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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Looking for roofing alternative
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tarheel
Member
# Posted: 3 Jul 2011 02:07pm - Edited by: tarheel
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I'm very pleased to have found this site. Mine is a solo project -- from tree to cabin. Exterior dimensions are 16X20. I'm about to raise the ridgepole and four purlins (all 22 feet long, and I've yet to figure out how I'm going to get the beasts up there -- but that's another story). My problem is the sticker shock I experienced when I priced the 44 (yep, count 'em, 44) 10-foot-by-1-foot, inch-thick pine boards I'll need for the roof. Any, every, and all suggestions that will keep me out of bankruptcy will be appreciated.
window
window


neb
Member
# Posted: 3 Jul 2011 07:21pm
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Any way to use OSB and finish inside to have the look you want.

PlicketyCat
Member
# Posted: 3 Jul 2011 08:41pm - Edited by: PlicketyCat
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If you want the tongue & grove look on the interior, try OSB/plywood routed to look like T&G with the routed side down. 3/8" -3/4" T111 siding panels should do the trick and be a bit less expensive than solid wood boards.

Another option is a sod/green roof. If you can get your hands on a pond liner, you can lay that over purlins for water proofing, put down some straw for insulation, gravel for drainage, and then put soil and plants up there. Even buying new EPDM membrane, it might still be less expensive than solid planks.

Or, if you're ambitious and have lots of good building trees, you can always get a chainsaw mill and milling your own planks for a lapped roof.

turkeyhunter
Member
# Posted: 3 Jul 2011 09:03pm - Edited by: turkeyhunter
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i would try a local sawmill, for some ruff sawn boards, good prices there and helps the local business.

btw what kind of logs are you using for your build--???

tarheel
Member
# Posted: 4 Jul 2011 06:51am
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Turkeyhunter: Poplar and Virginia pine, about half and half, the only straight trees of any size on the property. Dried for about a year. I asked a builder of replica cabins at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and he said the colonials used anything they had -- except for posts (black locust) and roofs (cedar and such). I'm pushing 70, so I think these will outlast me by a lot. See the exhausted old guy with the drawknife in the photo.
peeling logs
peeling logs


turkeyhunter
Member
# Posted: 4 Jul 2011 07:09am - Edited by: turkeyhunter
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70 heck you are a young cabin builder!!!!!!
i bet those poplar logs would peel easy when they are green.
i got several draw kniives only used them on small logs though. Good luck on your build.............

Anonymous
# Posted: 4 Jul 2011 08:13am
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I drawknifed about 40 logs before I discovered I could peel a green poplar easily in 20 minutes with a bark spud instead of two hours' back-breaking work with a drawknife. I wish I coulda been smart when I was young instead of now.

tarheel
Member
# Posted: 4 Jul 2011 08:15am
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Anonymous
The "anonymous" above is me, Tarheel.

neb
Member
# Posted: 4 Jul 2011 10:02pm - Edited by: neb
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tarheel
You have done good and looks like a very nice cabin you have there. That is a lot of work debarking and my hat goea of to you. Please keep the pictures coming and what you decide on for a roof.

I have one question can you tell me what tarheel means. I like BB and the tarheel's have always been a mystery for what the name means or stands for. It is something I always wanted to know. Jordan was a tarheel the greatest player of the time.

tarheel
Member
# Posted: 5 Jul 2011 10:10am
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Neb: There are a lot of stories about how the name "tarheel" came to be -- most without foundation. The most believable one is founded on the fact that the state used to have vast pine forests (still does, in some places), and from those forests were produced a lot of tar and pitch and turpentine. Probably early workers were barefoot and wound up with a lot of tar on the soles of their feet -- and heels.
Neb, I'm still thinking on your suggestion about OSB. A problem is I was relying on the 10-foot boards to give structural strength from the ridgepole and purlins to the wall plate. And I worry the OSB wouldn't give me that.
I attach a photo taken last January. I think I was already tired and wondering what I had got myself into.
Are we done yet?
Are we done yet?


Just
Member
# Posted: 5 Jul 2011 11:52am
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Up in canada we have a product called barn pine, it is 5\4 in. thick. I used it for this roof [pic] . IT is number 3 pine usualy 12 in wide and unplaned i ran one side through my small planer untill i got a bright finish .we can buy it up here for 1$ per sq. ft. . mine were 12x14's i needed 28 . I put a sealer on them before i put them up . had some problems with them , a few knots fellout but they are easy to fix just a little glue. the biggest thing was they dripped tar from some of the boards for 5 or 6 years [only in hot weather ] they had all but stopped dripping when we sold the place after 7 years. good luck
barn pine ???
barn pine ???


tarheel
Member
# Posted: 5 Jul 2011 01:13pm
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PlicketyCat: I like your idea of a sod roof. I remember looking at photos of Dick Proennecke's famous cabin in interior Alaska and thinking that's the way to go. But his cabin was smaller and he was a much more talented and resourceful builder (an artist, almost) than I am. So I'm still scratching my chin about it.

neb
Member
# Posted: 5 Jul 2011 09:14pm - Edited by: neb
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Quoting: tarheel
I attach a photo taken last January. I think I was already tired and wondering what I had got myself into.


Yep I know what you are saying. You have done a great job and it will be a great cabin when you are done and something to be very proud off. That is a great picture of you. Thanks for explaining the tarheel story and that is very interesting. I have asked that question many times through the years when I see the name and knowone can tell how the name started. Thanks and keep us in pitures and progress on that nice looking cabin.

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