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Astrokev's ROR - The Build


Astrokev

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Well, after another trip to the vet for a routine post-op check-up, and a welcome visit from my in-laws, I wonder where the day went!

However, I did manage to do a bit on the build, and just about completed the cladding on the east side of the roof. Tomorrow I'll do the west side and treat it all with preserver, with a few coats of paint on Saturday.

Getting close to putting the roof sheets on - hooray!

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No pictures today, but finished the roof cladding on the west side. 

To preserve the boards, I dip the ends of all timbers for at least 5 minutes before putting preserver on the rest of the board with a brush (2 coats).  Dipping the boards takes ages, as the tub I use is fairly small and can only accommodate 3 boards at a time - using a tub big enough for more boards would need gallons of preserver to fill!

The end result is that I've dipped about half the roof cladding boards. I'll finish the rest in the morning and then screw them into position on the roof. 

Edited by Astrokev
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Lovely out in the sun today. I finished dipping the ends of the cladding boards and then gave them a couple of coats of preserver. Most of the day was therefore spent waiting for the timber to dry off sufficiently to allow me to put them up. So, late afternoon I eventually managed to get both sides of cladding complete and installed. A few days extra effort from the last photos I posted, and the boards look exactly the same, but it's given me comfort knowing that all exposed timber has been well treated with preserver (it satisfies the OCD in me).

The small triangle of missing cladding at the apex of the roof is intentional. I've decided to leave this as is, since this part of the gable-end will be covered by the beams which support the edges of the OSB on the overhanging eaves, and won't therefore be exposed or visible.

Although I haven't put them up yet, I also fashioned end pieces out of spare bits of cladding. These will fit more snugly around the roof rails and track - more cosmetic than functional, but should tidy the ends of the roof up a bit. I'll put these up tomorrow. I also cut a length of cladding to run along the south side of the ROR. This will reduce the gap between the south wall and the roof to help keep the wind out. The plan is to seal the remaining gap with a length of EPDM running along the inner face of the south roof beam to keep wind and bugs out. This will become clearer when I fit it!

Since we're promised a few days of dry weather, I'm going to tempt fate and take the tarp off tomorrow (was that distant thunder I just heard...). With luck I hope to start playing with the OSB for the main roof.

 

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We decided to go and see First Man at the local Vue cinema this afternoon (highly recommended if you haven't already seen it!), so I only had a few hours this morning to plod-on with the shed.

De-tarped the roof, and got soaked in the process due to some hidden pools of water lurking between the roof joists. Then put up the south end ROR cladding and the fiddly-bits around the corners of the roof. In so doing I discovered that the two north-end corner pieces catch slightly on the ROR rail support posts ? . I guess when I made the corner pieces I obviously didn't fully open the roof to check that they didn't catch. So, off they came, trimmed them back, re-painted and re-erected.

Not really enough time to start cutting OSB so I decided to add another cladding strip to the north end beam of the roof. Not really needed, it just gives all four sides of the ROR a more even finish.

In the pics, you can see the final gap between the ROR and the south wall, which is about 3-4mm. When fully closed, the ROR overhangs the south wall slightly, so I'm happy that no rain can enter through the gap. However, I'll probably still seal the gap on the inside once the ROR is finished.

Reading @JamesF post in @LeeRich thread also prompted me to ponder on how much I've still got to do on the build to get it finished -

OSB and EPDM the ROR (hopefully this week). Install flooring. Put up internal wall boards to make it look pretty! Insulate and board out the warm room. Make the outer door and inner door to the scope room. Install anti-vermin netting around the edge of the foundations to keep inquisitive mice/rats at bay. Install guttering. Install electrics - although I'll probably run my kit from an extension cable in the first instance (I want to run a ring around the whole garden, to include my son's shed, my tool shed, and the garden cabin. A bigger job that can wait till the observatory is operational). Plenty to be getting on with then!

EDIT - You may also notice that the paint on the south wall has bubbled up in places. I think this is where I applied knotting solution before painting. So, either this wasn't fully dry before I painted, or the solution has reacted with the paint in the heat of the sun. Later in the build I will sand off the affected areas and repaint. A faff but hopefully quite simple job to put right.

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Edited by Astrokev
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17 minutes ago, LeeRich said:

I must say Kev, that's some lovely workmanship ?

Thanks - yours ain't so bad either ? . I just wish I was a quicker worker! I'm in no great rush, but I have to say I'll be really pleased when it's finished now, so I can use the thing. There's lots of other jobs around the house mounting up!

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12 minutes ago, Astrokev said:

I'm in no great rush, but I have to say I'll be really pleased when it's finished now, so I can use the thing. There's lots of other jobs around the house mounting up!

Ain't that the truth? :D

I think once the space is watertight, the work becomes much easier to do in small pieces if that's all time allows.  It's possible to do half an hour and then leave things unfinished until the next time.  At the moment (for me at least) there seem to be more jobs that are "If I start this now, I really need to finish it today", or "If I start this now, I need to spend a good hour or two on it otherwise it's not worth the time it takes to uncover everything and get all the tools out at the start and then re-cover it all and put things away again afterwards".

