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The Project: A 2,163 square foot house utilizing dry stack concrete block construction with a central courtyard and based on the Spanish colonial-era missions in San Antonio. The Challenge: Can a forty-something married couple design and build an attractive, efficient and mostly paid-for house while remaining sane, solvent and married? With no actual prior construction experience? Hmmmmm - let's check in on our Contestants and see how they're doing... |
| A storm system causes flooding of Biblical proportions in our house due to drainage problems with our low-pitch roof. We labor frantically this week to beat incoming storms and build up our roof to aid drainage patterns. Note here that we're using "crickets" made of 3/4 inch insulating foam board to direct water flow. They are underneath a layer of roofing which provides water resistance. |  |
| We want to provide some strength to the roof addition, so we lay two sheets of metal lath across the top, oriented in the direction we want the water to run. Note the level I am using to ensure we've got enough of an incline to get the water to run off. In this case, incline is better than recline... |  |
| Slather on the cement, troweling it in by hand, and we've built up one of the areas of the roof that tended to pond. Ponding is the biggest complaint about low-pitch roofing. We've endeavored to maintain correct pitch during roof construction, but our limitations of manpower, money and experience have produced some low spots, so to speak. |  |
| The roof has held up fine during several lesser storms, but a recent Texas-sized deluge (five inches) really put the roofing to an extreme test. I've laid down roofing felt on top of the ferrocement roofing and am covering that with a layer of meshcrete (made from troweling cement into a layer of nylon mesh fabric). |  |
| "X" in this photo marks a spot where we've had ponding. I've set up a small concrete barrier which follows several high spots in the roof towards the drainage holes to lessen the amount of water flooding the "X" spot. The runoff from the barrel vault roof will follow arrow 1, while the runoff from the upper part of the roof will follow arrow 2. |  |
| Want to see a rough floor plan?Want to be notified when we post new pictures? Just e-mail us! Want to see the rest of the story? Click on Gimme Shelter Home Page. |
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| Next installment: A Crowning Achievement Click HERE |
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