Just thought I would write up how I/we tackled reroofing my long-suffering summerhouse. Decades ago, when I built it, with an apex roof, I covered the roof with roofing felt, stuck to the timber with roofing felt adhesive. It's been an almost annular task to repair it, due to weather, bird and squirrel damage, including some repairs this spring, after which I decided it was time to think about installing something more robust, like a box section steel roof.
It's not an easy roof to work on, the slope is just too much, to be able to work on, without something to grab a hold of, which would become more of a problem on a slippy galv and painted sheet steel surface. I have plain ladders a plenty, lots of ropes, timber and ingenuity, but no access to a roofing ladders. No firm fixing points, so I added 6 screwed eyes, 3 per side, the 3 linked by taught ropes (A), and had an idea to add a rope over the top, and use rope climbing techniques to work from.
I decided that would be too stretchy and unstable to be useful work from, but instead used one of my ladders, lashed tight at the apex, down to ropes A. I also lashed a couple of pieces of timber, to a couple of rungs of the ladder, to both protect the sheets from the ladder, and space the ladder a little way clear of the roof. The summerhouse is only 2 metres to the eaves, a bit over 2.5m to the peak. I made up a rubber dustbin lid, on timber brackets, so it would sit level on the roof, with another rope thrown over the apex, with a bag of sand as a counter-balance - to make it stay put as I worked, and a place to put the two battery drills, TEK bolts and caps I was using. I also made a gauge stick, which hooked onto each steel panel, with marks where the TEK bolts were to go, to keep them in neat lines.
Every time another sheet of steel (there were 10 of them to be fitted) the ladders add to be reposition, tools, and bin lid.Having got the sheets on the roof, fixed top and bottom, I then had to go through the whole roof again, both sides, doing the intermediate fixing bolts, then a third time fixing the angled apex sheets. It took two of us, me and Avril two half days to actually do the job, she was passing stuff, and sheets up, me on the roof doing the work. I had lots of time to prepare for the job before-hand, waiting for the weather to be suitable. It would have been impossible to do, handling 8x1m sheets of steel at height, with even the slightest breeze.
Last time I spent anytime up there, my knees were sore for days afterwards, so this time around I bought a pair of knee pads - no sore knees this time.
It's not an easy roof to work on, the slope is just too much, to be able to work on, without something to grab a hold of, which would become more of a problem on a slippy galv and painted sheet steel surface. I have plain ladders a plenty, lots of ropes, timber and ingenuity, but no access to a roofing ladders. No firm fixing points, so I added 6 screwed eyes, 3 per side, the 3 linked by taught ropes (A), and had an idea to add a rope over the top, and use rope climbing techniques to work from.
I decided that would be too stretchy and unstable to be useful work from, but instead used one of my ladders, lashed tight at the apex, down to ropes A. I also lashed a couple of pieces of timber, to a couple of rungs of the ladder, to both protect the sheets from the ladder, and space the ladder a little way clear of the roof. The summerhouse is only 2 metres to the eaves, a bit over 2.5m to the peak. I made up a rubber dustbin lid, on timber brackets, so it would sit level on the roof, with another rope thrown over the apex, with a bag of sand as a counter-balance - to make it stay put as I worked, and a place to put the two battery drills, TEK bolts and caps I was using. I also made a gauge stick, which hooked onto each steel panel, with marks where the TEK bolts were to go, to keep them in neat lines.
Every time another sheet of steel (there were 10 of them to be fitted) the ladders add to be reposition, tools, and bin lid.Having got the sheets on the roof, fixed top and bottom, I then had to go through the whole roof again, both sides, doing the intermediate fixing bolts, then a third time fixing the angled apex sheets. It took two of us, me and Avril two half days to actually do the job, she was passing stuff, and sheets up, me on the roof doing the work. I had lots of time to prepare for the job before-hand, waiting for the weather to be suitable. It would have been impossible to do, handling 8x1m sheets of steel at height, with even the slightest breeze.
Last time I spent anytime up there, my knees were sore for days afterwards, so this time around I bought a pair of knee pads - no sore knees this time.