James

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2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Ain't that the truth? :D

I think once the space is watertight, the work becomes much easier to do in small pieces if that's all time allows.  It's possible to do half an hour and then leave things unfinished until the next time.  At the moment (for me at least) there seem to be more jobs that are "If I start this now, I really need to finish it today", or "If I start this now, I need to spend a good hour or two on it otherwise it's not worth the time it takes to uncover everything and get all the tools out at the start and then re-cover it all and put things away again afterwards".

James

Yeh, know that feeling. Once my roof is on I'll be happy. I have a make-shift board to cover the outer door, so life should get easier once the roof is watertight.

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13 hours ago, Dave said:

Looking fab Kev. Let me know when would be a good time for you for me to pop over and admire it.

 

Thanks mate. Feel free to pop over anytime - apart from Wednesdays (when I'm on grandad duty ? ) and this Thursday morning - otherwise I'll be out the back playing in the shed.

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House-chores soaked up most of this morning and then some enjoyable time with my daughter and lovely little grandson, who popped over to see us. So, only managed some time on the observatory in the afternoon, but was pleased to have finally started work on the roof covering.

A few pictures of todays progress. Tomorrow is weekly shop day, but I'll hopefully finish off the gaps in the roof ready to start doing battle with the EPDM ? 

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As usual, I didn't get as much done today as I hoped. Never mind - I'm getting there!

Due to an oversight on my part (who else's part could it be since I'm building the thing on my own!) a long length of left-over OSB from the warm room roof turned out to be not so long after all. Hmm. This required a bit of rethinking of which pieces of remaining OSB I could use to fill the remaining gaps in the roof. The finished coverage was more jigsaw-like than I planned, but managed to fill the gaps with no holes, so that has to be a good thing.

As can be clearly seen, there is some finishing-off to do - trimming the edges and ends to make them fit, and screwing down, but nearly there. Doing my regular Wednesday grandson-sitting stint tomorrow, but may have an hour at the end of the afternoon when I can do a bit more. So, not quite time to get the EPDM out, but getting very close ? 

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11 hours ago, Astrokev said:

Doing my regular Wednesday grandson-sitting stint tomorrow,

It's worth getting small people trained early as they can be useful accessing places we're too big to reach, I found my son good for that sort of thing before he grew up :D

Dave

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4 hours ago, Davey-T said:

It's worth getting small people trained early as they can be useful accessing places we're too big to reach, I found my son good for that sort of thing before he grew up :D

Dave

This week he learned how to use a spoon (more yoghurt ended up on his face than in his mouth though). 

Next week I'm going to train him to shimmy down the tube of my 10" Newt to clean the mirror ?

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No pictures today, but I did manage to get a bit more of the jigsaw roof fixed down, leaving just a few more pieces either side of the ridge to complete. I'll hopefully get these done tomorrow, so long as another follow-up vets appointment with doggie McDogface goes to plan and doesn't bring any unwanted surprises!

I need to think about how best to fix these pieces, since I've noticed that the OSB flexes slightly where they meet at the ridge, due to them not being supported directly under the edges (small flaw in the design there). I may need to add profiled batons between the rafters to reduce the flexure. This is probably not a problem, but if I need to go clambering over the roof once the EPDM is down, there's a small risk the flexure may delaminate the rubber slightly and just niggles my OCD and perfectionist streak ?.

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Gorgeous day today, once the horrendous heavy dew had burned off. As planned, I finished off attaching the OSB to the roof. After playing with a few options to support the ridge, I finally opted to screw batons along the length, chamfering one side to allow both sides to sit flush. This was a bit of a faff but the end result was fine and once finished I was glad I had done it. The ridge can now support my weight without any apparent movement at all.

So, here are a few in-progress pics and the finished roof. This is now ready for laying the EPDM. However, the forecast for tomorrow looks dicey, with a reasonable chance of rain and dropping temperature. I'm not sure what the lowest recommended temp is for laying EPDM - I must check on the adhesive pot. It's possible there could be a delay ? 

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Edited by Astrokev
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9 minutes ago, Astrokev said:

So, here are a few in-progress pics and the finished roof. This is now ready for laying the EPDM. However, the forecast for tomorrow looks dicey, with a reasonable chance of rain and dropping temperature. I'm not sure what the lowest recommended temp is for laying EPDM - I must check on the adhesive pot. It's possible there could be a delay ?

This is a concern for me, too.  I have a feeling the minimum temperature is about 5C for the adhesive to go off, but having the EPDM warm enough for the creases to drop out nicely needs a bit more than that I reckon.  I might have an advantage over you there because of the steeper angle of my roof, but I doubt there's a whole lot in it.

If necessary I will be exceptionally tempted to lay the EPDM in place, clamp it down very tightly around all the edges (probably with some strips of timber) and leave it in place until the weather warms up whilst I get on with other work.

James

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Just went out and had a quick peek at the containers.  The water-based stuff says not below 4C.  Not sure that bodes well for the next few days, though if the Sun is out and you can get it done fairly sharpish in the morning then the heat absorbed by the black EPDM through the day might help with the adhesive.

Perhaps hanging the EPDM over your other shed tomorrow even if the weather isn't good enough will help the creases drop out anyhow?

James

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