Roofing, an umbrella for your house.

We've talked about lots of building options so far, or skimmed over them at least. So now we're up to roofs.

There's more to a roof than just it's covering. The supporting frames underneath carry the weight of the roof itself plus often several feet of wet heavy snow. In Canada it's called the snow load, and building appropriately is critical in maintaining the integrity of your roof. By integrity I don't just mean a few leaks, I'm talking about avoiding collapse.

Several years ago in Victoria, BC (1996) there was an unusually heavy snowfall followed by some rain. The snow acted as a sponge and so the roofs, many of which were flat or had a shallow pitch, ended up supporting thousands more pounds of weight than they were designed for. Rather than clearing the snow from roofs the residents just did what they always do....waited for it to melt and run off. Unfortunately many roofs collapsed causing millions of dollars of damage to contents of homes and businesses. This picture is of a roof that collapsed in Alaska where they're used to snow.

Here in Nova Scotia, lots of wet snow is the norm and combined with hurricane force winds we get in the fall our roofs are exposed to both heavy loading and torsion forces. All these things take a toll and make roof integrity vital to having a safe and cozy house. There's a fantastic example of metal roofing improperly installed just about a half hour from here. Wind got under the leading edge and peeled back the metal roofing like you'd turn the page in a book. It's really quite amazing the power of the wind.

For us designing a house there are many considerations. Durability, cost, ease of installation, water collection etc. The thing that will help all these is the pitch. A steeper pitched roof sheds snow more readily, is virtually self cleaning, and lasts longer, regardless of covering material. A very old shingled roof will still shed a good deal of water due to the pitch even if it's in poor repair. That doesn't mean you can leave it though...it's far better to repair a roof than to have rot and other problems develop in your house.

Covering choices can include asphalt shingles, wood shingles (thinner) or shakes (thicker), rolled asphalt sheets, slate, tiles, concrete products, sheet metal roofing, recycled plastic shingles or thatch. Each has it's benefits and depending on availability and the particular roof you're covering you should have a good number of choices. We are going to use metal roofing because it's available, reasonably priced and works well with our designed water collection systems and roof design. Our roof will have very simple dimensions and not a lot of angles, hills and valleys. The simpler the design, the lower the price and maintenance costs.

Speaking of costs...if you can install your own roof then you'll save a huge amount of money. That being said, you MUST use safety equipment if working on a high, steep roof. Please be careful. Some types of roofing can be installed easily, such as tab style asphalt shingles and some types of metal roofing. I'd recommend that you practice roofing your shed, chicken coop, any smaller project first so that you become comfortable and familiar with your materials before tackling your roof. It's a very important part of the overall structure of your house and needs to be done right. If you're lucky, you'll never have to replace your roof in your lifetime. The cost for metal roofing here in the valley is approximately $1 per square foot according to our local builders supply. Add to that the cost of felt and fasteners and we'll be budgeting $2 per square foot. For our simple roof it should cost approximately $6000 to cover a 1500 square foot area but it will depend on the final design we finish with. A 2 storey house with 750 sq. ft. on each level means a roof area of approximately 1500 Sq. Ft (double the floor area) as a rough approximation so $3000. It's just one more part of the house that needs to be designed and we'll have that all worked out over the next few months.

It's cool and wet here at the moment which is good because the ground needs the moisture and I just seeded some bare spots in my lawn so the rain is a blessing. Mother nature waters so much better than a hose and sprinkler does. We're off to sign Mortgage papers soon, and then the piece of land will be ours and we can begin to start lining up projects. It's so exciting and we know we are so blessed! I can't even begin to tell you how much this means to us! Have a good day. And take care of each other.

Elizabeth

There's a cold wind blowing.

Yesterday was a balmy 12 degrees so we didn't have the fire on at all but now I'm thinking it's time to light up! It's not bad, November 5th and still intermittent heating. Only because it was sunny so we absorbed some solar radiation into our well insulated little home. It definitely makes me think about what I want in a home I buy, build or renovate. In this house the ground insulating benefits are very evident. The basement is always warmer than the main floor. Why? The floor of the basement is 5 feet below grade and has few windows to lose heat and no roof to lose heat either. Upstairs is exposed to blowing wind and there are large windows in every room. Our house along it's long sides faces east/west so in the colder weather we still get some warming sun in the morning and afternoon but if we build I'd do it north/south so that the main windows would face south for more solar gain.

I know it's been a while since I posted about the 'Tiny House' movement but I'm going to give you a quick update.

What are tiny houses? Well, the basic principle is to have a comfortable and functional house but on a much smaller scale. It would therefore be vastly more affordable than all these mansions we live in today. And no, they're not just for poor people or gypsies. Small, efficient homes are the norm in the world's largest cities, places like Tokyo or Europe where practically all houses are smaller and a premium is places on good planning, storage and simplicity. Todays trend is towards larger and larger open concept housing but some people are bucking the trend in favour of smaller and more efficient because it's cheaper all around and better for the environment. The use of renewable resources for interior design elements like bamboo floors and wood cabinets adds to the overall beauty too.

The first company to popularize these homes made them so that they could be built on a trailer frame and moved if necessary and then branched out into larger homes 300-500 sq. feet. They're Tumbleweed Homes and there's lots of info on their site, just follow the link. Another company in Nanaimo, BC just got started and won some awards for their initiative. Their designs are based upon the local planning rules that now allow small carriage homes to be added to certain larger lots to create affordable housing. The size is 12 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet and they're called Twelve Cubed. If you do a little research you'll find testimonials and videos about building your own home, life in a tiny home and lots of other neat stuff.



Christopher and Jordan have plans of building one each for themselves (and we'll be happy to help them) so they can take it to University. Here's video of another guy with the same idea.



It may sound like a bizarre concept but it's really no different than living in a RV except these can be better insulated and make to be all season homes that are on a trailer or traditional foundation. You can customize then how you want and have exactly the things that make you happy. If we do build one then it's going to be quite conservative, we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. If we did, here's a website with some crazy small home ideas.

We don't have any concrete plans but this is always an idea to keep in the back of our minds for later...after all, the kids aren't going to be living at home forever. Maybe a small home will be nice, like living in the motorhome all over again (but I'll build a bigger bathroom this time!) Sometimes the best things really do come in small packages!

The Salk Lake Tribune just ran a story along these lines so if you're interested then here's the link.