Roof Ridge Cap Finished

A few smaller jobs have been completed since the big roof finish, not as exciting but still very necessary and important. The insulation was taped together on the inside, so that each section is joined without gaps to let the heat in. Surprisingly a very large amount of heat was sneaking through where the insulation was joined, even though there was a 100mm overlap. The special insulation tape does a fantastic job of cutting most of this heat out. This job involved climbing up a ladder dozens of times to reach the many joins, with about 8 pieces of insulation on each side and 5 lengths for each join to fit inbetween the roof purlins.

Next we installed some bushfire mesh underneath the ridge cap, wedged between the roof sheets and the insulation underneath it. You can't really see it in this photo, but you can see some of the insulation taping.

The installation of the mesh means that we are fulfilling the bushfire regulations by not having any gaps smaller than 2mm which may allow the entrance of embers in the event of a bushfire.

Then we installed the ridge cap on the roof. First lengths of insulation were taped to the ridge cap, and the roof was swept clean.

Then the ridge cap was screwed to the roof. There were two lengths of ridge cap, each 5.5 metres long.

With roof length of 10 metres and an overhang of about 35mm on each end, that gives plenty of overlap in the middle. After the screws were done, they were all covered in silicone to ensure waterproofing.

 Another job was installing bushfire mesh in the verandah gutter. This mesh has about 7mm squares which will greatly reduce the amount of leaf litter which gets stuck in the gutter. This helps reduce bushfire risk at the same time as helping ensure cleaner water, and means that we have to get up and clean the gutters much less often.

I also finished the screws on the decking. We had bought some screws from the store which is 1 ½ hours drive away, but it turned out that either they didn’t give me the 140 screws which I asked for, or that despite my many calculations and recounts, 140 still wasn’t enough. So I went back to the store and bought a bunch more, but when I checked them, it turned out that they had sold me the wrong screws – they were too short.

So third trip to buy screws for the decking WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPLIED BY THE KIT HOME COMPANY IN THE FIRST PLACE, we are advised that we have been given the wrong screws from the kit home company all along. We were shown a pack of the same kind of screws which says on the back ‘Not Recommended for Fixing Wood Decking to Metal Joists’. Which is exactly what we are using it for. Apparently because of the way that wood and metal expand and contract at different rates with change of temperature, that creates a tendency for the screws to shear and break. It turns out that the correct type of screws are only available in very large packs which cost hundreds of dollars, so we figured that we may as well finish the job with the same screws we have been using all along.

Next step is to put the windows and walls on. It has been raining for the last week, so the country lore that the rainy season starts on Australia Day might be true.