Observatory disaster!

[mikeDnight]

On the evening of November 21st, storm force winds struck, tearing the roof off my observatory. One of my son's was walking down the garden path when all of a sudden a sheet of cladding flew past his head at high speed, missing him by just a few inches. The wind was gale  force and the downpour that accompanied it was torrential and bitterly cold. I quickly grabbed a tarpaulin from the garage and both my son's and myself tried desperately to cover the roof, but it was impossible. The wind was ripping the tarp from our grasp and trying quite effectively to lift all three of us into the air with it. On top of that, none of us could feel our fingers due to the bitter cold. Drenched to the skin and freezing, I removed the mount from its pier and took it into the house, while my lads grabbed charts etc in an attempt to save something from the carnage, after which we had no choice but to just give in.

I didn't sleep that night and on going out to the observatory the following morning, I cringed at the flooded floor, soaked walls and shredded roof. I thought of taking an image but couldn't see the lighter side of things at the time. All I could see was a lot of work and expense! 

After giving things some serious thought and weighing up my options I ordered much thicker boarding for the roof, and rather than use cladding as previously, or corrugated roofing, I chose rubberised roofing. It was a great choice! After securely screwing the ply to the sliding frame, which had not been damaged thankfully, I covered the ply roof in the special adhesive supplied with the rubber sheeting. After, coated the rubber with adhesive and laid the sheet across the roof, and using a long brush I brushed the rubber perfectly flat, removing any air bubbles at the same time. The overhang on the rubber sheeting makes for a great skirt, protecting the slight gap between roof and observatory wall. Then just to finish off I used plastic facias to make a neat trim around the sides of the roof (securely bolted on!). 

The next thing to do was to dry out the inside and clean up the war zone. This was a bigger task than I'd imagined it would be but it is now back to its desired smart interior. The inner walls and floor are covered with interlocking rubber matting, which amazingly seems to have protected the inside from getting too wet. Thankfully I never leave my telescope inside the observatory when not in use, so the truly important bit was never in any danger.

I'm much happier now it's all back in operation and my 'man cave/lads club house/den' is once again fit for purpose! ???

Mike

 

[iapa]

Glad it turned out not be as you first feared and things are coming back to normal..

[Stu]

Nightmare Mike. Very good news that your lovely Tak was unharmed, and your son too!!

Nice job on the clean up  

[Saganite]

Hi Mike,

Glad that the damage was not as severe as It could have been, but even so a terrible experience.

Hope everything is back to normal.

[r3i]

Sorry to hear about the roof.  EDPM rubber is great and a lot of us have used it on our observatories - long lasting and easy to fit, well worth the additional expense over felt.

Have you understood why the roof lifted in the first place and have you taken steps to prevent a re-occurrence?  I have a belts and braces approach on mine with turnbuckles at each corner, together with a 'captive mechanism' (below is a photo of it mid-build).  We regularly get strong winds around here so keeping the roof where it should be was a priority when I built mine.

 

[jabeoo1]

Sorry to hear what happened Mike, I am glad you have got it sorted now. You now have an improved version !

[laudropb]

Sorry to hear of your woes Mike. Still it sounds that all will be ok in the end. Your son had a very lucky escape.

[cloudsweeper]

Glad you dealt with the disaster and are now back in business, Mike!

Doug.

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, r3i said:

Sorry to hear about the roof.  EDPM rubber is great and a lot of us have used it on our observatories - long lasting and easy to fit, well worth the additional expense over felt.

Have you understood why the roof lifted in the first place and have you taken steps to prevent a re-occurrence?  I have a belts and braces approach on mine with turnbuckles at each corner, together with a 'captive mechanism' (below is a photo of it mid-build).  We regularly get strong winds around here so keeping the roof where it should be was a priority when I built mine.

 

Yes Mike, I understand where I went wrong. Trying to do things on the cheap was one mistake and making the roof out of thin material to keep it light was another. The roof had started to deteriorate last winter, but as usual I thought it would keep a while longer. I was wrong! Tha actual rolling frame is securely made and didnt budge, it was only the covering that tore away fortunately.

I like your security measures holding your roof down! ? My roof is secured internally at four corners and also has atches to prevent it rolling. The trouble now is that its a bit harder to push. May be I should try and motorise it in time.

Thanks for the image of your obs roof. It gives me food for thought. ☺

Mike

[kerrylewis]

7 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I like your security measures holding your roof down! ?

Hello Mike - I'm glad that your disaster was not more disastrous. I agree with the other Mike that you may have to take further measures.

Experience in my professional life tells me that the biggest problem with this type of roof and wind is uplift. You have to assume that everything is wanting to go upwards! This is often worse with the roll-off type of structure which needs to be kept reasonably light. I am not totally familiar with your construction but if the sheet covering is held by glue alone it probably won't be enough. You may want to add some sort of additional fixing such as short roofing nails which have large flat heads - although I'm not sure how thick your base material is and these may not work.

