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| Original shed on the left, roof extension on the right. |
Once
the first half of the shed roof was finished, it was time to tackle the second half. The first half was mostly an extension, and as new construction it was fairly straightforward. The second half was the old shed itself, which was going to be more challenging because so many of the roof rafters were in such bad shape.
Dan had previously sistered the worst ones, but now the roof was sagging more. It was one of those times when we wondered if it wouldn't have been easier to simply tear the old building down and build a new one.
So why didn't we? Since several readers have mentioned having similar discussions about some of their own old buildings. We only considered it because the "bones" of the building were basically still sturdy. It was the roof that needed repair, although new siding was definitely in order as well.
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| Five or six of the old rafters needed to be replaced, but how? |
Even so, I think the two biggest reasons we decided to upgrade the old shed were time and money. Of money, we would be buying some new materials, but not all. We pay as we go, so a big project takes longer because we buy materials as we can afford them. Or as in the case of the new barn, Dan needs to
make the lumber. Only having to buy some materials meant getting a new roof on the shed more quickly than starting from scratch.
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Support for the new rafters went
right on top of the concrete. |
Not that repairs can't be their own time monsters! Anyone who has done home repairs knows how an hour project quickly turns into a all-day project. Or how a half-day project ends up taking a week.
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| New rafters sistered onto the old. |
This points to another factor - we need the building. Because it houses the goats we'd have to come up with something else before we could tear down and build new. That plus location. The shed is located is a really good spot: central, shaded, catches the breeze all day, and has good drainage. If we tore it down, we would want to build new in the same spot.
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Dan couldn't find a structural reason for the unevenness of the roof,
so he just worked with it. On the left you see shims cut of 2x4s to support
the nailers, while on the right the nailers lay directly on the roof. |
I think if we'd been further along on
the new barn we'd have done something different with the old shed; probably another tarp for the time being. With Dan
cutting his own lumber, however, it will take longer to get a new barn built than if we purchased all the materials. Putting a real roof on the old shed seemed the prudent thing to do.
One question in the repair versus build new debate is, are the monetary savings worth the mental cost of trying to figure out what to do and how to do it? Too often you don't always know what you've gotten yourself into until you get there! Sometimes the challenges require nonconventional solutions. Dan says then it becomes a matter of what can you live with?
The edges and ends still have to be finished off, and eventually we'll add a rainwater catchment system. Probably next we'll work on the inside and the walls, or wait a bit while we tackle other projects. But the most important part is done, and it's a good feeling to know that everything under that roof will stay dry and safe.
