Nicholas Green wrote:In an attempt to make less work for myself and possibly save on lumber, would a metal roof (reclaimed or otherwise) work inside a wofati structure?
It would be protected from moisture so leeching shouldn't be an issue...
I think the aesthetics of the roundwood beams against the metal would be nice.
It would have to be braced properly to take the weight.
Am I missing something? Am I making more work for myself?
inches of earth equals inches of snow (well it does here where the snow is wet). Look up the required support and incline needed to support that snow load. I think the design idea with metal roofs is that the snow would slide off too, but they
should be able to stand a snow load in case it doesn't. In the end it is the underlaying structure that matters. The steel roof manufacture should have literature telling you the required support for different snow loads. Speaking of snow load... if it snows in your area, the snow will not slide off an earth roof, but accumulate to the same amount as on the ground.
I don't think you are missing anything... but I suspect the support required would make the metal roof not required and not really leave any of the metal showing through for any aesthetic. I agree it could look nice, so ... logs, then metal facing the nice side down, then support for earth and plastic. If you are willing to spend a bit... 3/4 plywood (rough both sides is ok) would work. but then we are getting out of the cheap part of the wofati design. If you have logs going one way but do not have
enough to get them touching each other, 2inch branches going the other (at right angles) way could be used... free 2x4 off cuts, pallet
wood, or whatever. Pallet wood, though it would be a lot of work, could be two layers thick with ends over lapped for strength. If you have the metal roof under that, roofing tar would be the cheapest stuff for "gluing" the two layers together... though I might put plastic under too. Really, as you move away from the base wofati design the cost goes up. I think the tar would be cheaper than nails or screws, but the extra layer of plastic might make the nails cheaper.
In the end, if you don't have the logs to cover the roof, do the walls,
berm them and go more conventional for the roof. Then use the roof as
water collection. It is less wofati, but you have to work with what you have too. The wofati roof is "engineered" in that someone has done some math to make sure it will take the weight as designed. The math has been proven in structures that have lasted many years. If you change things you have to redo the math.
