Does it leak???

Ah, dry weather. I have been in need of it, and it has been in short supply the last few months. But we finally have a dry spell, so I am making the most use of it. I wanted to get the overhang done. Last Friday, we got the first T-bar section put up between the Hardie soffit panels. It worked quite well.

We got that put in place, and did some planning. I also moved dirt bags out of the way around the roof box, and got the drainage material peeled back from around it, to see what things looked like, and to try to let it dry some before we started trying to seal it up. We also removed a wasp nest being built on the gasket around my front door.

Saturday, we worked on yard maintenance at my parents house. They have also been struggling to find times when it is dry enough to take care of outside work, and some of that time has been taken up because they have been helping me. The lawn needed mowing, there were weeds to remove, a dead spruce tree to take down. Lots of work. It was a full day.

Sunday afternoon roofbox day1, we did some more thinking about the roofbox situation, and went and bought some of the materials we would need that we didn't already have on hand. We painted a test area with a waterproofing material a little bit away from the roofbox, to see how it would stick to the plastic sheeting. With Matt out there, we also layed down the tapes that would go directly on the plastic sheeting. Having three sets of hands to manage these larger pieces was important.

Monday was roofbox day2.

The waterproofing material we had painted on, was sticking, but not that well. We just needed to be careful around it until it gets covered. We put down various tapes with a tar like backing. We used these to get the aluminum flashing around the roofbox, adhered to the plastic sheeting.

There were round pieces of EPDM (a rubber like material) that we put in the corners to reinforce the waterproofing there. We also put flashing sealant (gray gooey stuff) on the various seams to try to make sure that even where we had wrinkles in materials, the gaps were filled.

Then we painted on the waterproofing material.

After the waterproofing had dried a while, I climbed out around the box, and put flashing sealant on the places that looked to have gaps between the tapes, and the plastic sheeting, where the waterproofing paint, had not filled in.

Dad and I opened up the generator housing, to see how difficult it would be to get the electrical lines in. I think the inside of the generator cabinet was designed by the engineers that figure out how they can stuff all the equipment you need, in your car's undersized engine compartment. I am still not sure how you get to some things, but we managed to get to the places we need to, to run the electrical in. We also had to remove two wasp nests which were being built inside the generator housing.

Dad and I worked on getting more of the panels up under the overhang. We finished installing the row that is closest to the house.

On a different note, one of the plants that I have growing wild, is wild rose. They are blooming right now, and it will be nice when I can take the time to manage the plants around them a bit, so they really get to show off.

Various plants are populating the fill around the house now, and the south slopes are growing quite well.

Oh, and the wasps were at the front door again.

We went to dinner with some friends, but dad and I wanted to clean up some first. In the morning we had put out a tub in the sun, with a black garbage bag filled with water from my well in it. By evening, the water was nice and hot. We set up at the back of the truck, and washed up.

Tuesday, roofbox day3. I went out at lunch and trimmed the edges of the drainage material to come to where I wanted them, and put in foam blocks we had cut, to make the drainage material have an upward slope leading to the box, except on the downhill side of the box.

Marcus had recommended putting tape over the uphill flap, to prevent water gushing down the roof, and spurting out and pushing up under the flashing. That is the silver tape you see on the flap on the short side of the box in the picture above.

For now, I just put bags back in place to cover the seams between the pieces of drainage material. I didn't want to cover the whole area, in case I find I still need to fix something, but I wanted to make sure the wind wouldn't pull the materials up.

I came back out at the end of the day, and worked some more on the vent drain trench. Then I started to haul some dirt up on the roof, and dumped it on the top of the south berms to fill in where the fill has settled. I used my hoist in the garage to load my generator in the truck, and took it to where it was close enough to my fill dirt pile, that I could power the cultivator. I wanted to get the dirt broken up, so it would dump easily, and fill in between the plants that are already growing. My hope is that doing it this way, will help keep the dirt on the berms, rather than having it just role down them with the first rain.

I am hoping this weekend we can get close to finishing the overhang.