The roof - sheathing and cladding.

With the trusses up, the next step was to keep pushing towards getting a finished roof over my project which meant plywood sheathing, roofing felt, strapping, and finally steel roof panels. It was a lot of work. I was able to do most of it myself but needed help getting the first two rows of sheathing started - it just wasn't safe working with such awkward material that close to the edge of the roof.

By the middle of November I was entering the home stretch. I was in a race against time because I really didn't want to get caught by the first heavy snowfall of the season with the roof only partially covered with steel panels.

Sheathing:
After the trusses were up, but before the sheathing could be applied, there were a number of (not-so) little details to take care of like building the gable overhangs, trimming the rafter tails, and installing the rough fascia. It has been a rare occurrence for me to be far off my estimate for the amount of time to complete each task but I was surprised how long it took me to trim the rafter tails and install the rough fascia - I figured it would take me a day and a half or two but ended up taking closer to a full week. Anyway, Once all that was finished, I sheathed the roof with 1/2" t&g plywood.

Here I am nailing down some sheathing - and I should be wearing a harness.  Behind me, the lookouts are nailed in to make the gable overhang, but I still need to install a rough fascia there.

Roofing felt and strapping:
The building centre I deal with doesn't stock 30# felt, so I went with 15# felt rather than special order the 30# felt. I did almost all the felt work myself, and of course it had to be windy, so I had to work carefully. I used a chalk line to make sure my first row of felt went down straight, and rolled the felt out only a few feet at a time. I used plastic-cap nails and a few conventional roofing nails to secure it to the plywood. When nailing, I paid close attention to not put the plastic-cap nails where I wanted to put my strapping (the plastic caps interfere with the strapping). I installed the strapping as I went since it really helped to keep the felt secure in the wind.

Strapping is 1x4s 24" o.c. starting at the eave. Additional strapping was required at the hip corners and valleys. While the 1x4s were still bundled together from delivery, I rough-cut shallow (~1/8" x ~ 1/8") kerfs every 12" to provide drainage pathways under the strapping. I did this using a make-shift dado blade for my circular saw (two blades on the spindle with a skinny washer between them). I only tacked the strapping to the roof with nails every 48" or so since the screws that hold down the steel panels would penetrate through the strapping to the plywood sheathing.

Roof panels:
The steel panels are the "Ameri-Cana" profile and come from the factory cut to custom lengths depending on the order, so little cutting was required except at the hip corners, valleys, and gable overhangs. The longest panels used for this project were about 22' each. Despite the awkward size of the panels they are not tremendously heavy so, using a bit of ingenuity, I was able to haul the panels up onto the roof, manhandle them into position and screw them in place myself. So that the panels wouldn't bend or break while hauling them up onto the roof, I built a temporary and movable ramp against the eave to support the panels from below. When starting a new run of panels, it is a very good idea to get at least three panels loosely in place at the same time so that their squareness with the roof can be set before screwing them down. If the panels aren't nice and square with the roof, a "saw tooth" edge will be apparent at the eave and ridge. I built a temporary and movable "ledger" at the eave that prevented the first few panels from sliding off the roof while I fiddled with them.

Winter is coming - and I need to get this bloody roof finished! You can see how the "ledger" at the eave is doing the work of keeping that one panel on the roof, while a stack of panels has been piled against my simple 2x4 ramp at the inside corner. Once on the roof, I was able to drag each panel up towards the ridge, then drag it across the strapping and into position.

I put a fair amount of energy into making sure I put my screws in very straight lines. I did this by starting each row on the first three panels with a chalk line down the centre of the strapping. Afterwards, I used a 6' level to extrapolate each screw line across each subsequent panel, and marked the screw locations with a "sharpie". The screws themselves are "self-tapping" but it is much easier to use an awl and a hammer to first punch little starter holes at each mark. In the end the extra effort is worth it - the screw heads are quite visible from the ground and it is nice to see them all line up at different angles.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

**UPDATE**

This is the ledger that I was using to start my steel panels. It is 8' long and was made by screwing scrap 3/4" plywood to a 2x2. Notice that you can still see the chalk line I used to make sure the 2x2 was straight. In this photo the left side (the side with the extra piece of 1/2" plywood) was screwed onto the underside of the rafter tails, while the bottom side was what held the panels. I added the 1/2" plywood as a spacer so that the 2x2 wouldn't interfere with the drip edge.