Roofing & Scaffolding

This week saw the arrival of our specialist roofing contractor and the beginning of our shingle roof. The facade or our house is reminiscent of the Californian Bungalow style. This style coupled with our chosen attic roof form lends itself to a shingle roofing system. The problem here is that a slate roof is prohibitively expensive but the flattest concrete roof tile is too bulky and not the correct size or proportion to compliment the roof form. Our solution was to have an American style roofing shingle installed. This system uses glass fibre asphalt shingles and achieves the aesthetic we were after. This system of roofing is also incredibly strong and has a superior thermal performance in comparison to a metal or tile clad roof.

This type of roofing is used on over 80% of houses in North America but not even 1% here in Australia.

Supplies for the roofing. 12mm tongue & groove ply board, roofing underlay and shingles.

Ply board is fixed to the truss rafters. This not only provides a solid surface for the shingles but braces the roof structure as well. How rock solid is that?

The underlay is stapled to the ply board. Technically this underlay is not necessary as is is specified in North America for prolonged snow and ice build-up.....can't see that being a problem here.

Close-up of the underlay.

Starting at the low point of the roof the shingles are nailed to the ply board.

Close-up of the shingles. The run of blobs along the top of the shingles is a self-sealing system. Once the upper row of shingles is placed on top, these rows of bitumen will adhere under heat.

Shingles placed over underlay.

North hip complete.

Quite a nice day for roofing really.

These are the upper level windows ready to be installed.

This photo was taken in the entry foyer. Front door behind and looking up toward the balcony and highlight window above.


Progress shot at the front.

Scaffolding is now in place to tackle the steep roof at the front.

More scaffolding.

Another progress shot. Notice the front window has been installed.

This might slow us down a bit. There seems to be wet stuff falling from the sky....I'm sure there's a name for it but I just can't remember. Apparently this sort of thing has happened before.

RAIN!

Haven't used these for a while.

Might not be much progress this week but who cares. Not going to complain about the rain.

Greg.

Roof Framing

Last week things really flew along. The roof framing is almost complete and the roofing contractor will arrive on Monday to begin the roofing.

As you can see we have some hefty oregon beams for the upper floor structure.

This is a photo taken from the family room facing the kitchen.

The rear of the house is a conventional truss roof frame. We engaged a local Ballarat truss manufacturer to fabricate our trusses but they ended up being made in Echuca due to the Ballarat factory being too busy. My lovely wife was born in Echuca so maybe it it fitting that part of our house was as well.

A view of the truss roof looking towards the front of the house which is yet to be framed.

The rear of the house. Sewing room on the left, family room on the right.

Rear of the house. The double glass sliding door has been installed to the family room.

This is the front of the house with the upper floor frame under construction.

The front of the house is a traditional 'pitched roof' construction. Due to the room-in-the-roof design, trusses were not a viable option for this roof. The pitch of this roof is 40 degrees to accommodate the rooms within.

The roof framing for this roof is actually quite simple but the structural members are large so the builders had a good workout whilst lifting them into position.

Upper flooring has been laid and rafters in position. The pencil marks on the floor represent where the walls will be.

It looks enormous without the walls in place.

This is where the dormer window will be. Have a look at the front elevation and it's the window over the garage.

This is the entry void where the stairs will be.

Starting to look like a house now isn't it?

This week will see some further roofing developments and a heap of scaffolding. We are using American shingles as our roof cladding and the installer will be on board this week to get started. I'll explain more about this roofing system as we get into it.

All for now.

Greg.

Wall framing & garage

This week a lot has happened. Flooring was completed, garage brickwork was done and the frames arrived and were installed.

Flooring complete.

Garage wall well on the way.

This is the steel frame for the garage access door. As you can see it is well braced to stay in place as the bricks are laid around it.

Internal shot of the garage wall.

Wall at full height waiting for the beam to span the opening.

This is the back of the garage. The access door and window are in position and are temporarily propped until the mortar reaches full strength.

There are the garage beams! Aren't they big? The garage door beam, (at the front) not only takes the load of the bricks over the opening but also the upper floor and roof load.

Close up shot of the garage door beam.


This is the beam that spans though the middle of the garage to take the floor load above.



Wall framing was delivered and installed.




Brickwork placed over garage door opening.



This is the front of the house so far.

This photo is taken from the family room looking towards the kitchen.



Doesn't take long does it?


Next week the roof trusses will arrive and maybe some windows will be installed. Also the upper floor structure will commence and the upper level roof will begin.


We have organised the roofing contractor to be available a couple of weeks after Easter to install our 'special' roofing. We're doing something that is not all that common with the roof....I'll explain in a later post. Until then I have to organise the plasterer, the electrician and the kitchen.


Lots to do.


Greg.