I finished decking my reciprocal roof yesterday. I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It got a little funky trying to nail dimensional lumber up and around some of the knots of wood on the rafters, but overall, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. It was more time-consuming than [...]
Posts under ‘Reciprocal roof’
Roof decking pictures
Well, the roof decking continues. I’ll probably finish it in another day or two. The shadows have really been great lately with all of the rafters and decking casting shapes all over the walls:
Decking the reciprocal roof
Last week, I began the somewhat tedious process of decking my roof with the help of Jeff, my most recent work exchanger. It’s pretty slow work, having to mark and cut and then nail every individual piece of board, of which there are over 200 now on the roof.
I am using scrap 1x black walnut [...]
EPDM pond liner for living roof construction
Last week, I ordered the most expensive material for my entire cob house: the EPDM pond liner for my (soon-coming) living roof. EPDM is a synthetic, petroleum-based rubber product commonly used for living roofs, due to its strength and durability. Apparently, it can last 50 years exposed to the sun, and presumably longer buried under [...]
All about building a reciprocal roof frame @ Green Building Elements
Last night, I wrote up a blog entry for Green Building Elements about building a reciprocal roof frame. I wrote a little bit about the concept of the design, the history, and my own experience building a reciprocal roof. I was inspired to write this due to an overall lack of information out there about [...]
Secondary reciprocal roof rafters are up
Recently, with the help of Traci, I finished raising the last of the secondary rafters for my reciprocal frame roof for a grand total of 28 poles.
They are affixed to the primary rafters with a big spike nail for now. Today, I finished bracing them with small two foot long pieces of roundwood. I slipped [...]
Secondary rafters for reciprocal roof going up
Ok, I’m still waiting on receiving some of the many photos that were taken during the reciprocal roof-raising the other day, so I’ll wait on the ultimate rundown of the details of that day and the frame itself.
Though I will say that things are now progressing again. I am using the original poles as secondary [...]
Reciprocal roof video: removing the charlie stick, the final step
Here is the only video footage that I had captured of the second reciprocal roof frame construction. This is the final step, after removing the support braces from the ‘charlie stick’ (or temporary post): knocking charlie out of its support position.
As you might be able to see, the roof did not drop at all, since [...]
The (second) reciprocal roof frame is on!
What an incredibly arduous past two days, but oh the excitement! Yesterday I made a mad dash to transport twelve new black locust poles for my roof to my building site, and then I spent the entire afternoon (and into the evening) stripping bark. My body was aching, to be sure.
This morning I finished stripping [...]
Preparing for the reciprocal roof… again
Last week, I managed to cut down a dozen more black locust poles for my reciprocal roof frame. I will switch out the current rafters for these newer, beefier ones, and the old ones will become secondary rafters. Recently, I have been working more slowly thanks to some killer rainfall lately – last week, we [...]
