Ok. The long-delayed and long-anticipated reciprocal roof raising finally happened over this weekend on Saturday. It went smoothly, despite a bump here or there. The whole thing was up within a few hours.
However. I am going to take it all down and do it again (!)
There are some imperfections. The peak of the roof, [...]
Posts under ‘Reciprocal roof’
Reciprocal roof frame constructed, but…
Red oak borer larvae found in roundwood
Today, I found some red oak borer larvae living in some of my pin oak rafter poles. At least one of my roundwood rafters has been lying in the grass (on some pretty measly sticks of wood to keep it off the ground) with all of its bark intact since perhaps April.
Needless to say, I [...]
Reciprocal roof video: removing the charlie stick
By sheer chance, I found this YouTube video in which several builders remove the ‘charlie stick’, or temporary support for a reciprocal roof frame. It looks like it is perhaps Tony Wrench’s account, but unfortunately he has no other videos about the building process. But this is indeed helpful! It gives me clues about the [...]
Preparing for building the reciprocal roof frame
The past few days, I have been dwelling quite heavily on the roof design for my cob house. I will be constructing what is called a reciprocal roof, a self-supporting structure composed of pin oak and black locust poles. Reciprocal roofs are round and spiral-y, perfect for round structures. They require no center post and [...]
Peeling bark
The past couple of days, I began peeling bark off of the logs for the rafters of my living roof. I’m using a borrowed drawknife, a long, curved, two-handled blade for peeling back the bark. It’s sorta like whittling, only on a bigger scale. The idea is to peel back both the bark and cambium, [...]
Lumberjacking
The days have been packed recently. A few days ago, I began cutting down pin oak trees for the living roof of my cob house. On Tuesday morning, Dan lent me a hand and we took down three trees in an hour and a half, despite the ground being quite muddy.
This morning, I went out [...]
