Friday, September 23, 2016

roof sheathing

This is where things started to definitely get sketchy in the safety department.  I don't have a great track record for doing the smart or safe thing when it comes to working solo and this was no exception.  Those pieces of plywood are large and heavy.  I used half inch plywood in 4x8 foot sections.   Because the house is 16 feet long and I allowed a bit of an overhang at the front and back of the house two pieces of plywood was insufficient so I staggered as best I could trying to remember this time to let the seams fall on the rafter studs.  I was a tiny bit unclear on what to do with the ridgeline.  Should the plywood touch at the crown or not?  I went with not quite touching.  Gluing the sheets into place was exciting.  I knew if i tried to glue all the rafters and drop the plywood onto it I would be faced with trying to muscle the 4x8 foot section up the ladder and hope it fell where I wanted it to go.  Instead I slowly dragged it up the ladder, pushed it into place, screwed in a couple of brace boards so it wouldn't slide off the roof, then propped up the high end so I could squeeze the glue between the rafter and the plywood and then removed the brace so it fell less of a distance and I had more control.  I don't know if this was easier or not but it seemed to work ok.  For the smaller pieces I balanced myself on the already glued and screwed plywood and trusted to the worn out tread on my hiking boots to keep me in place while I placed the plywood.  Then I caulked the hell out of the seams.  I got a bit of rain shortly after and it did leak a bit but I just added a bunch more caulk.  My advice of the day is to buy liquid nails and caulk in bulk as you will use all of it and then some.  

No comments:

Post a Comment