post and beam timber frame - roofing

[canoehead]

its taken forever, a comedy amount of time. way more than i imagined. but yesterday it was finished, and we had the topping out ceremony, or richtfest if you're german. just the barge boards, facia's, and soffits to do. i had to make more shingles, and then more when even they weren't enough, in the end it was somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000, i lost count. that's what it took to cover over 100sqm, that and over 20,000 50mm stainless steel ring shank nails, about 1 linear km of tile batten, several rolls of breather membrane, hundreds of meters of 50mm batten, 6 packs of multi-foil insulation, over a linear km of t&g flooring as sarking, more batten, i don't know how many 3" and 4"nails, and probably about a lake's worth of cups of tea.

 

here's a couple of pictures

 

rick

[agrimog]

well done rick, thats one awesome roof, you should be well proud of that

[nipski]

Nice one

[Rhob the Log]

Lovely, though with that weather why the roof?

[Woodworks]

Your work and the views are breathtaking .

 

I have built my own home but nothing of that scale and even then everything took for ever. Keep at it you will get there.

 

PS. I am a big fan of mutifoil insulation.

[alex_m]

Wow, that's lovely work!

[Peter]

Fantastic job, love the shingles but I would never have the patience to make more than about ten.

 

I think weather may well be putting some snow load on that in a few months, hence the pitch.

[nick1854]

Beautiful and worth the time spent on it. I love steeply pitched shingle roofs.

[morten]

its taken forever, a comedy amount of time. way more than i imagined. but yesterday it was finished, and we had the topping out ceremony, or richtfest if you're german. just the barge boards, facia's, and soffits to do. i had to make more shingles, and then more when even they weren't enough, in the end it was somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000, i lost count. that's what it took to cover over 100sqm, that and over 20,000 50mm stainless steel ring shank nails, about 1 linear km of tile batten, several rolls of breather membrane, hundreds of meters of 50mm batten, 6 packs of multi-foil insulation, over a linear km of t&g flooring as sarking, more batten, i don't know how many 3" and 4"nails, and probably about a lake's worth of cups of tea.

 

here's a couple of pictures

 

rick

 

Fantastic job. Beautiful roof. I am very envious of you and your energy and patience.

 

How did you cut the shingles, and what species of wood did you use? Any treatment of the shingles?

[canoehead]

just wanted to say thanks for all the kind remarks, 'preciate it.

 

and to answer a couple of questions, why the roof? i'm guessing that question is why the choice of material and pitch?

 

for me its about a few things. in essence this is a no budget build. i have no money, so rather than working to afford to buy materials i'm trying to make as much as i can from the raw materials i have at hand. vernacular architecture. in addition, i can't afford to employ anyone to help, i dont know i want to either, there are various reasons for that. i have been a carpenter and general builder for over 20 years and a woodsman, i guess always, and that has dictated to an extent, my choices of material and the way in which i am constructing.

 

i wanted to see if i could make and build a house, no make that home, from the very place in which it sits, in part because i think it is a way forward, especially for those of us who dont have much money. for my inspiration i have looked to the past, both the saxon heritage of building in england, and northern europe, and the kinds of houses english carpenters like myself went and built in north america 300 to 500 years ago. use what you have with the knowledge and skill that you can bring. invest in your ability, these were the principal ideas.

 

so to that end i thought that shingles, and in this case hand split shakes were the ideal answer to my roofing needs. in all honesty, i don't know how long they will last, 5 mins or 50 years? i know they can last up to 80 years or so, maybe more. i had never layed them before, let alone made them. the other option was to hand make 6500 peg tiles, but that necessitates building a kiln, only time will tell if i have to go down that road?

 

so why the pitch. well funnily enough it snowed a lot on the mountain range next over, last week. but here, not so often. the real reason is shakes and shingles benefit from being laid on roofs of a pitch of 45 degrees or more to increase their longevity, by allowing them to shed water more quickly, and that is the principal reason why shingled roofs have such steep pitches from a structural pov, in addition to that they allow a maximum of usable space in the roof. in my case the loft is the principal bedroom. a gambrelled roof may give more space but they have other issues. (not to say i dont want to build one).

 

Morten, i used chestnut, partly because i had a load, not that i don't have pine, but as you know you have to tar pine, and it would have been a lot of tar, and more than one application over the roof's lifetime, and since chestnut is loaded with tannins and doesn't need treatment it was an easy choice. i felled the trees, cut them into lengths i could get in my pick up, or carried them out of my own woods, then cut them into 15" (350mm) long bulks (rounds) then split them with a maul (gunsfors) and club hammer into 16ths or more, then split those segments into 32nds or smaller sometimes 50ths depending on the size of the rounds with an ancient froe (from a 2nd hand carpentry tool shop in needham market, suffolk) then finished them with a small forest axe (grunsfors) rather than a draw knife. because i find the axe more versatile, easier to use, and quicker. less waste than sawing and because they are riven apparently greater longevity as you're not cutting thru the grain but riving along it.

 

here are a couple more pics, inc the bathroom frame construction. i didn't mill the posts or short beams (eucalyptus) for the bathroom extension but i did the rafters (pine) and the long roof plate (which is walnut) and hewed the braces (olive wood, alder, chestnut, walnut), and made all the pegs (oak).

 

 

 

rick