Roofing Day

Today was Saturday (the end of Week 5) and usually it's a day off for the crew. But we were surprised to hear cars and trucks arriving about 8:00 this morning. Marlon said it looked like good weather, and he was here to put on the metal roof. The materials had been delivered yesterday, so with two new additions to the crew, Stanton and Dayson, the work began.

This shows the metal sheets arriving...the color is "Teal"...this had been ordered several weeks ago. It doesn't look like very much compared to the usual plywood and asphalt roofs stateside.


In this photo, Kulani and Stanton are cutting a sheet to the hip angle using a tool called "the nibbler!" Like cutting butter!


Here's one of the longest pieces going up. Because we have a full hip roof, every piece has to be cut on an angle. The sheets overlap and are screwed onto the purlins (the long horizontal 2 x 4s) with a screw that has a gasket to seal the hole.

Once the hip is formed, Marlon and Dayson apply an adhesive tape over the joint. Then the metal hip cap is fastened over that to make a water-tight seal.

It all goes up pretty fast!

In less than eight hours (including lunch), we have a roof! There is a little left to do on Monday, but we can already see the house beginning to dry out. The roof is such a major step in the construction process that many owner/builders have a "topping off" or "drying out" party. We seldom have a day without rain...we have had as much as 4.5 inches in twelve hours...so the crew often has to work in very wet conditions. But this changes everything...in fact, Katie and I have already started moving some gardening things under the shelter of the new roof. As we sat on the lanai in our deck chairs drinking gin and POG (passionfruit/orange/guava juice), the rain began, and it drummed out a comforting rhythm above us.