Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Saturday, May 14, 2011

building our house - part 5 - roofing

it was past mid-april when we completed the walls.
they survived a few rain lashings and we finally started to lay the roof a week ago on may 7th only.

refer to the design, the roof had the following specs:
1. approx 12 feet length.
2. a 2 feet drop (from 9 feet at the center to 7 feet at the edge) over this 12 feet length (along the slope).
3. to keep away insects (especially scorpions)
4. to protect from rain and heat.
5. to be a permanent fixture with low periodic maintenance.
6. no incentive for termites.

we discarded:
1. thatch roof based on item 5 and 6.
2. tiled roof based on items 1, 2 (not enough slope) and 3.

DV's design solution was a sandwich roof.
1. bottom layer - corrugated Galvanised Iron (GI) sheet.
2. middle layer - bitumen aka tar sheet.
3. top layer - country tiles.

a. the GI sheets give the rain/water protection and the slope is sufficient for rain run off. these sheets will rest on 4 GI pipes/per house which will run perpendicular to the sheets along the entire breadth of the house.

b. the tar sheet adds a layer of insulation, provides extra life to the GI sheet and gives an extra grip to the tiles.

c. the country tile provides the heat insulation (both of above layers are known to the notoriously hot fellas.

to our best knowledge, this has not been attempted earlier, so we had to go with just our theoretical constructs.

the bigger issue was over usage of steel and tar.
over several discussions and arguments (of experiences), we steeled ourselves to the risk of being tarred as eco-insensitives.

so here it goes.

once the GI sheets have been laid.




















they are held down to the pipes with J shaped bolts with appropriate water ingress protecting washers.


























the central ridge. the uneven finish was due to a slight non-rectangularity of the right side rooms.


























hence it had to be cemented to cover the gap.




















unrolling the tar sheets. done in peak summer sitting on a hot tin roof. phew.




















as the heat builds up, the tar melts and for a water-proof coat on the GI sheets.




















the tile laying starts.




















a close look at the packing.




















the ridge is tiled with a larger sized tile and plastered into place to prevent wind lift-off.




















the final look. pretty neat:-)




















the current overhang is not sufficient to save the walls from rain. we will be extending the roof.
and that will be part 5b, wont it!

4 comments:

Yugandhar said...

Good that this is coming to a finish. The finishing of the walls looks very neat. So what method of plastering was done finally?

Somehow, I like the last-but-one picture very much.

Waiting for the last steps to complete.

Capton said...

Very happy to see you are close to finish. All the best.
-long time reader of your blog,
Capton.

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