greenhouse (roof panels---south side, gable panels, and ridge cap)

the roof is looking pretty good.  yesterday staal finished putting up the panels on the south side and i got the gable panels tacked up.  it's starting to look (and feel) kind of greenhouse-y.

working with the wiggle board and poly panels was a new experience and staal did his learning and technique building on the north side of the roof---he was working pretty efficiently by the time he got to the south side.

we have a roof!

i saved some flat dual-wall polycarbonate panels from a kit greenhouse i built (and exploded) a few years back.   it's a handy material in the garden and pretty easy to work with.  i've used some of it to build cold frames.  i found several pieces from the gables of the kit---the roof pitch is different here so i've had to cut them to a different angle to make them work for the new gable.

fortunately it's pretty easy to cut with a utility knife.  

i cut a couple pieces to fit above and below the vent and then worked my way from the center out to each end adjusting the recycled panels one by one to make sure they would fit together well.
once i got all the panels cut i got them tacked up on the gable.

since i used recycled material some of the panels don't line up exactly with the existing stud spacing so i've got some more work to do to get everything sealed and looking spiffy.  i think it will work out well though.

today staal started work on an adjustable ridge cap.  the roof panels were put up leaving an open space along the ridge which we'll use for ventilation during the warmer part of the year.  in cool weather the ridge cap can be lowered to seal out most of the cold air, rain, and snow.  

the ridge cap is 16 feet long and a little awkward to handle so i helped staal get it up and down...and back up onto the roof.  staal put an eye screw into one end and attached a rope to make moving it easier.

after a little adjusting and measuring we hauled it back down to the ground and staal got the rest of the metal attached.

 

then glued some inverted pieces of wiggle board to the tops of the roof panels along the ridge so that the ridge cap will have a flat place to rest and get a good seal.

applying an adhesive caulk to the wiggle board

after the inverted wiggle board was stuck down we lugged the ridge cap back up and set it in place to help the wiggle board keep good contact while the caulk dries.

at some point staal will work out a mechanism for raising and lowering the ridge cap from the inside so we can vent as needed but we won't need to worry much about that until we get closer to spring.  for now i think staal's pretty excited about figuring out how to get the glass on the walls---so am i.