Verandah Roof Finished

First we assembled the gutter for the verandah, this was relatively straight forward as we had done exactly the same thing for the house verandahs previously. For the stop ends, holes were drilled through and then riveted together.

Then for the downspout, a rectangular hole was cut in the gutter, the spout put in place and then holes drilled and riveted together.

To finish the whole thing off, silicone was spread over all the joins. Here is our collection of tools for this job.

Then I spent an afternoon and two mornings screwing in the gutter brackets. First one was put at the top end, and then another put at the bottom end with a 20mm fall. Then a string line was stretched between those two, and the other brackets screwed in to follow the string line.

After leaving the silicone to cure, we put the gutter up into the brackets, this was easier than I expected – since the gutter is slightly over 6 metres long it is a little difficult to handle while standing up a ladder, but one of our best 'tools' is an old broom which we found at the tip. I used the broom to push the gutter to click into each bracket while Josh held it up, and then he folded down the clips over the top.

We decided that it would be worth the effort of putting insulation underneath the roof sheeting, so we cut up one of the rolls which was provided with the kit home into sections which fit the width of the verandah. By lucky coincidence our 180cm level was exactly the right length so I used that as my measuring stick.

This is the paperwork that came with the insulation, which I suppose we will have to show to the council when it comes time for approval that we met the energy requirements for Basix.

Then we joined the pieces with rolls of insulation tape. This is a special type of tape which is a cross between gaffa tape and alfoil. This photo is looking up at the underneath of the roof after the insulation was placed on the top.

We were provided with 8 sheets of colorbond which were 187cm long and 85cm wide, so we laid them on the ground to measure how much we should overlap them to achieve our 6 metres for the verandah size. They are laid upside-down in the photo, showing the underneath colour. By the time I took the pic, we had already taken away a piece to put on the roof.

This is the colour of the top of the sheets, it is known as Slate Grey. This is the first time we have actually seen the colour, and it is actually a lot darker than I was expecting.

Then Josh got up on the roof and laid the sheeting, screwing it in as he went. The perfect length was achieved by overlapping the last sheet a little more than the rest, luckily avoiding the need to cut a few centimetres off the end. The metal roof in the sun was VERY HOT, so I am glad that we put the insulation up, as it will keep it a lot cooler under the verandah. Even the blue framing metal is cool to the touch compared to the Slate Grey roof.

I can't believe that we finished the whole thing in one day! It is actually very difficult to photograph, as by the time I am far enough away to see the roof there are small trees which block the view. I went up on the roof this morning and finished screwing the middles of the sheets, and the next thing that needs doing is to put silicone over the screws. After that we need to attach the downpipe to the gutter, and into a small tank.