You may wish to consider some sort of straps or brackets which could be put in place when the observatory is not being used. 

Just assume that the roof wants to fly and you need to stop it! 

Kerry 

[r3i]

6 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

Hello Mike - I'm glad that your disaster was not more disastrous. I agree with the other Mike that you may have to take further measures.

Experience in my professional life tells me that the biggest problem with this type of roof and wind is uplift. You have to assume that everything is wanting to go upwards! This is often worse with the roll-off type of structure which needs to be kept reasonably light. I am not totally familiar with your construction but if the sheet covering is held by glue alone it probably won't be enough. You may want to add some sort of additional fixing such as short roofing nails which have large flat heads - although I'm not sure how thick your base material is and these may not work.

You may wish to consider some sort of straps or brackets which could be put in place when the observatory is not being used. 

Just assume that the roof wants to fly and you need to stop it! 

Kerry 

Yeah, when the going gets tough, I enter paranoid mode and deploy ratchet straps....

[Gina]

Welcome to the 'airborne observatory roof club'    In my case the whole roll off roof with partial walls became airborne, travelled some 20ft and landed upside down on the boundary fence!!  Glad you've got it sorted out  

[ollypenrice]

Ouch, this did not sound like fun.

I'm surprised by how few people use galvanized corrugated steel as the outer surface of their rolling roof. I find it to be light, very long lasting, totally waterproof and resistant to being torn off. You need to insulate it underneath though, or have an inner ceiling, because it's cold and attracts condensation if left plain underneath.

One of the big advantages of steel is that you can really bolt it down. Bolts won't tear through it as it tries to lift. Anything inherently soft is prone to this tearing effect.

Another is that you can drag snow off it with a specially made timber snow puller without risking any harm to it.

I've used it on the rolling part of three observatories and it has out performed other roofing materials entirely.  As I replace them I will use nothing else. In this shot the fixed warm room roof (the lower one) uses fibre reinforced concrete but the roll off has 2.5 metre galvanized steel. My oldest sheets are 13 years old and still as good as new.

And make no mistake, we do get weather here!

Olly

 

[mikeDnight]

23 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Ouch, this did not sound like fun.

I'm surprised by how few people use galvanized corrugated steel as the outer surface of their rolling roof. I find it to be light, very long lasting, totally waterproof and resistant to being torn off. You need to insulate it underneath though, or have an inner ceiling, because it's cold and attracts condensation if left plain underneath.

One of the big advantages of steel is that you can really bolt it down. Bolts won't tear through it as it tries to lift. Anything inherently soft is prone to this tearing effect.

Another is that you can drag snow off it with a specially made timber snow puller without risking any harm to it.

I've used it on the rolling part of three observatories and it has out performed other roofing materials entirely.  As I replace them I will use nothing else. In this shot the fixed warm room roof (the lower one) uses fibre reinforced concrete but the roll off has 2.5 metre galvanized steel. My oldest sheets are 13 years old and still as good as new.

And make no mistake, we do get weather here!

Olly

 

I did briefly consider corrugated steel but the thought of condensation put me off, plus I was really desperate to get a covering on the structure. The rubberised roofing material seemed good and was easy to fit, and it has a 50 yr guarantee, though I doubt that includes wind damage. It is much more secure now than it was before but some what heavier as I've used much thicker ply for the roof. I still seem to be able to rool it back and forth without much effort though. I think I made it a bit flimsy the first time round out of fear it would be difficult to roll.

Olly, your obs looks very nice, especially when covered in snow, a bit like a Lancashire spring day, but in France! ☺

Mike

[ollypenrice]

37 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I did briefly consider corrugated steel but the thought of condensation put me off, plus I was really desperate to get a covering on the structure. The rubberised roofing material seemed good and was easy to fit, and it has a 50 yr guarantee, though I doubt that includes wind damage. It is much more secure now than it was before but some what heavier as I've used much thicker ply for the roof. I still seem to be able to rool it back and forth without much effort though. I think I made it a bit flimsy the first time round out of fear it would be difficult to roll.

Olly, your obs looks very nice, especially when covered in snow, a bit like a Lancashire spring day, but in France! ☺

Mike

I'm a Lancastrian, Mike, and the comparison between my former weather and my present weather involves rather more differences than similarities!!!

Olly

[Highburymark]

What a terrible experience Mike - glad you've been able to get it sorted. Imagine it's not the sort of thing you can insure unless it's professionally built?

[A budding astronomer]

OMG! Thank the good Lord everyone is OK. It's great that you could get your beautiful observatory back to glory! Clear skies!

Adam

[mikeDnight]

As a final touch, to prevent rain blowing under the rubber roof skirt, I also fit a second rubber skirt attached to the observatory walls and which drapes into the gutter. (The gutter is a new addition also, and was installed to give the skirt a clean finish, so more cosmetic than practical)

Mike.

 

[JeremyS]

Nice one, Mike. I hope you'll be trouble free from now on.

Jeremy

[mikeDnight]

All snug inside! ?