Month: September 2014

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Putting a Ridge Cap on the Cabin

Today, Charles, T, and I finished off the cabin roof by adding the ridge cap! We got the final sheeting done yesterday, so today we had to build the ‘ladder’ and then it was just a matter of positioning and screwing in the ridge cap.

Metal roofs are super slippery. There are several ways to move on them securely, like using grappling ladders, but what Charles prefers is to lay 1×4″s across the width of the roof over top of the tin and then screw them into the ribs. This gives us toe holds.

When the work is completed, he removes the 1×4″s and fills in the holes in the ribs with the screws that match the tin. You can barely notice them from the ground, especially since he makes sure that they line up with the rows of screws. So it all looks very nice, plus he built the ladders on the west sides of the buildings since they are less visible.

In fact, we made as many ‘mistakes’ and fudging as possible on the west side.  This was especially important on the cabin since I look out on the east side of the roof all day!

Once the ladder was in place, I climbed up to the peak with Charles while T stayed on the ground. That way, we could pass foam closures, screws, and tools with a minimal amount of climbing up and down.

The cabin is bigger than is the shed, so the ridge cap was actually easier to do because we didn’t have to cut any of it. The cabin is 19′ across the peak and I had two 10′ sections of ridge cap, so Charles just overlapped them a foot. The overlap with the shed would have been about 5′, so Charles felt that it made more sense to cut than to have a huge overlap.

Once we got to the end of the ridge cap, I climbed down and went to make coffee (Charles drinks A LOT of coffee). We had a break and then he took the ladder apart.

While he did that, I screwed the clothesline eye bolts back into the shed so that I can get my clothesline back up! I have really missed it these last couple of weeks! I’ll do that late tomorrow. Charles is going to come back with a trailer that we will fill with all the shingles lying around the property. He and Caroline will use them as kindling in their wood stove this winter.

After the yard is cleaned up, I have the following Haven projects to finish:

-scraping the shed floor

-pressure washing the shed one final time

-painting the shed door

-spraying foam insulation into holes in both buildings’ floors and walls

The weather is about to tank for a few days, so I’m going to focus on typing during that time so that I can give Haven a final push before I leave for Quebec on the 17th. When I get back from there, I want to be in departure mode.

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Roofing the Cabin

Tuesday, Charles and I started work on roofing the cabin. SaskPower had promised to come move the neighbour’s power line out of the way Thursday and Friday so we wanted a head start and we did what we could away from the line, which was a lot more than expected. We got about 95% of the shingles off and about 80% of the strapping on.

Wednesday, I went to town for more lumber and hardware while Charles built a door for the shed. It then rained like the dickens all day. Everything inside the cabin is soaked in mud. 🙁

SaskPower came by late in the day to lift the wire using a telescoping insulated pole. The forecast for Thursday wasn’t great and the tech was worried we wouldn’t have enough time to do the roofing, so this gave us the weekend since he could leave the pole there till Monday. I would have preferred to have the wire completely out of the way, but this was a satisfactory solution. I continue to be impressed by the level of service I get from SaskPower.

Today, Thursday, Charles was at Haven bright and early. It was a very cold and windy start to the day, but we were able to finish strapping by late morning. We then got to work hanging the shed door.

I’d like to point out that I actually do work on the roof! I was right up there with Charles at the peak pounding in nails and I must have been up and down at least twenty times to fetch things. I also do all the measuring and cutting of the lumber using his chop saw.

We broke for lunch and then T came over to help us with installing the tin. We were able to put on a full eight sheets before Charles called it quits. He had the hardest position, right on the roof balancing on the pieces of strapping, so his legs were getting shaky.

Today was the first time I actually screwed in any tin. The way the chores have been divvied up, I never got a chance to try it. The tin comes with matching screws that you pay an arm and a leg for and which have a washer. The way to get them screwed in with the tools available to us is to first pound them into the tin with a hammer, just to get them started, and then we use a drill with a socket bit on them. It goes very quickly!

T won’t be available till after lunch tomorrow, so Charles will come over a little later in the morning to finish work on the shed door (adding interior stops). We should be able to finish putting on the tin tomorrow, but I expect that the ridge cap will eat up part of Saturday.

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A Lick of Paint

I plan to finish the exterior of the graineries with metal, just like the roofs, so my latest project was about preserving the weather-worn grainery more than making it pretty: painting the OSB cladding. Had the OSB been the final cladding, as it is on Charles’ graineries, I would have added trim to close gaps and make the building look more finished. Since I plan to do the metal cladding within a year or two, weatherproof was good enough.

Now, I can’t believe I don’t have a decent before picture of the shed at Haven! I can see it so clearly in my mind that I was sure that I’d taken a picture of it from the road.

At any rate, these should refresh your memory:

And now:

Charles is back at work here tomorrow to get started on the cabin roof (parts away from the power line) and he might have time to build the door for the shed.

Cleaning the shed has proven to be quite a challenge as there is a lot of mouse poop stuck to the floor. I have tried scraping with a shovel and power washing, but need to put in more effort. So the next project, after Charles and are done, will be to get on my hands and knees with a small scraper and a bucket of bleachy water. Not very glamourous, but it needs to be done!