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The roof we thought would never happen and other exciting developments
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The new roofing company we hired has really been great. Not only were they extremely easy to work with and very professional, they showed up and got the job done when they said they were going to. We almost couldn't believe it was happening after the fiascoes of the last couple of months. All that's left of the roof chapter now is the scupper flashing, parapet cap and downspouts, which they'll return to install as soon as we have our exterior finish up.
Please pay special attention to the plywood on those parapet walls. Vern and I hauled all 23 sheets of that stuff up there by sliding it up ladders a sheet at a time. (Exhausting and hot, yes.) This was necessary to provide a surface for gluing the roof membrane, as the adhesive and the EPS foam of the ICF block are not compatible.
As I've said before, we intend to turn the upper roof into a garden/greenroof/outdoor living space. These greenroof materials will also act as ballast to hold the roof membrane in place instead of it being mechanically attached (which would have been redundant and was also cost prohibitive due to the thickness of the roof insulation). Unfortunately, time and money prevent us from installing that system immediately so we've just done the absolute minimum at this point which amounts to putting a few hundred dollars worth of concrete stepping stones up there until we're ready to dig into the entire greenroof project. I chose a plain, gray 24"x24"paver that I think will work great with the future garden. As an added bonus, they were cheap ($7.65 ea.) and are the ideal roof ballast in lieu of gravel. I'm already dreaming of all the cool stuff I'll be able to do up there.
Since we're now dry and puddle free thanks to a roof, we've been able to start on the interior framing. As house-building activities go, we're finding this one of the less exhausting and most rewarding, since the results are instantly visible and we're finally getting a glimpse of what the rooms will be after all these months. We're almost done with the upper level and I expect to finish the lower level in a day or two. Once that's done, we'll work on the exterior while the plumber and electrician work inside.
Here's the first of the framing completed...the view looking out from what will be my new studio. I'm silly with excitement, especially since it's going to have a sink!
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roofing
It looks like you have a ballasted TPO membrane roof that was chemically welded in the field right. I remember that the sloped (1/4" per 1') insulation panels were EPS and VERY thick as they are the only insulation on the roof. They also came from the supplier of the ICFs. Amy do you have a breakdown of the cost for your roofing system, and did you just hire a commercial roofing contractor to come in and do the job?
bathtub test
Also have you done a bathtub test yet? where you block off the scuppers and fill the membrane to the top of the membrane and let it sit for a few days. that is the only way of tracking doen leaks before they happen (which sadly I've experienced with a field applied TPO roof deck before, and it is NO easy job to track where the water is coming through the membrane)?
Fully-adhered membrane roofing
My architect advocates fully-adhered membrane roofing for exactly that reason: If it leaks, it's pretty much straight down, which makes it a lot easier to find the leak.
-Steve
roof details
We ended up going with Duro-Last, mostly because they were willing to honor their materials warranty (15yrs)regardless of what we put on top, whereas every other product we got bids for said no way. The roofing co. also warrants their work for 10 years.
The pitch is 1/4" per foot, and yes, there is a slipsheet that goes between the membrane and whatever is on top.
The field was loose-laid and then mechanically attatched around the perimeter to the bottom of the parapet walls. The vertical membrane was then glued on to overlap these fasteners and heat welded.
Cost: I don't know the cost of the EPS insulation as this was part of our entire materials package for the house. The roof 48'x 48'and 16'x25' (plus up and over parapet walls and the metal cap and downspouts) was ~$14K not including the ~$300 for plywood installed by us.
We haven't bathtub tested it, and it still hasn't rained a drop. We're both really curious to see if it will leak, but I guess I have faith that it won't. Fortunately I also have faith that the roofing co. will make it right if it does.
DuroLast
For the record, the dealing I had with Durolast and the "factory approved" installer is the exact reason why you need to bathtub test it now before you get everything all gussied up on the interior. At least now you "should" be able to see "if" it leaks, although it is literally virtually impossible to track a leak in a system like you have. At least you can double check and make sure it doesn't leak under the most extreme conditions possible.
The situation I dealt with involved getting our money back for the Durolast and applying a 10 yr coating of Acrylink directly over the Durolast (brand spanking new I might add) as during the in-the-field welding of seams around a parapet there was a leak "somewhere" and it was cheaper to apply a new elastomeric membrane than trying to track it down for weeks and months.
That being said there was another application of Durolast on the same project that worked just fine (although it was on a low slope shed roof portion). The product itself is great but the devil is literally in the details.
Mark
membraneous
woohoo! congratulations so far.
what kind of membrane are you using? it doesn't require anything between the pavers and the membrane? how much slope is there up there? what kind of foam did you use?