Round tile roofing for Rocky and others

You're not; that's exactly right. imho of course. Esoteric is of some but little value. Sentience is everything. I was working on the same thing but couldn't quite get there until you said that.

I'm not usually a fan of straight bond on a flat profile tile, but I think it's appropriate here. The domes evoke a globe with longitude and latitude lines. Back when the train station was built, it was the doorway to global transportation, so it's a detail worth preserving. Maybe I'm getting a little esoteric here.

Yeah, it is fighting us. This dome is slighly different than the other one. I stayed late tonight and finished the flashing and put on all the tile I had. I am about 22 tiles short on the top row. I have extras of everything else, but they shorted me. Shoot! We could have staggered the tiles too, and in fact the guy from Ludowici asked me why we didn't. that was the way they were originally done and we were putting it back the way it was. I guess if it lasted for 101 years, it is ok.

I just hope that they can get me the rest of the tiles quickly so it doesn't hold up the job.

I probably wouldn't have done the dome laying one course at a time, especially if there was any side-to-side play in the sidelap. If you did vertical rows top-to bottom every 5 tiles(like you are doing the field tile) you could adjust the tile for vertical alignment of the side seams easier.

The last 4 or 5 rows of tile on the left side seem to be setting differently than the rest of the field tile. Maybe it's just an illusion because they are cleaner.

Monday's progress! We can see the dome without anything in the way now.

https://picasaweb.google.com/crookston.john4/April2023?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3m7a7pvYulQA#5734734492028750450

Woody, If you look at some of the pictures, you can see we had our laser tripod on the top of the dome. We worked with that to get it centered exactly at the topmost point. We just had a low tech chalkline hanging from it. We then pulled the line down to the bottom and went around it to make sure that the same point on the line hit at the same point at the lower eave edge. This then, was the "radius" of the "circle" As we worked our way up, we got "closer" to the center point and the "radius" got shorter. we just had to set a tile and take a mesurement to it's top and then mark that height the rest of the way around the dome, and lay the full row to that height. It came out perfect. What you are talking about would do exactly the same thing for sure, or we could have set the laser on the top and used the story pole to set the height. This just seemed the easiest way to keep it straight.

When we stopped at the top of the dome, I just used some Flexim to bevel it smooth so that we could install the #4 lead sheet over it. It was still sloping about a 4/12 pitch at that point, so it didn't take much. If we had went another tile higher, the pitch would have been at less than 2/12 and the water would have been able to flow sideways on the tile. Not good!

Ridge trim? The ridges we have on already are the #231's that Ludowici makes. They are curved up to a peak and are about 12" wide at the base. The hips are the narrower ones with a bullnose hip at the eave; mabe 6 inches wide. The flashings at the base of the dome were quite wide, but we had to do that because we could only curve one row of tiles at the bottom without having special tiles made for the second row. We do have that condition on the front of the building where we have 8 rows of tile we have to install around a overhang that is about 80 feet across. we had to order some extras for that too, but there was no reason to spend that much on the bottoms of the domes. I wanted to carry the copper up on the base of the dome and transition to a lead open valley anyway and it worked quite nicely. Before they had lead on the bottom of the dome and the way it was installed was quite ugly and the birds had made quite a few nests in there. Not good either.

Woody, On a couple of them it was still on, but that was so we could finish beneath it and then stick it down later. We have had a bunch of different things going on on the roof that we can't just finish everything at once. When we are finished, all of the release film is taken off. The nice thing about the HT is that it can be exposed to the UV for a while without a lot of degradation, but we try and cover it as soon as possible. The titanium is amazing in its ability to stay exposed without curling up like the old felt used to. I think that the synthetic underlayments are an imporovement on the old materials.

It is amazing how many of the details that you guys pick up. This is quite a learning and teaching site for everyone. I believe that we should all be able to explain and also defend what we do and why we do it as it keeps us all honest. It doesn't hurt that we can show off occasionally too! JMHO

A couple of more questions, OS. Did you use a clear hose level for the round roof layout? What did you use as a shim at the top of the round roof tile for the transition? What is the ridge trim detail, it looks quite wide?

I flash over and under too. And slate or shingles over I&W is a disaster to repair. If it has I&W, I'll felt over so it can release/slip.

No, we are not going that far. It seals itself you know. Where we are taking it apart and we see that there has been damage before, we are doubling up the HT membrane for extra protection, plus we are going to install some ice guards high on the tgowers to keep the ice up there till it melts and falls as water.

If you look at the old installation pictures, you can see where the tile have dug into the Ice and water shield, and the titanium will stop that. It also give some added protection and that is a plus.

Yes, all of the tile is the Ludowici. We are getting a bunch of used "S" tile to replace the cracked or broken tiles, and we had to spend a fortune to get the new tiles for the domes and to replace the tapered field tile on the front round section. We investigated getting replacement tiles made to fix the bad ones, but the tops of the dome tile had deteriorated and they would not have lasted. I guess that Ludowici used to make tile down South somewhere besides New Lexington, Ohio and the quality of the clay down there ws not quite what is was in Ohio. It shows in the dome tiles too. The new ones are quite the thing, very solid and HEAVY! A Bitch to cut too. You can certainly tell the difference.

To make them, we had to pay them to come up with a fancy laser, and it literally "scanned" the whole building and made a computer model rendering of it. With that model, they were able to make a digital dome and then we fit the tiles to that model; digitally of course. Since the new tiles were a different size than the original style of tiles, we ended up with one less row because of the pitch limitations when they approached to flat top of the dome. I will take some pictures of the lead top when I go out tomorrow, that I soldered up last week. Lead is the only way to go when you are fighting the compound curves. I know we used a lot more than I had figured, but then again, less copper too.

The dome was up and down a bit and I had to fight with it as I atached the tiles to keep it somewhat flat and level. It is not perfect, but neither is the building.

As to your question about the added reason for the slip sheet, that is exactly correct. I have fought with slate roofs trying to fix them when they are installed directly over I & W and it is a bitch! This will make it much easier for someone in the future. All details, and caring about what you do in the long run.

Max, I think the Titanium is there for UV protection as well as a slip sheet. If the top flashing was stepped, it could have been the only flashing.

OS, enjoyed the additional pictures. In some pictures, it looks like the release paper was left on the HT. I hope that's just an illusion.

Oh I knew it wasnt a mistake, not on a job like that. Always looking at other ways of doing things. Must be nice to be able to double details. Do you reapir the toe board holes in the I&W shield, as you go? Why the slip sheet? So the tiles, when someone has to redo this roof in a hundred years, wont get stuck to the I&w shield. :) Looking forward to the pics from the lift. So is all the tile ludowici?

Max, that is not a mistake. There is a flashing under it too, but the over flashing channels most of the water one tile out. Just trying to keep everything away from the walls.

Rocky, yeah, it is just full of mistakes. We will just put more nails in it; that should fix it, Right?

As we go along I am going to get an 85' lift out there to access the two high towers. I will be able to get some finished pictures from way above it too and that should be interesting to see. We are finally going to be able to do everything in sequence now that all of the parts are in too, and it should start to go a lot smoother. I hope I am not jinxing myself by saying that.

Nice B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

That is one awesome job OS. Why put the flashing over, instead of under the tile, on the brick wall?