The Internet's Own Permanent Building, and "fake autism" HQ
We have a terrible history of metal siding or cladding here in the states… Mostly because of poor aluminum and plastic products and no thought to design or longevity. These projects from overseas show what is possible with just a little bit of training: and even a cheap material like coated steel can give you great results like this:
The only suitable building materials:
The only suitable methods for walls/frames:
The only suitable methods for roofs:
The only suitable intent:
This formula, if followed; will build generational wealth for the property holder, and lasting value for the places created by building as such.
With all our power equipment it is more accessible than it was in the past. Less labor than anyone building pre-oil ever had to endure.
https://www.facebook.com/Compagnon-Couvreur-du-Devoir-793746534072924/
Compagnon Couvreur du Devoir, is a French roofing school. Promoting the best example of study for traditional metal roofing, fabrication, and design.
There is very little information in english on traditional metal roofing. This is what prompted me to begin studying seaming, and publishing the metal roofing bible in 2018 after years of study and work in this field. I found all of the American resources lacking in this department, and most of the leaders in the field of historical roofing in America lacking in their knowledge of time-honored methods for folding and seaming. This short brochure is one of the few examples that show basic seaming techniques.
Although it does not offer instruction on how to create patterns for unique situations, it gives the reader the basics of the “knots” used to accomplish different details in metal roofing without cutting, soldering, or sealants. These techniques allow the roofing elements to be free-folded, and more importantly it allows the roof to be repairable in the future without disrupting the entire assembly. This is not possible with american flat-lock methods where pans are soldered together creating a monolith.
Posted 10th November 2008 by Kurtis
I’ve been working with the residents of this condo building for some time now to navigate the waters of the local landmarks ordinance with the intention of removing these hideous and poorly built entryway awnings. These things were assumed by the landmarks committee “experts” to be original, and therefore in need of preservation. I’m not sure if they ever did any true survey or research work to come to this conclusion because there was evidence all-over a classical portico that preceded the current installation.
These things are corroded through and besides being an eyesore, they are a burden to maintain and would be impossible to recreate with the condo association’s budget.
In this photo it is easy to see the “ghost lines” of the former entryway surround with a flat roof. The sheet metal rectangle against the wall is also covering a limestone lintel that would have fit perfectly inside the original surround.
After much back-n-forth with the “experts” at landmarks, we got our approval and demolition began! Further inspection upon demolition revealed even more clues. A cast stone lintel, previously covered by the barrel vault, flanks the doorway. The new design frames the stone lintel.
Posted 31st March 2009 by Kurtis
Things are starting to shape up on the Court. We finished the trim carpentry on one of the two structures today. Here are some photos of the progress:
Corbels installed…
View of the ceiling from the inside.
In Europe, where the history and heritage of metal roofing comes from: flat lock was never used. It never even existed because they knew how to seam, and design their roofs properly.
They train for years to build actual permanent roofs, using methods they were adopted around the year 800 and are still in use today. Many of these european roofs have benchmarks for performing multiple centuries with no human intervention after the initial install.
Why is this important? It’s wasteful for one. Copper, and metal, and budgets on large public projects are not cheap in the US. The same amount of materials and labor could be applied with proper training and methods to produce much better results: results that will last centuries.
There is another issue: repairability. When you spend labor to slice up copper into “plates” fit them on the roof, and then solder them back together: you’e charged a whole bunch of money to put down a monolith, that will never be anything other than that. With free-seamed panels however if a repair of a single pan is ever required (bullets falling from the air, other trades mounting stuff and penetrating the roof at some point in it’s life… ) Then a single part of the roof can be repaired or re-worked without disturbing the entire assembly.
While I was searching the Building Technology Heritage Library for a duty-free copy of Neubecker, I came across a new resource (to me).
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, part of the Amalgamated Copper Company from 1899 to 1915,[1] was an American mining company. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest mining companies in the world for much of the 20th century.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Copper
The specs here are for 10oz copper, what they call “economy” roofing. I assume from the title, the marketing, and the specs it was offered less to promote permanent roofing, and more to sell copper. We would never use 10oz copper for a roof.
Right away, we are treated to incomplete information, and oversimplification… showing transverse seams. It gets worse on the next page…
Fixed clips can only be used on short rafters. (less than 28′). When you join the pans together with the field seam it creates columnar strength that essentially makes it a single pan. This is the hard lesson learned by those in europe who were tasked with replacing their own failing designs. The roof works against the fixed clips and eventually works them out, causing a wholesale failure over about 200 years. While this would be a decent life-cycle for most, we are striving for better and we now have the knowledge to do better. A general rule of thumb: if you are creating a copper roof that needs more than 2 10′ pans, incorporate expansion clips. Further: the roof needs a fixed point in the middle, for low pitches, and higher up the roof depending on pitch. This is to account for “critical loading” where the weight of the roof itself starts to bear on the clips and fasteners as the pitch increases. For a steep roof: the fixed clips are placed almost near the top, with expansion clips below.
So what’s wrong with this? Several things: the rules dictating the use of transverse seams are completely reliant on the pitch, and overflow/backflow conditions. Further they don’t demonstrate what the rules are for creating the notch. This is covered with more clarity in a modern resource:
Even with these rules of thumb, it’s important to realize other factors can determine the use of a wide-notch transverse seam at low pitch.. It can only be used in un-obstructed field where there is no risk of overflow.
A few pages later, we see some very simple hip “instructions” showing dead-cut full seams with no notching. It was possible to fold a light-gauge steel roof with no notching to the pattern, but it’s not recommended. Anyone who has attempted to fold 6-8 layers in copper knows this.
While I was excited to see a reference showing the actual folding of hips and ridges, this ultimately does not help the installer create a permanent assembly as it could be with the proper planning, and care to joinery. It is better than Neubecker’s treatment of standing seam, but only gets us about halfway there.
This goes to demonstrate the main issue with knowledge of metal roofing in America. We assume that historically: they knew what they were doing but our references compared to similar work and knowledge from the old world shows this is not the case.
Posted 24th February 2009 by Kurtis
This is what a valley is supposed to look like. Each course runs all the way to the exposure line and you shouldn’t see any of the next slate hanging down. If your valley cut is wider than a normal bond you use a slate that is larger than the rest of the field slates to run all the way in.
This is what field should look like. Slates are laying flat, the bottom of the slate shouldn’t be canted up in the air. Gaps at the bottoms of the slates like those shown in the photo below are usually a sign of over-nailing, poor decking preparation, or lack of a cant strip at the bottom.
This picture shows a job where Commonwealth Roofing, from Louisville, KY stripped a perfectly good peach bottom roof from this house and laid new slate. There was some damage to the box gutters and a dormer from a tree fall, but it only required replacement of the copper work and a few courses of slate. I’m sure they convinced the homeowner or the insurance company that the whole thing needed to be re-done. I guess that would have been OK, but the work they did is terrible. This is a “new” roof. It is only a few months old. Notice all of the slates that are not laying flush and the inconsistent exposures everywhere. Also they didn’t run each course all the way into the valley.
More of the same junk. These are not even the worst areas of this roof.
Trad Building 
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