Building a cat shelter: roofing

Continuing my series on building a new cat house (previous post: finished painting), over the last few days I did the roofing.

But first, I put the walls back onto the floor:

Here’s a view inside, showing the feeder storage area on the left, and the shelter on the right:

The roof and facades also back on:

I then added metal drip strip to the edges of the roof. This helps protect the edges from rain:

Also on the awnings:

Then added roofing underlayment tar paper, which serves as a layer of waterproofing:

Tar paper on the roof:

Next is a shingles starter strip, which has self-adhesive underneath, and a strip of adhesive at the bottom of the top side, to help secure the first course of shingles. While not strictly necessary, without this starter strip, the bottom edge of the shingles wouldn’t be as securely attached, so could blow up in the wind:

Then the asphalt shingles were added, with each course offset (for a nicer appearance, and so the gaps aren’t all in a line):

The shingles are nailed in the center, so the nails are hidden under the subsequent row. They have adhesive at the bottom, which sticks when the shingles heat up once they are exposed to the sun:

Here’s the roof almost completed (just the very top course not installed yet):

Starter strips on the awnings:

Shingles in progress:

The roof fully completed:

With the facades added back, you can see the wall-to-roof flashing on top of the shingles:

The awnings finished. The nails at the top of the awnings will be hidden under trim boards. The one on the shelter (left) side will also serve as the bottom frame of the windows:

I may have over-strained myself doing the roofing yesterday; my hand was feeling pins-and-needles for hours afterwards, and is still slightly tingly, though improving. So I’m taking a day off construction and other garden projects today to rest.

Like painting, doing the roofing was a major milestone; it’s looking much closer to being finished now.

Next up: installing the windows, window trim, doors, etc.

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