Saturday, May 31, 2008

progress...some of it even forward!

The snow has long melted, and the budget was increased again, thanks to uncle Sam giving me back my money, or some of it anyway. Can you say 'flat tax'? But I digress.


After a long dark winter... (well, it wasn't that dark, but it sure was wet!) Things are moving again on the shop project.


I have been trying in vain to contact a local roofer about installing a roof on the shop for me. It turns out he is less than reliable, so I decided to do a gut-check and try to install a Metal roof myself. I originally was going to put on a shingle roof over sheathing, but the plywood installation got to me.



I left the building 'open' over the winter, which means there is some water damage to the CDX flooring, but that's easily remedied with another layer of flooring. I will add that if things get too annoying walking around later this summer. Job 1 is to get the metal roof installed.



ANyway, I went to Lowes in Oneida to check on availability, figuring if they didn't have the color/size I needed I could then schlep over to Cicero or even Rome if I had to. HOwever, Oneida was well stocked and it was two stop shopping (one for pricing, two for pickup after gathering up Mark to help with transport and cutting of the materiel).



They sell metal roofing in 8' ($30)or 12'($45) sections. Hmmm... I've got 22' of run to cover, so I mistakenly calculate that I'll be able to do this with either 28 8' sections trimmed down to 5' with 3' scrap left over, or 14 12' sections (which, as it turns out works, but more on that in a moment), cut up into two 5' sections and 2' scrap left over apiece. the 8' sections would have run me $840 plus tax, the 12' sections ran me $630 plus tax and other assorted accessories. By the time i got out of there it was $930 later. (Screws for securing the sheets, ridge cap, a saw blade to cut the metal, etc...)


Now, I've got a 6.5' bed on my pickup, as does mark in his, and we've got 12' long pieces to transport. Hmmm. Mark rigged this setup in his truck and driving carefully on the back roads we managed to get things home safely.


















I wound up with the ridge cap and some tools in my truck:



















Mark graciously offered the use of his new toyl, the Ez-smart cutting guide and associated circular saw. Man that's a slick system, but I've got other toyls to buy first. Wemeasured and cut all of the 12' sections as I mentioned before. Here's Mark with his EZ system in action.




















The roofing is 29 guage painted steel, and we decided that using a high tooth count 'disposable' blade would do the trick. I'm pleased to report that a Skilsaw 60 tooth (well, now it is 59 tooth) carbide tipped blade worked very well. Here are all of the panels ready to use:






















(no pic, but you'll have to trust me, it did happen)


So, we tore it all off. The metal roofing is normally laid down over 2x4 blocking spaced about 2 to 3' apart. Mark, James and I spent all day sunday and half of monday putting this up and in place:




and the front side...



















Lori and the boys were pressed into service as well, and with all of us working, we managed to get the loft floor installed:

















On a humorous note, It seems I had a guest earlier this spring...

I'm going to carefully remove that from where it sits now, and put it on a shelf in the shop.


2 comments:

Louise said...

Hi, Ned: Glad to see you are blogging again after a long break. The shop is looking good and you'll be using that puppy before you know it!

Thanks for leaving your URL over on Our Odyssey; I was happy to check in with your writing again.

Ned B said...

Thanks for checking in! Not nearly as exciting as your travels, but it is my 'escape'. As you say, pretty soon I'll be in there making all sorts of things for the house.