Nearly there

Back on the excavator garage today. Some time was lost as I had to replace the top horizontal beam in the back as due to one of the corner verticals warping its end joint had opened up so wide that it couldn’t be pulled back with longer screws. So having done that I glued and screwed the new length and did the same to the middle horizontal beam as if the joints are only screwed without being glued they’re too flexible and liable to come loose when the winds become heavier.

Although this garage is only intended to be a temporary structure, from the lessons I learnt when my two ‘tonnelles’ were destroyed by high winds over the winter in roughly the same position in the garden, it has to be put together reasonably well if it’s going to survive the course. So today was all about finishing off the roof covering and getting it securely fixed down. To start off with I attached side bars on each side to which to glue and nail the roofing sheets and to which the roofing felt will be attached, hopefully tomorrow.

Then I had to attach interior bridges along the joins of the roof sheets on both sides, a tricky job for just one person as they had to be supported while being screwed into from outside.

That was a good point to break for lunch to allow the glue I’d used to cure a bit before adjusting the sheets along the ridge line so they laid flat and nailing them down along the ridge on both sides. To do this I had to use a ladder leaning against the sides, climb to the top and lean as far as I could over the roof. Not for the faint-hearted! Here’s how the roof ended up.

And here’s an end section showing how the joins between the sheets turned out.

I’m hoping to finish the whole thing off tomorrow as some rain is forecast for Wednesday. I’ll do the walls first and finish off with the roof and hopefully that will be the end of the project.