Roof ideas

[jbuildarkansas]

I have almost completed a stone house for my Casa2G 100. It looks great but I'm needing some advice on the roof. I originally thought I would just put a precast concrete slab on top but I'm finding that there aren't a lot of companies around here that do that. I may have found somebody who can help, but if they don't come through does anybody have any other good ideas about how to roof this thing? It's basically 6 feet wide by 6 feet deep with a masonry chimney 2 feet by 2 feet in the front and center. Thanks!

[Fairview WFO]

Re: Roof ideas

Do you have any sketches or pics? I think my design was a stone house style as well and I had 2.5" thick Leuder slabs laid on top of each section. Used angle iron crossways for additional support. Then I put a real roof over all of it, but the stone made it waterproofed. Just a thought.

[splatgirl]

Re: Roof ideas

You could make your own reinforced concrete slab. I imagine that would be just about exactly like making concrete countertops. Build a mold with a knockout for the chimney, use small grid reinforcement (chicken wire, hardware cloth or carbon fiber) and pencil rod tied in a 1' grid and quickcrete5000 or similar, and you've got whatever size slab you need for about $100. Might be a little bit of a chore to get it up there, but nothing you and a couple of friends couldn't manage. I've done WAY too much of this kind of thing and would be happy to advise further if you'd like.

I'd put some kind of membrane over it (or under it, at the very least) for waterproofing.

[BurntFingers]

Re: Roof ideas

I made the base for my roof by using "wonder board" that is the stuff they put under tile floors and counters. It is made of concrete and reinforced with nylon. I used four sheets pitched at the center. After that I stuccoed it with a water proofed stucco. It seems to work well here in NJ, snow, hurricanes, rain, freezing rain and summer sun. If there were places to get terra cotta tiles, I would attach them on it. Hopefully, sometime in the future that will happen. Until then it will be stucco for me. There is no flammable material in the build of my oven or near it.

[christo]

Re: Roof ideas

I used doubled up galv metal rafters (screwed together on their face to look like an I beam) and wonderboard on a flat - but slightly pitched roof.

I used EPDM pond liner - I could not get roofing membrane at the time - I see it now at the local diy center.

I used only one layer of 1/2 wonderboard - If I did it again, I would have gone for 2 or 3 layers I think. I worry a big branch is going to nail it.

Where the chimney passed through the flat roof was a problem. I solved that by making a curb of left over iso board and laying the roofing on top of that curb.

here's a pic of the curb:



With the EPDM an inch or more away from the chimney I built a form to overlap the curb by an inch and wrapped a piece of corrugated cardboard around my chinmeny flue and poured a chimney crown out of fiberglass reinforced surface bonding cement. After it hardened I removed the cardboard spacer and filled the gap with high temp silicone. Still seems to be working fine some 2 years later.

you can see the poured cememt in the pic below - painted black. It would take about 2 inches of water staying on the roof to have any worries about leaking around the chimney.






I hope this helps.

Christo

[BurntFingers]

Re: Roof ideas

That is a nice design solution. Looks good.
B

[nandj1966]

Re: Roof ideas

Cristo, It looks like your oven height is 5 block high with the hearth on top of that. If correct how is the height working out. Any trouble with the loading or cooking?

[christo]

Re: Roof ideas

Actually, it's a bit misleading.

The base of my oven is below ground level at the front and acts as a retaining wall for the patio.

It's at tennis swing height for me - but I'm rather short.

I think it could have been a block taller and would have been fine - but it was tough enough building the oven at the height it was (before the backfill).

Christo