Day Twenty Two
October 23, 2023
2nd layer of insulation installed between purlins
roof and more
i spent the first half of the day with a bunch of people placing the 2nd layer of insulation in between the purlins we installed yesterday. once we found our process, it moved at a pretty good clip. if you combine the two layers of insulation above the roof, and the insulation to be installed in the rafters below, you’re looking at an R value of close to 60 (for those of you who want to know that sort of thing).
here’s the lunch-time walk around. notice that the area directly in front of the structure has been leveled out. later in the day, dirt was piled up in front of the white insulation to create a small berm in front. around back, you can see a big sheet of EPDM (synthetic rubber) running off the back of the roof. i’ll get to that in a bit.
after lunch i worked with will, dina, and hans on cutting the metal propanel that is the uppermost layer of the roof. it’s going to go across the entire top of the structure. each piece is 3’ wide and 26’ long. in this picture below, that’s pretty much the entire roof right there.
a quick video of walking up the east wing wall up to the roof, then to the back of the roof with the EPDM.
the EPDM protects the structure from the water that will run off the back of the roof, into gutters, then into the cisterns via a scupper. the black drum-like things are actually chimneys into the buried cisterns and the EPDM fits snugly around them. dirt will eventually be piled up to just beneath the gutters.
after cutting the propanel, i worked with jimbo and dina on the can/bottle wall on the west wing. it involved laying mortar with our hands and placing cans/bottles in the mortar. dina is the first person i talked to when i got to the build site. she works hard and is as happy as she looks in this picture.
an interesting thing happend when i grabbed a bottle from the garbage bag full of them. i grabbed this one, given to me by my neighbor wayne as i came to this build. it will forever be ensconced in the mortar of the west wing wall.
a couple final videos, the first of dirt being pushed up towards the front with the excavator (dina makes a quick cameo). the second of the dirt being pushed up right to the outer greenhouse wall while tara works inside. she doesn’t even flinch.