The idea is to build a hexagon shaped tree house. This article discusses the roof.
The Roof
The goal for the roof and this part of the project was to rotate the frame and install the shingles.
When we initially set the roof trusses during build day, I wanted to use truss hangers to secure it to the flat parts of the wall.
I remember my cousin mentioning that it might work better to have the trusses meet up with the corners. I also wasn’t sure at the time how I would have secured them to the corners.
But I was stubborn and went ahead with placing the trusses to sit in the middle of the walls. See images below. As it turns out having the trusses fit into the slots worked for a few corners but not for a few others.
Since the structure was already built, I wasn’t going to tear up the entire roof to make the corners match. It was going to have to make it work the way it was.
Turns out this made things really difficult when trying to shingle the roof. In addition, it also made the roof look awkward when viewed from various sides.
Build day was late (2018) and I wanted to wrap things up before winter set in. Making adjustments would have to wait.
Fast forward to spring of this year 2019 and we’ve finally made the adjustments. The roof frame has been turned and adjustments have been made.
It was time to start putting up the shingles.
The Shingles
The last time I worked on the roof was in the fall of last year (2018), I was able to get the tar paper up and one layer of plywood secured to the rafters.
When I initially installed the shingles I placed them in a vertical pattern as shown in the images. It was easier to cover more area this way and also involved less cutting.
As I revisited the roof this year, I left the vertical shingles in place, and started installing shingles in the horizontal patter you see.
As it turns out I only had enough shingles for four sides. My initial plan was to completely remove all the vertical shingles installed first. But since these were already up, it felt like a lot of extra work, with not a lot of benefit.
If I would have removed the vertical shingles, I probably would have had enough for all six sides and been able to complete the job.
All the lumber for the shingles I received from discarded pallets, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to reclaim more of these boards in the future.
Armed with this knowledge I decided to leave the vertical shingles in place and start installing horizontal shingles.
I’ll need to save or find more boards to finish the roof job. Every shingle so far has been reclaimed from discarded pallets. So no money out of pocket for this part of the project. Well, except for the Spax deck screws used to secure the shingles to the roof.
Materials
- 3 sheets of 1/4 plywood cut in a triangular size
- Partial roll of tar paper to to cover the plywood – left over from another project.
- 1 1/4 Spax decking screws – purchased from Home Depot.
- Lots of shingles – all reclaimed from discarded pallets.
Notes to self
There is a hole at the top where the cupola is going to go. That will have to wait for now. I ended up cutting a piece of leftover OSB and securing it to the top. I’m hoping this will keep out the rain until I can get to building the cupola.
I also need to build ridge caps for the roof corners. The lumber I was planning for this is in various places so we’ll save that for later.
Cost
I need to dig up my receipts. I did a poor job of keeping track of the cost for this part of the project. Those sheets of plywood did cost money. One reason is the months long winter break and trying to get this done, I paid little attention to what I was spending or where I put the receipts.
I’m also not able to find the receipt for the tar paper, but this was left over from another project. One roll of tar paper is a lot so I must have tossed it when I finished the other jobs.
$10.93 Spax Decking screws is the only receipt I can find.
Updates
May 2019
I have the following items that still need to be done.
- I need to build and install a copula for the top.
- I already built new stairs. But need to write up an article. Spring/Summer 2019
- I need to write an article about securing the slide to the wall frame. Spring/Summer 2019
- I need to plan and build the interior walls. Summer 2019
- I need to write an article about the screen windows made and installed. Summer 2019
What can you do?
- Part Twelve
- Part ten
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Thank you,
Dave
