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Aoraki's build

Aoraki

By Aoraki
in DIY Observatories

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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Looking good so far, maybe would have gone for more than four rollers though. Would you be able to retro fit more if the roof sags?

I have decided to add a third, near central pair of wheels. These wheels will not run on the "U" tracks as per out board wheels as I don't want to complicate things by have 3 tracks to align, but will run on a flat track of either aluminium or stainless steel.

The third track is off center and will sit on top of the dividing wall between warm and scope rooms, this wall is nearly in line (about 1/2" off) with one of the 6"x2" pergola timbers (4th from left hand side looking at the front).

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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I wouldn't say the walls are a mess, in fact, I think the whole thing is looking very neat and tidy. :) :)

That flat roof looks really good :happy1: I see you only have a very small slope on it. I can well see that a one piece roof waterproofing would be particularly good with your design. Saves having many strips of roofing felt with it's attendant problems :D If I'd known I was using the rubber sheeting I could have had a shallower slope :D

Yes Gena it is a slight slope, 2" over 8', just enought to shed water. I didn't want a large pitch as I wanted to keep the roof profile as low as practicle and as contempory looking as possible.

The roofing material is a joy to work with as you will find out. We used 4" rollers to apply the adhesive, which is quite thick, in 2' sections starting in the middle of the roof, rolling the rubber and smoothing out as we went. When one half had been laid, we just went back to the middle and went the other way, simples! I was slightly concerned with some large bubbles that proved troublesome to remove by hand, but they disapeared by themselves within a couple of hours.

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Gina

Gina

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Yes Gena it is a slight slope, 2" over 8', just enought to shed water. I didn't want a large pitch as I wanted to keep the roof profile as low as practicle and as contempory looking as possible.
Yes, certainly looks good with the horizontal trims round the roof. The slope on my warm room roof is a bit less than twice yours.
The roofing material is a joy to work with as you will find out. We used 4" rollers to apply the adhesive, which is quite thick, in 2' sections starting in the middle of the roof, rolling the rubber and smoothing out as we went. When one half had been laid, we just went back to the middle and went the other way, simples! I was slightly concerned with some large bubbles that proved troublesome to remove by hand, but they disapeared by themselves within a couple of hours.
Sounds good :) Yes, the convenience was a strong reason why I decided to follow your example.
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Aoraki

Aoraki

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10 Oct 2011

After work, I managed to get one coat of "Willow" a Cuprinol shades wood treatment on the fascias. I would like to get another couple of coats on them at least as these are the only parts that are not Tanilised. When this is done, I will seal the joint between rubber roof and fascia with a semi liquid rubber compound for full waterproffing.

The roof itself look the business, now fully cured, it is perfectly flat and smooth with no signs of any bubbles, all in all, I think that was probably the best £170 spent so far! I will get a couple of photo's soon but I lost light tonight.

I also collected the guttering, hopper and downpipe. The idea with the hopper is that the running outlet from the gutter discharges into it but will also allow the gutter to retract with the roof. That's the theory anyway, stay tuned!

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yesyes

yesyes

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Very interesting build. Looks very professional.

Are you going to put another fixed roof between warm room and roll-off roof? At the moment it looks like the roof would open both the scope room and the warm room...

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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11 Oct 2011

A little more progress today. I have fitted the guttering to the rear fascia, I have used the smaller 90mm to help keep it hidden behind the fascia's on the sides, you shouldn't (hopefully) be able to see any guttering from the front or sides of the shed.

The gutter running outlet has been reduced in length so as to fit over the hopper and clear the walls when opening and closing the roof. I have fitted a hopper to collect the rain water from the guttering, this has a small piece of rubber roof offcut behind it that protrudes some 35mm above the hopper. The idea is that when the roof is in the closed position there shouldn't be any water able to get blown back into the shed.

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As can been seen above, I have added a 25x38mm Tanilised batten to create a drip edge, with hindsight I could have let the roofing sheets fly over to get the same result. EPDM was fixed down over the batten with contact adhesive and dressed to lay in the gutter. A bit more dressing required as it looks like I have chewed it off! :rolleyes:

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And finally, the roof as it looks from above and to the rear of the shed.

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I'm having a 'mare with the internet, it would be quicker with dial up! This is the third time I have added this days progress ;) Me thinks a call to someone in a far away land is in order, see you next week then!

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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While I think on, having seen conduit mentioned in other build threads, here is the conduit I have used for two runs between warm and scope rooms, and one run from warm room to garage. It is 50Ømm, convoluted to bend very easily, probably down to 100mm radius, and it's smooth internally to allow easy pull throughs. I was furtunate enough to have about 35m spare from a recent project, just enough as there is only about 1m through into garage. EDIT Found a link.

IMAG0248.jpg

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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I wouldn't know, it appears very tough. I'll let you know how I get on with our cat (and the other half dozen neighbouring ones!). It's 1.5mm thick and needs a sharp Stanley to cut cleanly. You could do no worse than ring the suppliers. hth

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Aoraki

Aoraki

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12th Oct 2011

Today's progress consisted of fabricating the two middle roof support brackets. I didn't use the same wheels as for the sides as I didn't need to have them on a track but made use of a pair of bearings I had laying around the shop instead. Below is the finished article. I fitted the brackets so the bearings are sited over an upright when the roof is in the closed position.

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And below here they are fitted. All I need to do to complete is fit either a stainless or aluminium flat bar to replace the packers that the bearings are sat on.

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malc-c

malc-c

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Just stumbled on this thread... fantastic build, and professionally done. I'm sure if you ever thought about doing this commercially there would be many takers, especially given the recent comments regarding delays with orders placed with Alexander Observatories.

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