We continue laying the 1 inch mesh chicken wire which will reinforce our ferrocement roof. The monolithic ferrocement roof sits on top of 3/4 inch insulating foam board and a layer of 6 mil plastic sheeting. Note that we have wire coming up over the top of the parapets. When we trowel in our cement, the roof will be tied to the walls in a monolithic concrete structure.
A closer look at how we're building the roof substrate. Note the roofing nails with the orange plastic collars which hold the insulating panels onto the joists. The 2 inch nails which go through the foam board and into the joist tie down the chicken wire while holding it just above the surface of the insulation. This will enable the wire to be in the center of the layer of cement for superior reinforcement.
To help keep the wire off the insulation and centrally placed in the cement layer, we keep some scrap foam board handy to carve off shims. You can see some of these placed under the wire in this photo. The shims will be buried under the cement when we finally pour the roof.
You can see the pitch of the roof here, which will channel rainwater towards the built-in guttering along the roof parapets and out the drainage system.
Your humble correspondent perches and pauses atop the barrel vault to survey the results. Another couple of days of work will finish off the wiring preparations and the vent pipes which will pierce the roof. At that point, we're pretty much ready to pour us a roof.
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