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.

6 thoughts on “Roofing the Cabin

  1. Brooks once put one of those roofs on a lakefront cabin. The owner told him to only use half of the screws because either they were expensive to buy and took time to install or he did not like the divots left when they were tightened in.

    In the first storm half the sheets bent in half or tore out altogether. The lesson to be learned is to use lots of screws!

  2. Some people are morons! Bet the owner said it was Brooks’ fault, right?

    Charles has roofed about a half dozen of these graineries, plus his own house. None of his roofs have been flying around. In fact, I was unhappy with the screw pattern in the last sheet near the north edge and he explained that it was precisely to keep the wind from coming under the sheet and ripping it up. So I trust that he knows what he’s doing. 🙂

  3. No, he admitted to his own stupidity and had Brooks back to bend them back into place a screw them down. Needless to say, the roof looked terrible with all the bent panels. It was a costly mistake for him.

  4. It was a lesson for brooks as well. He should have refused to do half a job in the first place. Anyone looking at the finished product would never hire Brooks to do another roof unless they heard the whole story.

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