The Great Big Tarp

So the saga of the load-bearing extension continues. The end wall, which was supposed to carry a truss that carried purlins that carried the roof turns out to be leaning out at an angle which is not alarming to the casual viewer, but is alarming to structural engineers. Or at least we guess it would be. So we’re redesigning the roof to use scissor trusses so that the weight is born by the much straigher side walls.

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At any rate, the big tarp had been hastily strung up at a height appropriate for building the bottom walls, but it needed to be raised significantly for the next floor to be built.

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I only had the bare bones of a plan, but whatever was happening, we had to take the tarp down completely, and today’s weather was definitely the right time to do it.

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Once we’d got it down, and could see the lay of the land, so to speak, we decided to cut all the overshot battens to flush and try to hang the tarp from the roof.

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Theoretically this would mean it wouldn’t need moving again, as we could build the extension roof off it.

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Sunny and lovely though it was, the roof was a very uncomfortable place to hang out. I fear that I will not make a very good roofer in future. Scratch that from the potential career path idea list.

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We rolled the huge tarp up longways into a sausage and put it up over the ridge at the edge of the roof. Ben and I drilled and screwed battens on to hold it by one edge and we pushed it off.

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Being very stiff, it was reluctant to roll out, but we managed eventually.

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After significant pegging and guying, it did provide a very satisfactory temporary roof.

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It’ll still have to go up a bit when we actually build the roof, but for now, there’s plenty of room to build another five courses of bales.

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