Tractor Port Purlins

I got forced into working on the tractor port again. The tarp blew off in two back to back wind storms. We had been putting it off since we found out how much the roofing materials were going to cost. After all the research and calculations we decided to go with metal roofing from Mansea Metals in Winchester. They knew just how much we would need and the price included the color and screws.

The color is “clay”. It was the closest match to the siding on the garage. The roof is 15’ 10” and we got the material in 8’ and 8’ 2” pieces. We could have got it all in long pieces but this way I can lift them up onto the roof by myself. The upper piece will overlap the lower.

The underside is white.

The edge hangs over about 1/2”. We didn’t get an eve drip. The rafter ends weren’t square enough for a fascia so I used the pressure treated 1x6s for the end purlin.  Lisa is going to paint the ends of the rafters.

The trim is going to be painted white like the garage trim and the posts and braces will be the clay color. There is an end molding that goes along the rake edge, it will be white too.

I had to do some field engineering. Two of the rafter boards warped. Either I installed them crowned the wrong way or they got twisted. Some of the 16’ boards looked like they had two crowns so it was difficult to tell which way they would settle. I made these jack beams out of some 2x3s I had on hand. I braced the two adjoining rafters on both sides of the offenders with 2x6 blocks. I hung the jacks up with ropes and then fastened one end with 3 1/2” deck screws. Then I used a ratchet strap to lift the warped board up to the other board’s elevation and added more screws. It seemed to do the trick. I intend to laminate some heavy plywood on either side of the rafters and glue and screw them in place. The plywood should keep them from buckling back to the warped shape.

 

We had to move Gene. He wasn’t scaring the crows away where he was. Hopefully he’ll do better now. The cucumbers are about done but we are still getting tons of tomatoes. Lisa has been canning a lot of tomato sauce. She made some spaghetti sauce and salsa as well.

 

We let the chicks out even though we don’t have the chicken coop ready. We hope they survive, they were getting too big for the little cage and it has been so hot they have needed to get out to find cool spots and wallow in the dust.