Our barn has a simple metal (aluminum?) roof. On windy days, we can hear the roof rattle, which means that the original nails are starting to give. I’m looking for any resources on companies that can repair roofs, or resources to help me do it myself. For the latter case, I would need to find safety harnesses and protection equipment so that I don’t fall to my death. Then, I can get up there with some roofing screws (the ones with the washers) and secure the roof.
I am also curious about improving the water capture ability of our barn roof. One side has a gutter and downspout that is hooked into our 2000 gallon tank. But, it’s just a simple hardware store variety gutter and I don’t imagine that it captures much water. Does anyone know of a gutter with a bigger trough and ability to capture more water?
Lawler in Hamilton has safety harnesses. I’ve done a (steep) barn roof before on a smaller barn (hoisting up the corrugated metal sheets and screwing them in place) in 30 degree weather with a harness tied to a fire hydrant… You can imagine how much fun that was! Sadly I don’t know of any companies that will do this work, but you could check with local Mennonites, they might be willing (and experienced) to do this for you.
On that note, I would use screws vs nails as they are less likely to lift over time. They do sell the washer screws specifically made for corrugated metal sheeting as well. But if cost is a concern, then yes the nails will be less expensive.
Are you saying your gutter overflows during rain storms? Or does the rain fly off the roof and miss the gutter because of the steep slope?
I’m too old to get up there again but it were me, I’d want to do it myself so I could observe the condition of the metal esp. if it’s aluminum. We had trouble with our aluminum sheets because the metal is so soft and cracks around the nail holes, etc.
I borrowed a harness but of course it was of no use until I had something to secure it to. What I ended up doing was using our son’s bow & arrow to launch a string over the roof of the barn (I previously tried a fishing rod), then tied the string to baler twine which then pulled over a stout rope that I could tie the lanyard to. The rope was tied to the tractor on the far side of the barn. (I removed the key so my wife couldn’t drive off with it… LOL).
Then all I needed was my tool pouch, a hammer to pull out the nails, a bunch of 2" and 3" roofing screws and a battery-powered drill with a magnetic driver.
Thanks, @dheraud. I’ll check out Lawler to get a safety harness. I’m definitely going with screws regardless. The nails lifting is definitely the problem.
The slope of the roof is pretty steep so we get some rainwater collection, but I would like to get more. The rain mostly just flies off the gutter. So, getting some gutters on steroids would be ideal.
Glad your wife didn’t leave you hanging in one way or the other! Lol!
Yeah, I definitely need to figure out how I will secure the harness. Thanks for giving some technique regarding that. Our barn is quite high and steep, so getting a solid rope over that is going to be tricky. I’ll figure out something though.
I’d just be careful that snow or ice don’t wreck your gutters when sliding off the roof in the winter.
This document has some good pointers for you:
An easier solution might simply be to install some hardware (akin to or actual ice barriers) to slow the water down right before it hits the gutters so it doesn’t fly off past them.
you need to install your gutter on brackets below the edge of the roof, not on to the board that goes across the ends of the rafters. also install the gutter on a much steeper angle with large downspouts. I use 4 inch pvc for downspouts at a good slope to let the rain flow to the tank without overflowing the gutter. You can get an idea how efficiently your roof is collecting water by multiplying the area of the roof assuming a vertical projection and multiplying by the inches of rain in your rain guage. convert from sq ft to gallons in your tank and compare. If the rain is driven by the wind at an angle, the upwind side of your roof will collect more than the downwind side.
It’s could be an issue if you using not that good materials or not so professional worker to do the job. If i were, i would have taken rebar couplers to make this more solid.
