Loft roof.

[pigeonpoo]

We've had strong winds today, here in the UK. The heavy duty felt on my lost roof has blown off!! Unfortunately all my birds are sitting on eggs in there! I've shut them into their nest boxes lest the whole roof blows off tonight and I'm keeping everything crossed that the wind dies down soon.

I need to replace the roof; will hammering disturb the birds? I don't want them to come off the eggs - most are yearlings and some are not yet sitting tight.

What do you guys in the States use to roof lofts - you have much stronger winds than here. Maybe you have a more substantial material??

[cyro51]

In October Karen came and roofed my aviary (because of bird flu). She used corrugated plastic sheets with 1 X 2 battens (I think) placed so that the 1 inch side was on the surfaces and held in place by long screws. It has held fast, whereas the roof I put on the doviary , nailed in place, has torn.

I will take a photo and upload tomorrow.

The drilling didn't disturb the nesting pigeons.

Cynthia

[Trees Gray]

We re-roofed our coop and dining room and the birds may have been a little stressed, but if they were we didn't really notice anything significantly. Alot of them were sitting on their dummy egg nests and didn't give up on their eggs.

my husband was sawing, hammering and making all kinds of noise for several days, and all was well. We put up sheets of plywood and felt paper and rolled roofing.

If your birds are easily stressed by their breed type and/or nature, I would do a sample of the nail hammering and noise you anticipate and see how they react.

[pigeonpoo]

Originally Posted by Trees Gray

If your birds are easily stressed by their breed type and/or nature, I would do a sample of the nail hammering and noise you anticipate and see how they react.

Good idea, thanks Teresa.

This is quite reassuring - trial hammering tomorrow then!

[learning]

Hello there way across the pond! I will be putting a roof on my loft in the near future and I plan on using a currugated asphalt product. The company that makes it is Ondura and their website is:

www.ondura.com

The produdt comes in 4 X 6 foot sections. It sells for $15.50 US per sheet. They also make translucent skylight sheets for extra lighting. They claim that it is very easy to install and very wind resistant. Best of all, it can be installed right over the top of your existing roof without ripping it all up.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[pigeonpoo]

Thanks Learning, that's interesting - a fancier friend of mine lives very high in the hills and he lost his loft roof yesterday too - he was wondering if the corrugated stuff would be better than felt. I think the link you gave me shows it would be a good bet.

[learning]

I had always seen the corrugated plastic stuff but thought that it wouldn't hold up to the weather. I have seen samples of this Ondura stuff at a local Lowes (home supply store here in the states). I am betting that it will do the trick for me. I guess we will see. If you decide to use this please let us know how well it works for you.

Good Luck!

Dan

[Lady Tarheel]

Dan, one of our neighbors did some major remodeling last year and used this product, or a similar one, to roof their house. It looks terrific and we've decided when our house needs a new roof we'll check this out.

[roxtar]

I've been hammering and banging around in my loft for about 2 1/2 weeks now and haven't really seen any kind of signs that they suffer any kind of long term stress from it. They don't like it at all while it's going on but if you have to put a new roof on your loft, I think they'll get over it.






P.S.

I used to work construction and have heard from roofers that the Ondura roofing is good stuff. I don't know about wind resistance, I think that would be a function of proper installation more so than the product itself.

[pigeonpoo]

Thanks everyone.

[cyro51]

I happened to look out of my bedroom window today and found that the felt from my aviary roof had also torn away. I couldn't see that from the ground.

I will be looking at the corrugated felt in B & Q, perhaps with a view of putting that on top of a new layer of roofing felt.