Usefull Devices and Roof Patching

This wooden ladder was made from slab wood bought from a local mill.It's safer than most ladders because it has the hand rails that extend above the roof. It I attached it to the eve it would be even safer. If you build one, use screws to put the rungs on it. Even if you plan to only use it for one month, useful devices have this habit of sticking around a lot longer than intended, because, well, they're useful. This ladder is probably over 10 years old. The nails in the bottom rung pulled out on me, so I put screws in all of the rungs today.
I put the aluminum roofing material upside down and flipped it over several times while I worked with the lap cement. It does not seemed to have helped much with the mixing. It also leaked.

I took the lid to one of the empty roofing compound cans and glued it over the chimney hole with lap cement.
I found that I got better results in spreading the lap cement on the upper problem spots with the 4 foot mixing stick than with the trowel. Once I got to the lower areas, the trowel worked better. If this doesn't stop the leak, then I will be looking to manage the leak rather than stop it.

I troweled on the can of aluminum tone roofing compound. I barely got done and it started raining.

Spokane

The North edge of Spokane is 30 mile from my place. By the time you get anyplace useful, you get 40 to 50 miles from my place. As a result, you don't want to just make a quick trip to Spokane for any old reason, because, for one, there is no such thing as a quick trip to Spokane, and two, it costs about $10 in gas to make the trip.

I went to Habitat again. I bought a 5 gallon can of Blackjack roofing cement for $23 and two one gallon cans of Polyurethane paint for $10. They did not have the aluminum roof stuff I used before, so I went to Home Depot for it. The same stuff that was $23 at Habitat was $76 at Home Depot. I only got one can. I'll spread it thin using a trowel instead of the broom like they recommend, but today I'll just set the can upside down.

All eight post for the shipping containers are in the ground. We'll park the trailer with the container right about where the minivan is and jack them up. The post will be cut off once we know how high the trailer is.


The first foot of dirt is topsoil that will turn very hard once it dries out her next month or so. The next foot down is sand. Beyond that is sand and rocks. When it dries, the sand will flow out of your digging tools almost like water. The rock just stop your tools dead regardless of the water content.

The garage was built by the same guy that built the main part of the cabin. Snow has broken the roof, so we need another one. Shipping containers will serve as part of the structure. We will jack the container up off the trailer and slip a beam under the container and set them on these posts. The posts are too long right now because we don't know how high the container will need to be to clear the trailer. once we know that we will chainsaw the posts off to a reasonable level.

Once Upon a Cabin Dank and Dreary

I finished taking the hearth out of the cabin today. It was a four foot square made of 2x4s filled with old bricks, sand, and a little ash and sawdust. I don't like brick. Its functionality is too poor for me, so I stuck them in the driveway to serve as gravel.

It's dark and damp in the place. That really messes with someone prone to depression like me. After about a half hour I really need to get out of the place. I really need to get some lights in the place so I can work in there.Before I put lights in there, I need to clean up the wiring. It was originally wired with both 12 volts and 120 volts. I need to go in with my wire cutters and do some pruning. The blue plastic electrical box you see is warped from the heat of the wood stove that was in here.

Before I do that, I need to get it to stop raining inside harder than it rains outside. I think I found the leak sources in the upper roof. I'll see if I can take care of that Tuesday.

Disappointment is Drippy

I'm a little disappointed with the results of the roof coating I did. At the joint between the two part of the cabin where I coated the roof, I still have massive dripping going on. I suspect it is coming in higher on the roof and running down the under side of the steep attic ceiling and then comes out where the angle of the roof changes. This would mean I would need to do something to the North half of the roof of the main cabin even though I won't actually be living under it. Now that the 8 feet or so of snow we got here this winter is gone, I might be able to find the problem.

Roof Patching

Wafer Board, OSB, Oriented Strand Board; whatever you call this stuff, it's junk. There is a whole row of nails I put in this roof that just pulled themselves out of the OSB. This has contributed to the roof leaks the bedroom addition I built and I plan to move into about May 1.

The composite roofing I put up has plenty of it's own sins.In this case the material pulled the nail heads right through itself and then the wind pealed it up.

The old chimney blew apart in the wind and now lets in water as well.

I went down to the local Habitat for Humanity surplus yard and bought a damaged can of roof coating for $23. I chose a light colored variety for a reason. Once June shows up around here, it starts getting very hot. Light colored stuff will reflect the suns heat better. The solids in this can have settled to the bottom. I spent half an hour mixing this can and I still didn't get it mixed completely. The instructions say to use a broom to apply it, so I got our old broom out and used it like a giant paint brush. This worked quite well.

The first thing I did is spread it on the bare OSB and lay the roofing back down and walk on it. The Idea here is to glue it down I think I should have spread it on the underside of the roofing too, but I didn't. I'll have to see how it worked out in a couple of days.

I started a little ways up the cabin roof and worked down.

I figure I covered about 1/3 of the roof with the 5 gallon can I got. I think I will get 3 more cans. Two to finish the roof, and one for patching.

This stuff is very messy. I'm glad I opened the can on the roof.

It will cost me more to clean this broom than it will to just buy a cheap broom for the rest of the roof. I will also buy some disposable gloves as it doesn't come off the hands willingly.

I'm sure that any roofers in my audience will see something wrong with what I am doing. While I encourage you to tell me what I'm doing wrong, keep in mind I want to be tearing this down next year at this time.