Putting a roof on my shed....

[skellem]

Hi all,

Just a bit of Christmas DIY, my shed has been leaking for ages now and my tools are all staerting to go rusty. Not good. Anyway, what I wanted to do in my last week off work was replace the asbestos (yuk) roof with plastic sheeting. There are trusses which go up and down the slope, and I will have to put battons across the slope to take the sheeting. The question is which plastic sheets are the best for the job? I want something that is cheap (after spending too much on pressies!) but will also hold its shape for a few years. It doesn't really have to be shatter proof all singing all dancing stuff, because there are no immediate dangers of trees losing their branches or anything. The shed is 1850mm X 3200mm, and is single skin bricks. Also, is there a specially moulded closure piece that you can use around the edges to seal it against the walls?

I'm off to search the web, but I also wanted some input from you guys....any ideas?

 

[masona]

What sort of shape roof is it ? Can you do a quick drawing ? as you mention " the edges to seal it against the walls " where is this walls ?

 

[skellem]

The shed is rectangular, and I can basicly end the roof anywhere I want...ie it can be flush with the walls or overhang. I'll do a sketch in a little while and post it.

 

[MANDATE]

Wickes do a bituminised corrogated sheet in black or green about £8.00 a sheet, roughly 3ft by 6ft which I used on a shed by securing it straight on the existing roof.
I've also used the cheap plastic with small corrogations but the wind gets under it and needs securing at closer intervals, cheap plastic is affected by the sun and goes brittle in time.

 

[skellem]

Mandate, what is the sheet actually made of?

The other question I had was, what do you think the neighbours will say about me having a clear plastic roof on my shed and they all have felt? (bearing in mind this is an ex council estate and all the houses have the same sheds in our cul de sac)

Anyway, I have knocked up a couple of sketches. Forgive the poor quality, I had limited time to do them, and it was cold and wet outside when I was measuring up! This is what I was thinking about...

This is a section of the sloping side, I assume there is some kind of plastic profile you can use to close the roof with the wooden fascia:

And this a section at the top of the slope, where most of the weather would try to come in:

and here is a pic of the shed that was taken many moons ago:

 

[supersparks]

[/quote]

i think all council sheds must be off the same design....why are they wll exactly the same? did they catch on to cloneing before the scientists?

 

[masona]

Agreed with Mandate regarding Bitumen Coating Sheeting from Wickes,they are available in green,red or black,very flexible,strong and lasts 10 times longer than plastic corrugated sheeting.The size are 2m x 940mm,£7.99,15yrs guarantee and I think I've remembered you can get ridge edging etc......
The other option is polycarbonate sheets which would bring more lights into the shed but more expensive.

 

[skellem]

did they catch on to cloneing before the scientists?

Hehe, No, I think the council wanted to put everyone into little boxes and forget about them, as they do! They all used to have asbestos roofs, as do the council garages around the corner. I would have thought they would have removed the asbestos by now, but no, they haven't.

I'll look into the bitumen coated sheets tomorrow, it sounds like the best alternative at the mo. I was looking at something more like transparent sheeting to let in more light, but that's not too important. I'll keep you all updated!

 

[supersparks]

prehaps they were built on the belief that people owned more stuff than they needed......so the 'shed' is in fact where your supposed to live, and the house is for storage....

 

[skellem]

This is bl**dy hard work! Yesterday afternoon I emptied it all out, this morning I started stripping the old roof off. It had previously had a flat roof with felt. That must have started leaking, so what the previous people had done was put asbestos straight on top of the felt roof. They also nailed it down at the bottom of the profile where all the water got in. Hence the leaky roof!

Here's a pic of the progress so far:

Now I've got to get another skip to get rid of all the rubbish again!