The roof and the barn's north feeder are my two 'must-get-done-before-Winter' projects. I was 99% done with the feeder last week so, after the election judge work and moving Dan's cattle, I started on the roof on Thursday. I also wanted to get the roof done sooner than later as Kelly was returning from North Dakota the end of this week and would be hunting deer in the pasture the shed is in.
When I took the asphalt roofing and metal sheets off the roof I found the roof to be in worse shape than I thought.
The roof is not equal 50/50. Instead it is more like 1/3 and 2/3 as the peak is off center. Why? Who knows.
I found the roof was made of 1" by 12" by 9' 4" long boards. True 1" and true 12 inches. This made replacing the boards more difficult as 1" boards today are not a true 1". I didn't want to replace the entire roof with 4' by 8' plywood sheets as the roof is 9' 4" long. The building is 8' long. The 8 inches the roof overhangs the building is not supported. The 1 inch boards were stout enough to not droop over the years. Plywood I don't trust not to droop.
Fortunately the old fence around the patio that the cattle knocked over was made up of 1" by 9" by 32" inches long. True 1" boards.
Thursday I replaced the rotted board on the east (1/3) roof. Fortunately the 12" board had only rotted 9" at most as I was able to cut the rotted 9" off and put the fence boards in.
It was getting dark when I removed the metal sheets from the 2/3 side so I didn't see how bad the boards were until Friday when I returned. Worse than I thought. Friday I got all of the 2/3 side re-roofed except for a 2' by 4' section. For that section I put in a piece of pressed wood and a piece of chip board. They both added up to 1" thick. Friday by dark I cut the pressed wood to size as, of course, the shape was not a true 2' by 4' rectangle.
Saturday I cut the chip board to size using the pressed board as a template. It was good not to finish this 2' by 4' section on Friday as two of the studs in the roof in this location had wet spots. Friday I had scrapped the soft wet parts off and by Saturday the studs were dry.
Why didn't I use more fence boards for the 2' by 4' section? The pieces left were cracked, else were still wet as they had been sitting outside.
After picking up all the branches Jan had trimmed from their trees and bushes, and a few things around the ranch in prep for the predicted storm, I went back to work on my roof. I added extra 2 by 4 boards along the studs with the wet spots, and then nailed the last pieces of roof in place.
The weather forecast had changed from rain on Sunday to rain on Sunday then a Winter storm with snow Sunday night and very cold temperatures for the next week. So much for the 'rain one day, dry two days' pattern of the last couple of weeks. Friday and Saturday had beautiful weather so it was hard to believe on Saturday that bad weather was on its way. The nice weather was so nice one thought it could last forever and there was no hurry, the weather forecast had to be wrong.
Winds 25 mph to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph were forecast. I couldn't shingle the roof in time but I decided to put the tar paper over the roof, nail it down good and place heavy objects on top to hold it in place. It was dark by the time I was done. Sunday I noticed the tar paper is not very smooth and flat. The side of effect of a rush job in the dark. I was also delayed when the small container of nails slid on the slick tar paper and right off the roof into the tall grass far below.
The cold air has spilled over the mountain pass right on schedule. 6:30 pm the wind picked up and it is howling now. It sounds like Winter out there. Sunday it rained all day until the front came through. Some snow is now on the ground. Hopefully we don't get the 2 to 4 inches they predict.
Once it gets nicer, and I don't disturb Kelly's hunting, I can shingle the roof.
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| Start |
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| Thursday's repair job. |
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| With tar paper on the roof. |
The following photo is odd as I stitched two photos together to show the complete roof. The explains the horizontal 'bend' in the roof. The roof's peak goes from top to bottom, not side to side. I couldn't get any higher to capture the roof in a single shot.
The asphalt did a good job protecting the boards. The metal sheets - not so much.
The fourth board down was salvageable so I moved it up to replace the rotted second board.
Daisy spent part of the time helping me and inspecting my work. In the foreground you can see one of the wet studs.
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