The Old Mill, Part 4
It was an embarrassingly long time in coming, but the old mill project is finally wrapped up. After two rounds of unexpected repairs—first to the light and then the water wheel—the roof was the last hurdle, and a bigger challenge than simply slapping it on top. Interior lighting makes for an extra wrinkle, because light will leak through the tiniest crevices; indeed, earlier I'd already sat for a good while with the mill's interior light on and the room lights dimmed hunting down every last little light leak. When I test-fit the roof in place, I saw in advance the magnitude of task that faced me.
To deal with the light leaks—as well as the frustrating translucency of wood—I laminated a layer of aluminum foil to the underside of the roof assembly, and attached strips of foil "flashing" to the top edges of the building walls (above) to leak-proof all of the eave joints; these were folded inward just prior to attaching the roof. One last step was to apply the roofing materials: wood shake shingles for the main building, and corrugated metal for the extension, per John Allen's original.
Despite all of these measures, there are still some light leaks where the foil presumably doesn't meet properly; it's impossible to confirm this, as there's no way to see inside the building with the roof now permanently attached. Still, the leaks are quite minor in the grand scheme of things—a pinpoint of light at one peak, and a slender line of translucency near one eve—and are only visible with careful scrutiny in total darkness.
Interestingly, the structure sat for so long without a roof that its addition made it look like I'd installed a whole new building. Now at last I can start adding the greenery around it—my favorite chore.
Original Gorre & Daphetid image courtesy of Peter T. Prunka.