Not Hebel

For some time now I've been looking at the big stack of roofing ply in the corner of the garage, and wondering how I was going to go about heaving it out and up onto the garage roof. With the dwelling, I used a skid system which allowed me to slide the sheets up relatively easily, but down here I don't really have the space at the side of the garage to do this without giving myself a hernia lifting them.

After fitting the fork tynes to the bobcat and shifting Hebel panels around the place with ease, I reckon I can load a dozen sheets up and drive them around the building to my new ramp on top of the shipping container. No, I'm not planning to drive the bobcat up there but I can get it close enough to take a handful of steps carrying each sheet up to the roof trusses.

So with that plan, I set about installing the ply on the roof. Unfortunately I realised I've not yet tied down the trusses to the log over the container, so I've had to spend the morning fixing down the trusses with two trip-l-grips each to prevent longitudinal movement, and my oversized steel angle system to resist lift.

And before you know it, there goes the morning...

So with that finally done I was able to start with the ply. I learned my lesson with the dwelling roof, and began by setting out the position of the plywood sheets before installing them, so I don't end up in the same situation of having to trim the sheets as they crept out of square over the length of the roof. They're still not perfect, but at least now they're all within 5mm of the centre of each truss with no adjustment necessary.

I've also placed the first sheets so they extend over the top of the log, and before we install the roof sheeting I'll install packing timbers between the ply and the log so the sheets aren't excessively cantilevered and unsupported.

With the little time I spent setting out the sheets before I began, I saved a heap when it came time to install the sheets and they fairly flew up!

Now that I have the first section complete, installing the rest is going to be a breeze with none of the heavy lifting of the dwelling roof. A couple of weeks and I'll have the whole thing covered! :)