The roof is done.
The crew arrived early on Wednesday — only minutes after I popped a fresh SD card into my time-lapse camera and started it up. Now that the days are very long — we get almost 16 hours of sunlight, and even more light if you include twilight hours — and starting to get very warm, the builders want to work early. They asked if they could come as early as 5 AM and I told them they could — heck, I’m awake at that time. They rolled into my driveway at about 5:40 AM. The earlier they start, the earlier they can leave.
The day was perfect for construction on a rooftop — very little wind and relatively cool. As usual, the crew got right to work. I was home all day, doing odd jobs around the yard and working on a writing project on my computer. I came out a few times for a peek at where they were, amazed, as usual, at how quickly this “well-oiled machine” worked.
At one point, I climbed up onto the roof of the RV for a better look at what they’d done — and a photo, of course.
They finished the metal on top of the roof before lunch. Afterwards, they went back outside and worked on the trim, which I’m sure has a special construction name I’m not aware of.
And then they left.
Afterwards, I repositioned the man-lift and used it to go up to the second floor. I was meeting with a builder to start getting bids on the framing job and wanted another look around before he arrived. With the roof on, the building was beginning to really feel like the big shelter it would soon be.
Another look from the second floor, this time with the roof on. There’s no insulation under this roof yet; it’ll be done with the framing and drywall. The framers will put a wall between the second floor and the shop. I’ve decided to leave the roof beams (but not the purlins, of course) exposed.
Once again, the time-lapse camera isn’t in the best position to see exactly what they did. But you can watch them progress from left to right across the rooftop and then see them put up the trim.
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It looks great, Maria! Those windows along the top will give you a lot of free light. Shots from the second floor give the viewer a whole new prospective. Love it!
Thanks! That’s the main reason I put those windows up there — light. The ceiling is about 18 feet on that side of the living space. Those windows face south.
If you’ve decided to leave your glue-lam beams exposed you should give them a couple of coats of finish now while it is easy to get them sealed before other trades start. You won’t have to do much masking, won’t care about dripping on your sub-floor, and will make it very obvious to subsequent tradesmen that they need to be careful working near them. An errant bit of mud or paint will also be much easier to remove if they are not as careful as they should be.
Good advice! My old house had some exposed glulam beams but the builder wasn’t very careful about masking them. In various places, there was drywall paste and/or paint on them. I’ll do my best with these, but I’ll need scaffolding to reach them. That means I’ll likely need to wait for the framing contractor to set up. With luck, he’ll leave his equipment set up overnight, as the builders have left keys in the ignition of their bobcat and man-lift.
You can probably use a roller on a pole to seal them, you could even use a pole sander like you’d use for sanding drywall. If not I’d suggest buying on of the Little Giant folding ladders at Costco. They can be assembled into two a-frames that you can put a plank across.
I’m actually hoping to use the framer’s scaffolding when he’s not using it. The tricky part is going to be doing the area over the stairs. The ceiling is 18 feet above the floor there — or 28 feet above the floor below.