Roundhouse Reciprocating Roof Up

We are absolutely delighted to have the roof poles up on the roundhouse at Cwm Harry, it's a triumph of co-operation and it's been a really interesting experience for me and lots of fun too.

1. The gentleman in the middle of the photo is Clive Newman who has many years of experience of working on unusual buildings at CAT. Clive's help was really valuable in setting out the angles for the poles and also in general advice on fixings, turf roofs etc etc - thank you Clive!
2. Once we had the first pole up we judged the layout for the rest by eye and bolted them together at the top.
3. Pole number ten being eased into place.
4. With all eleven poles in place forming a circle with each one resting on its neighbour and all well bolted down the great moment comes when Steve removes the inital support and....
5. ...voila! Triumph! Not only does it stay up but it also feels very solid; Richie has a victory walk up onto the finished frame.

A FEW DETAILS: 1. Screw plates helped to strengthen the ring of horizontal members - there's not much lateral force from the roof poles but there is some. 2. We made a surface with the adze to help secure the poles. 3. Roof poles secured on the perimeter with dowels - we nailed them down as well later. 4. The horizontal ring is so massive that we were able to space the roof poles at whatever interval we wanted.

TOOLS & TECHNIQUES: 1. Simple tools including a froe for shaping (the one with the red blade. 2. We only had 8" plus diameter logs so split them up for the roof, some with a chainsaw and... 3 & 4. Some with wedges and mallets. 5. We cut checks out of the horizontals with chainsaw. 6. Dave and I set a horizontal in place. 7. Some manic hand-sawing from Steve. 8. Great teamwork, twelve of us working on the house at one point. 9. One of the Daves trimming wood for the infil panels. 10,11 & 12. Filling in the side spaces.