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.
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- Charles on the ‘ladder’ finishing up the ridge cap installation. I was right where he is moments before!
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- All done. So pretty! 🙂
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.
Looks like a nice neat job. Well done! You call one a shed and the other a cabin. So, I guess the cabin will become a living space? I must have missed that post.
Charles works beautifully! It’ll all look even better when I get all the trim up when I do the siding.
I don’t think that there’s a specific post about the use of the two buildings! The smaller one near the road will be a storage shed/workshop. The larger one at the back of the property will eventually be my retirement home. I’m hoping to get another five to ten years in Miranda and will build the cabin during that time.