Up on the roof.

Up on the roof (Click here for a video), The Drifters sang it, Carole King wrote it and we can now experience it.  We were up on the roof which is now in place and took some interesting pictures.

Isabel and the other Mark watching roof truss placement

 from the yard next door.

This is what she saw, placement of the front roof truss.  Check out the Moon to the left.

The roof in its roughed-in state.

Front view from ground of roughed-in parapet wall of the roof.  

(Note:  the lower front windows will be cut with a curve just like the top ones).

The roof is built with the trusses as seen in the second photo above.  Then sheathing is put over the trusses to make a flat roof.  Those are then cover with 2" thick foam panels.  Then the whole roof surface is covered in a rubber sheathing to water proof it.  That rubber sheathing can be brought up and over roof penetrations (exhaust pipes, solar panel anchor points) for a watertight seal.  The whole roof is pitched from front to back for drainage.  Currently the gutters will empty into downspouts that are hooked up to the sewer system.  We wanted the water to go out onto the land surface or into a holding tank as a greener option.  We lost that battle with the City, but stay tuned since we are trying some other ideas.

The front of the roof then has a parapet wall around the top (actually I believe it's really called the entabliture, but you get what I mean).  This amounts to a wall around the front and part of the sides.  This is a very common design feature in this neighborhood.  We are planning it such that the solar panels will be hidden from view in the front, but not blocked so much that they don't perform well.  The parapet wall will have a design something like these pictures:

A top down view of the roof will show up when they've laid down the rubber sheathing.  This sheathing will be white and thus have a high albedo or reflectivity.  Thus it will be another feature that keeps our heat costs low and the house more energy efficient.

Onward and upward,

Mark, Mark & Isabel