Slate, slate and more slate
If it seems that all of my blog entries are about slate right now, that's because that's all we've been doing!!! Here's another picture... Slow going, but I've been able to keep the hips slates running straighter than I expected I could. One trick is to put only one nail in each of the mirrored hip slates, line them up just how you want them to lay, then drive the second nail in each of the two slates.The skylights made nice portals for passing slate and tools out on to the roof, but now we must travel out one of the dormers (not seen in this picture) and climb over the peak of the roof with our materials.
This morning it was 20 degrees F, and although it was shining all day today, the sun never cast a single ray on the this, the north side of the house! Brrr. Here's a frosty picture reminiscent of the timber frame raising of last winter. Hard to get motivated when your slate hammer is right where you left it the day before, but frozen to the battens. :0
posted by Thomas Massie at Friday, November 03, 2006
3 Comments:
Thomas,
Love the pic of the frosty hammer. This past July while I was slating the west side of my house, I had the opposite issue. After leaving the hammer on the roof while I took a 5 minute water break, it was too hot to touch the metal bare handed. So was the slate! Wearing heavy leather work gloves in 90+ degree heat is not much fun, but better than burning your hands. I also found out how big the hole was getting in the seat of my pants. I burned my a**!!!
I found the best time to slate was September, when I was doing the east side. Low 70s, cool breezes, some more shade from the Silver Maples due to a lower sun angle, all made it a truly enjoyable couple of days.
The other interesting discovery I made in September is how brand new, shiny copper valley flashing acts as a semi-parabolic reflector. I nearly got a reflected sunlight burn on my legs from the copper! It was almost like holding a magnifying glass in the sun and focusing the beam on your skin. Yowch.
Jim K in PA
www.pennbrookfarm.com
That's funny Jim - same thing happened to me - I got a "sun burn" from the heat reflected from the copper shingles and flashing. I called it my "copper tone tan," but it felt and looked more like a flash burn from a welder!
Hey thomas, howdy from bavaria. the windows look great! see you have the tyvek on now. did youi get my email about the lead sheets they use here on tile roof along the valleys and such? Looking forward to getting back to the states and seeing first hand what has been done. Got some neat ideas from germany to share with you. they really use rock biters here for making the paving cobbles and walls and such. you can see the break line along th e edge.
I bet you had to use spf 40 and dark glasses on the metal part over the sun room. see you all soon. oh yeah, the dutch beer is not to my liking!! I do like the pilsens but not all of them are good. Seems like every little town has it's own brewery and some are really good and some are not. Have developed a fondness for pilsen and brats.
See you all soon. give my best to all and the pictures really look good.
Joe
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