~ New Aluminum Roof Skin ~
Here Comes the New One Piece Aluminum Roof
All content on this site is copyrighted property, and may not be copied or reproduced without permission
"Get out of your comfort zone!"
Soooo, what do you say we cover this thing up with something more permanent than an old tarp!!
I wanted the new roof skin to be continuous from end to end, folded an inch over the sides and extending well over the front and back for proper drainage. I never intended to re-use the original galvanized so I put the word out I was in search of a large roll of aluminum.
I was contacted by a person in Edmonton who had this aluminum roll in their warehouse about 800 miles from my home, but as luck would have it, I was scheduled to go there for work in a few weeks. So after the work project was done, I bought it, loaded it into the back of my pickup and took it home with me. It stood on end in my garage for a year and a half before I got to put it on.
Click on Images to Enlarge
Old Roof Skin:
After rolling it up and rolling it back out dozens of times, I have finally rolled it up for the last time! I have waited a long time for this!
The Kickoff!!:
One swift kick and awayyyyyy it goes! Great photo by my son-in-law! Out with the old in preparation for the nice new one piece aluminum roof skin.
New Roof Skin:
It has been standing on end in the garage for long enough. I have a decent day for weather for a change, lets get it all rolled out and installed.
New Roof Skin:
OK, I wrestled it out of my garage and laid it down here to start. This sucker is heavy!
Sitting In Place:
Son in law gave me a hand. We managed to grunt it up a pair of stepladders and onto the roof.
Ready To Roll:
Here's what it looks like from the top. As long as the wind doesn't pick up, I'll be in business.
Ready To Roll:
Closeup of the roof skin roll. Ain't that purdy? Mmmmmm - shiny! 98" wide giving it 1" over both sides of the roof.
Rolled Out and Ready:
Gotta measure and make sure the overhang is the same on both sides. This is critical, overlaps have to be the same
Rolled Out and Ready:
That flip in the front kinda reminds me of some of the hairstyles guys used to have back in the 50's and 60's!
Start The Side Laps:
Roof framing is exactly 96" Roof skin is 98". I made a line 1" in from the edge both sides, And started bending it over.
Bending It Over:
Using a pair of 3" hand benders, I made a continuous fold along the entire length of both sides.
Folding The Ends:
After making the initial bend, I used a white rubber mallet to finish folding it over.
Back End View:
I left a little extra past the back end to make sure I had enough to do the curve. It will get trimmed to length later.
Ready To Curve The Roof:
Recognize this setup? Same makeshift bender I devised to do the top of the siding on both ends. It worked well!
Bending The Curve:
The roof is thick, so I had to get extra leverage by drilling holes in the pipe and inserting a jack handle. I inserted a piece of plywood as a work surface.
Bending The Curve:
Lower view of the plywood. The purpose of having it in there was to give a surface for the pipe to rotate on and hold it all above off the back of the siding.
Bending The Curve:
My son in law to operated the other end while we cranked hard on the handles to bend the roof skin around the pipe. It had to be done evenly.
Ready To Fasten - Top View:
Bends are done both sides. It was getting breezy, so I placed the lumber up there to prevent the roof from blowing off until I could get some staples in there.
Finished Curve View:
There's the end result after removing the homemade bender. A nice even contoured curve to match the framing.
Finished Curve View:
From another angle, you can see how it matched the framed end and the siding. I left plenty of overlap.
Curved End View:
A trim across the bottom and it is ready. The same bend process was done to the front.
Sides Preparation:
I raised the skin up onto blocks and applied a generous bead of elastomeric caulking to the underside, and the top of the siding before stapling it down.
Sealant Applied And Ready:
Blocks are out - caulking in place, ready to fasten, then finish the bend with the mallet. This is the point where I stapled down the sides to the top of the walls.
The Pucker Factor:
Although I reduced the roof peak at the back, there was still a little compound bending taking place.
The Pucker Factor:
Viewed straight on, the pucker is minimal. The key here now is to staple it down while centering the pucker as I go.
Trimming The Excess:
There is a wood strip in the framing to fasten to. Careful measuring here before trimming to make sure my staples hit it.
One End Fastened Down:
This was slow and tedious, but I got it to lay reasonably flat in spite of the peak in the roof.
One End Fastened Down:
Better view of the end in place. Finish moldings will cover the joint and staples. That too will be all sealed.
Top End View:
Same thing viewed from higher - not too much of a wrinkle, but a bit is visible. I followed the same process for the back.
Overall View:
May as well show you the whole thing from up in the air a bit. It is all fastened down now and totally sealed up.
Corner Closeup:
I used a pair of aluminum downpipe crimpers to create the curve at the corners. Same story as the siding.
Corner Closeup:
Those crimpers worked well for this task. All in all, I am very pleased with this. No way this can ever leak here.
Overall View From The Back:
Ahhh - nice and shiny and reasonably smooth. I'm happy with the results. It is now totally waterproof.
Alrighty! We have a lid on it now! No more leaky tarps!
It has been a long time coming to get it to the point where I didn't have to concern myself with the typical wet coast weather. I sure did experience a lot of rain in the course of the time I spent outside repairing the old trailer. The tarps were essential, but they caused a heckuva lot of extra time and effort to keep things dry. If anyone chooses to undertake a similar project, one piece of advice. Find an inside warm dry place to do it.
Now we move on to a bunch of misc little various details, mostly inside, putting things together.