Diary of a Shed - 6 June 2004 < Back    Next >    HOME
The weather is taking its toll - I really can't stand the heat, so I've switched to Spanish mode with a siesta in the afternoon! However, at least the rain is holding off. All in all the weather has been very good to me so I can't really complain.

On the 5th and 6th of June the roof started to get filled in. With the main ridge pieces both in place, rafters and ceiling joists can be added quite quickly now, at least until I start to get to the middle of the L-shape where there are 'valley rafters' and 'jack rafters' which are the nightmares I'm least looking forward to!

One problem I've had already was with adding the second ridge piece. You can see from the pictures that I rested it on the top rung of the ladders and then lifted it and fixed it into place. What you might also be able to work out (and I didn't!) is that when it's in place the ladders ain't going nowhere! They couldn't move side to side because they were surrounding the timber, and closing them up to get them down didn't work either because that jammed them below the ridge as well. I almost thought I'd have to unscrew the ridge and move the ladders sideways, but in the end my glamorous assistant Sarah had the idea that I could remove the big stabiliser bar from the bottom of the ladder, and that JUST made enough room so that the ladders could be tipped out of the jam they were in.

I'll have to be very careful from now on, not least because as I add the ceiling joists it will stop me getting up the ladders while they are set up as step-ladders. If moving the ladders was the least of my worries I'd be happy enough, but don't even think of reminding me that there will come a day when the OSB boards will have to be fixed on top of the roof... 13 feet up, on a slope!


I forgot to take more pictures on the 5th, but at the end of the day I'd attached more rafters. The ones with notches will carry timber which will hang over the side of the shed and allow me to attach more rafters, giving a nice overhang of 30cm (about 12 inches). These notches are a real pain to cut out because I have to do them with the jigsaw and that's quite slow with this 50mm thick timber. Without notches (eg the third one along) I can knock these up quite quickly on the mitre saw, so I'll be glad when I just have to make standard rafters.
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