Onduline roofing...

[Cozzer]

Bought a few sheets of their corrugated roofing the other day, to replace the knacked ply roof on the garden shed. It's had so many layers of felt and "10 year guarantee" stuff banged on it, it was time to concede defeat and go with some corrugated bitumen idea instead...
Borrowed a van, got the sheets home, built a new wood frame on the inside of the shed walls. Placed the sheets in situ, overlapping by a couple of "undulations" - looked fine.
How tricky can it be?
You can nail it, or screw it down. The screws weren't stocked by the well-known high street retailer beginning with "W", so being in a rush, I bought the nail versions from them.
They come with a plastic washer and a little cap to fold over....
Just in case - ha! - I decided to watch a youtube installation tutorial first....and very good it was too. It shows an expert roofer getting things absolutely spot-on, and then sauntering along his demo, pushing these little caps on to the washer with his thumb....one, two, three, perhaps even four, in a row.
No problem....click,click,click...job's a good 'un.

Back in the real world, what are the odds of your first two nails colliding with two of the screws that you've used to make the frame, and therefore refusing to get hammered in any further?
These, by the way, are nails that have ridges on - don't know the real name - and are virtually impossible to pull out, so it was a case of hacksaw the head and then try and get a hacksaw blade in under the corrugation, level with the frame. What fun that wasn't. (Apologies to the neighbour about the language)

The whole operation took 7 hours, and used 84 of the 100 nails. I managed to rip holes in the sheets courtesy of the 2 rogue nails as above, but hopefully have bodged enough not to matter. Looks OK in the ensuing gloom, just in time for Mrs.Cozzer to dain to visit, if only to wonder why I'd left so many tools. 2 sets of step ladders and a trestle setup lying around.
"You said it looked easy to do...."
The glare made her back off a bit, before she commented about the forest of 84 little caps sprouting above the roof.
"I've just got to push them on..." I heard myself say.
Ha!
I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to do so! The few I actually managed sprang off when I attacked the next one, so I gave up in the end.
Unless you know different, I'm going to cut the damn things off!

 

[recipio]

An old builder once told me - ' never use a nail when you can use a screw' Part of life's great learning curve.

 

[Spectric]

Those roofing nails have a spiral shank and I found that they drive in great, but not if you hit a screw! They are designed so that you can hammer them in just enough to compress the washer without deforming the corrugations yet they will not let go. I built my shed in such a way that nothing would get in the way of the roofing fixtures but sod's law kicked in and I did hit one fixing that was slightly out to clear a hinge. Yes it is a job that if you did it for a living would just happen but like myself just doing the odd roof can be full of supprises, another trick is to keep fixings on shed build regular and make some witness sticks before starting the roof, this way you know whats beneath and so can avoid. I also keep notes for most jobs to give location of pipes etc, probably something that comes with age and experience plus had enough of repairing damaged cables and pipes, it is amazing that if there is just one cable around someone will hit it with their first nail or screw.

 

[Cozzer]

....it is amazing that if there is just one cable around someone will hit it with their first nail or screw.

Before we moved house, we found out that our neighbours - great friends, to this day - had electricity bills way lower than ours, even though they'd got electric central heating.
We compared notes, not only ticking obvious stuff we both shared - TV, immersion heater, kettle - but even whether we went to bed later than they did, and therefore used more light!
The conclusion was that our power meter had a fault, so after much discussion with the provider, we had a new meter installed.
Eventually, the next quarterly bills arrived, and there was still a considerable difference.
We then arranged for a supplier's electrician to call to check things out. Item by item, things were turned off in the house, until we'd literally got nothing "on"....and there was a drain, equivalent to a 60w bulb being on permanently.
In the lounge, we had a circa 13 foot long wall, normal room height.
We had a single picture hanging on the wall. One picture. It could've been hung anywhere.
Approximately 91 square feet of wall to pick, and the point of the single nail belonging to the picture hook had managed to "nudge" the cable hidden in the wall....

 

[artie]

Twice in my career I have used this corrugated cardboard roofing.

First time I didn't like it much.

Second time I said I would never use it again.

 

[accipiter]

I used these "Onduline" type corrugated sheets to replace/repair the roofing on my workshop/shed about 4 years ago and have been pleased with it - especially as it's pretty much maintenance free unlike the previous felt covering or bitumen etc., over the years wish I'd used it way before. Liked it so much I used it for the wife's "summer house" I built and completed last year.

I'm now looking at using it again at some point when the felt roofing over a rear "utility" room/extension is in need of repairs. Has its pros and cons like most things but more pros in my opinion.

 

[sneggysteve]

Have used twice on 2 sheds - no problems

 

[okeydokey]

Used this once on a 8 metres square chicken run roof, did the job fine and as much of the area was open I didn't have to fill in the gap between the corrugations and the batten it was screwed to, spose they make some corrugated fillers to fit the product if you need a seal on your shed/whathaveyou

 

[Ozi]

I use this quite a lot, you wont like my answer but what I think you have done is drive the nails just a little to far, if you get them right they don't deform the rubber cup and the caps go on first time and stay there just a bit further and they may be compared to a female dog. Of corse all mine work first time.... ish.... sometimes. You can pull them out if you put something round into the trough that spans two supports but if they are not too far down try pressing down on the sheet to deform it slightly when closing the cap. Good luck

 

[Cozzer]

I use this quite a lot, you wont like my answer but what I think you have done is drive the nails just a little to far, if you get them right they don't deform the rubber cup and the caps go on first time and stay there just a bit further and they may be compared to a female dog. Of corse all mine work first time.... ish.... sometimes. You can pull them out if you put something round into the trough that spans two supports but if they are not too far down try pressing down on the sheet to deform it slightly when closing the cap. Good luck

My thumb hurts.
My brain hurts.
Yes, I tried to stick to the rule about not misshaping the undulations by driving the nails in too hard, but it's a fine line between the sheet being "loose" and fastened down! I eventually managed to cap about half of 'em, but gave up - too windy, and for August, a bit chilly!
Cheated by using a blob of clear silicone on each head, let it dry a bit, and then another blob inside the cap to act as an adhesive of sorts. They're not all flush, but at least they're on!
Cheers for your advice....

 

[Kimbo]

Fit steel sheets and then insulate as required. When you're in your 70's, as I am, you want to fit and forget. Onduline is OK but at some point it will require attention.

 

[Fergie 307]

Only problem I had with this was the first time I used it. I put the batters the recommended distance apart but after a few years found the panels sagged between the battens. Since then I have always put the cross batters no more than a foot apart and have had no problems. I use the separate caps and stainless screws rather than nails.