasonable quickly, that will then at least keep out the rain until the roof is completed.

[Mortblanc]

Tyvek is tough stuff. As long as you do not have high winds you should be safe.

There are neighbors down the road that have been living with blue poly tarps over their damaged roofs for over a year waiting for insurance pay off, or perhaps have gotten the payoff and used it elsewhere?

Anyway, they are high dollar houses protected only by blue tarps and skimpy battens for a very long time.

I have several friends that have gone to the steel roofs, some of them several years ago, and they are very satisfied with the results.

[Lightspeed]

Midnight: No to integrated PV on the roof because of OPSEC. I realised that I subconsciously log as a possible sorce of supplies every house in the area that has PV on the roof. So backup 12v system already wired in, asare charge controllers so I can hook the cells when need arises

Dev: yes indeed, tyvek is up and battened down. It feels like living in a paper tent!

Mort: Yes, wind is the enemy of tyvek... and its sometimes windy up here in the hills. The roof is made by the Finnish company Ruukki and has a great reputation for its ability to withstand extreme temeratures , shed snow easily, and is very wind resistant too.

Sit rep: Guys worked like devils today, and 3/4 of roof is now stripped and Tyveked. And I'm completely finished from manhandling another two Cords of wood battening into the wood store.

Dinner on table so that's it from me TTFN

[Lightspeed]

Dev, Tiles are very long heavy ceramic items, and the old laying pattern has them double rowed with 80% overlap, so its a fairly heavy roof, with equally heavy battens ( 2" x 1,5"). It has been the batten removal that has been heaviest work.

I've just realised a calculation error. The old batens are yielding just short of 2 Cords of timber. Still a hell of a lot and a huge task removing nails, cutting and stacking it.

From painted date on one of the roof joists it appears the roof was last replaced in 1948. Amazingly all roof timbers and battens are completely sound. So far not a single batten is showing any sign of rot or infestation. If the new roof lasts as long as its predecessor, that'll do us just fine...

We're also replacing the gutters and downpipes while we're at it, and this will give me the chance to re-use one on the wood shed roof to gather rainwater for the veg garden.

This project is seeing very little go to waste. even the old tiles are being recycled; some I'm storing as the garage and woodshed roofs are of the same material, and the rest are going to the local council who crush them and use on some sort of road maintenance.

[Steve]

I wouldn't be dumping those old tiles, you never know when you might need to build some animal housing.

Good luck with the refurb, it sounds like a good system.

[Lightspeed]

Hi Steve,

A lot of the tiles are blown so not worth keeping, but one section in particular had good ones and these we've kept, to use for future repairs to barn and wood shed roofs which are tiled with tiles of the same pattern.

I bit the bullet on changing the roof, even though I had enough good tiles in store to replace the blown ones, as I realised that it'd never ne completely water tight, and that replacing frost damaged tiles every year on a high roof with a 45 degree pitch was something that I do not want to do as I get older. Hopefully the steel roof is a good solution. Time will tell.

As of the end of this afternoon the whole roof is stripped and Tyveked. I have only found one single batten that has any sign of rot, so good news for the integrity of the roof as a whole.

This weekend the gang is working to install battens in a completely flat and square pattern. It will then be measured and roofing sheets ordered.

[Lightspeed]

Final calculation on the roof was made on Monday at 4000 sq ft. That's 6% bigger than the original estimate I made, with a consequential increase in material costs as well:-(

New roof was ordered and delivery date should be confirmed sometime today....hopefully we'll not be looking at a huge delay.

Last night HUGE downpour of tropical dimension tested the waterproof claims made of the paper-thin Tyvek and it passed with flying colours. A few dribbles got in here and there, but nothing dramatic. But I had a sleepless night with a couple of nocturnal inspections of the loft by torchlight.

Sunshine is forcast today. That'll help dry the place out. This really does feel like camping.

[Lightspeed]

Tin roof delivered last Friday, installation completed yesterday.

Very pleased with the result.