The roof!
Putting the roof up consisted of first, putting up the SIP panels, which are 4 ft by 16 ft panels that are 1 ft thick (OSB sheeting on each side with foam insulation in the middle). As with pretty much everything else, we had never used these before. Then, based on some skimpy research, a cold roof was to go over this. The cold roof has thin slats with OSB sheeting on top, thereby creating airways above the SIP panels and below the actual waterproof roof. On top of the OSB sheeting went a waterproof underlayment with sheet metal over the top. That was the plan.
The weather forecast was for acceptable weather, followed by good weather, so I switched up my schedule to work 7 days straight. Thus this post includes work from two extra days.
The SIPS
Tom came over and provided exceptional help with the SIPs. He had exactly as much experience with SIPs as both Logan and I combined — which was zero — but it worked out well. Above are photos of the first SIP panel going up and a shot of it on the cabin. I decided to start with a middle panel so there would be less distance for walk-off to either end should such a thing happen.
As with pretty much everything with this cabin, we discovered a problem from something we’d done earlier. The weight of the roof is held up by the ridge pole (top of the cabin), the purlins (support logs half way to the walls), and the plate logs (top of the walls). We cut the purlins when they were supported by two posts, but when we added two more supporting posts we slightly raised the purlins. As a result, the purlins were too high and the SIP panels teeter-tottered between the ridge post and and plate log with the purlin in the middle. Not good. Therefore we had to plane down the purlins to eliminate the teeter-totter and establish equal support. In the left photo Tom is using a planer to lower a purlin. In the right photo, Tom and I are using two 2 by 4s to determine whether or not we’ve planed enough.
We quickly established a routine. I would plane the purlins to eliminate the teeter-totter. Meanwhile, Logan and Tom would go get a SIP panel, trim one end for the 4/12 roof, apply sealant (I made a total mess of applying sealant and it took most of an evening to clean up the electric caulk gun due to my incompetence), install an I-beam onto one side of the SIP, and then lift and place the SIP panel onto the roof. In other words, Tom and Logan did all the real work while I used the planer on the purlins — I could barely keep up. Eventually Logan took a chainsaw to get the purlins close to the right height and I finished up with the planer.
After putting up a few SIP panels, we learned some tricks. Logan and Tom figured out how to apply sealant and change the sausage tubes without covering themselves in sealant (still a total mystery to me). We also noticed that the I-beams had swelled a bit due to the wet weather, so Logan suggested putting a bevel on the edges of the I-beams to make it easier to pull them into place. I used ratchet straps to pull the panels into place, and then we screwed them in. By the time we got to our last panels our system was working pretty smoothly.
The above three pictures show our progress from different directions. The left photo shows the front of the cabin with SIP panels up on the left side, the middle photo shows the top of the cabin with most of the SIP panels on one side, and the right photo shows some nice colors in the sky with the partially completed roof in the foreground.
As the weather cleared, we could see that the Crazy Mountains had gotten a fair amount of snow, indicating we had to keep a move on! Fortunately, good weather followed, as shown in the middle photo with Logan on top of the roof. The right photo shows the roof with all the SIP panels installed. It may not look like much to many, but it was beautiful to us. With Tom’s help, we got all the SIP panels up in 3 days. Next was the cold roof…
The idea of a cold roof is to create passageways that allow air to flow above the SIP panels but below the actual roof. The first part of the construction was to install spacers (left photo) on the facia. The drip-edge will go over this, leaving a passageway for air. On the roof itself, we laid out strips of 1 by 2s. OSB sheeting goes over the top, again creating a passageway for air. This approach was somewhat experimental (as was pretty much every part of this cabin).
The photo above shows some OSB sheets on the strips to form the cold roof. In principle, this seems fairly easy, but it also introduced a few annoyances I won’t go into, and both Logan and I were getting pretty worn out with this project. We plowed through, but some cussing occurred.
Then came an amazing day that I still can hardly believe. As with many things, I had botched the materials supplies and we didn’t have enough ice guard for the underlayment, so I went into town and drove up with more early in morning. We laid out the ice guard, as well as the other underlayment (left photo above), and by 1:00 PM we started laying out the sheet metal panels (right photo). By the end of the day we had all the sheet metal panels on the cabin!
This photo shows what the roof with the sheet metal looks like. All the screws are hidden (except those on the end, and those will be hidden later). The roof is now almost entirely water-proof. I have some follow up work to complete a temporary ridge cap and tape the ends, but that should get the cabin through the winter in good shape.
After we were done a bunch of blue grouse came around, I assume to admire our work. Four of them perched in a tree next to the cabin, letting me come within about 2 feet to take this picture. I take this as applause for our work.
The project will now be put to rest for the winter, possibly with a few minor additions. Logan will head back to Alabama soon, the snow will settle in, and we’ll see how well the cabin holds up.
Thank you to all of those who helped, and for those who have been following along. Those who threw in on the project include Steve Marty, Mike O’Connell, Scott Swanson, Mark, Swanson, Tom Wolfe, and of course Logan Swanson, who did amazing work to make this happen.
Boy, the roof makes the cabin look SO MUCH more complete. Congratulations, and fantastic progress in the last week. The roof also makes the porch look really big. I can’t wait to come visit for some relaxation, but that may still be a few years away?
Mark.
Alright!!!
Wow!