Grain Bin Roof

        Tuesday we began our week long project...start assembling the grain bin.  For most buildings you start from the bottom and work your way up, but not with grain bins.  We started with the second ring from the top.

        First we took a crayon to scribe a circle on the concrete.  This way we know exactly where to set each new sheet.  Then we took our first two pieces of the thinnest corrugated metal, applied a line of glue next to each bolt row to water seal the joint, and lined them up on our blue line.  Next we screwed a nut and bolt in each whole and repeated it until the twelfth sheet completed our circle.  All the nuts and bolts were only finger tight at this point.  We had to wait until roof was completely attached before tightening them up with a ratchet drill.  My husband and I were able to complete this ring by ourselves.



       Once the second ring was complete, we were ready for the top ring.  This ring was the same as the last, but we also had to screw in the row of bolts on the bottom of the first ring with the top of the second ring.  Luckily my husband's father came out at that time because it was challenging holding the top piece up on top of the second ring before attaching a couple nuts and bolts with only two sets of hands.  Surprisingly these two steps went rather quick.  We were finished before lunchtime. 

        While we were attaching these brackets to support the roof and anchor them to the top ring a neighbor from town stopped by.  He could see we were starting and wanted to help until he had to go on duty for the sheriff's office.  (You might notice the ground looks wet, luckily the rain held out all day.  It rained during the night and I snapped these pictures the next morning before we got started again.)

        Here are all the roof pieces, 48 to be exact, waiting to be screwed down.  

        We raised the center red rod with a red circle on top to 180 inches, I believe.  It will support the round silver roof vent until all roof pieces are in place.  Then we will lower the red circle down.  For now each roof piece will screw into it with two nuts and bolts. 

        Here is another angle, but of course 3/4 of the roof is up at this point. 

        These are the brackets from earlier with roof pieces attached to them.   

        While the top piece attached with two nuts and bolts, the bottom joins with three.  Each roof piece begins and ends with the V piece.

         One thing that is interesting, you can't start at one side and keep adding the next piece as you go around. Instead you have to add one piece then add the one opposite it. Next you add the piece in the middle of those two and the one across from it. After those four pieces are up, you have the bin split into four equal pieces. This gives a little more support to that red rod from earlier. 

         Once you have those four pieces in place you go around the circle adding a second piece to each of the first four roof pieces.  The second piece lays over the V of the first piece. 

        From this angle you can see they overlap to make a water tight seal.  You might be wondering what the piece is to the left.  It is a roof vent.  There are 12 of them to let air circulate.  We alternated them every four pieces. 

       

        We kept going until we got about this far on each of our four sections.  Then the wind started to pick up.  It actually moved the whole thing an inch.  At that point we decided to stop and get it anchored down to the concrete before the wind took it away.  The dark objects at the bottom of the picture are actually the jacks we will used later to hoist it up as we add new layers, but for now we screwed them to the side of the bin and then screwed them to the concrete with anchor bolts. 

        After it was anchored down, the wind let up for a little while and we decided to get the west side done to help block the wind.  We put the last piece in to complete the west side at 9:00 p.m. with flashlights.  After covering everything up inside with tarps we called it a night.