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lag bolts through the roof deck
Saturday, August 20 2005
When I built the decidedly less-ambitious (but still extremely important) laboratory deck a year ago, I'd decided not to penetrate the shingles to bolt down the two pillars. It's understandable to be leery of drilling a hole through a roof, but sometimes it's what you have to do. Those pillars have warped in the months since I installed them and they've wandered somewhat from the structural supports I'd built beneath them. I didn't want the same thing to happen with my new deck, so today I decided to take the plunge and use lag bolts to attach the two south pillars to the roof deck. It would be a moment of truth, because I wasn't entirely sure where beneath them the all-important rafters were. I could tell they were near where they needed to be by drumming on the roof deck, but that method has a resolution of somewhat larger than an inch - not a great help when the rafter is only an inch and half wide.
My first hole missed the rafter by a hair, but by probing the hole with a piece of coat hanger I could determine the angle necessary for the second hole, which started where the first had begun. This time the lag bolt made a direct hit on the rafter. I had better luck on the east side of the roof with that pillar, hitting the rafter on my first attempt. I was sure to goop plenty of black roof patching material into all the holes, forming a hopefully-watertight seal around the bolts.
This evening Gretchen and I attended a book signing at Ariel, a New Paltz bookstore. A friend (or more accurately, a best-friend-of-a-friend), Erin Quinn, has written a book about the New Paltz gay marriage dustup, and Gretchen had lead me to believe everyone who is anyone in the world of mid Hudson lefties would be there. Given that the controversial mayor and other personalities weren't in attendance, this wasn't the case strictly speaking, and (judging from the number of babies and heterosexual couples) it wasn't even a particularly gay crowd. But there were some people whom we knew and it provided an opportunity to meet old friends and friends-of-friends, the kind who never remember you're alive unless you're standing in front of them. This reflects the insularity of New Paltz, where many of its most influential citizens live out their entire lives, mostly limiting their social networks to other New Paltz residents. Gretchen and I discussed this phenomenon later over delicious food (we always forget how good it is) at the Main Street Bistro. Gretchen was a little jealous of the depth of such friendships, but I pointed out that living in other places and knowing people far and wide also has a role to play in the development of a well-rounded modern humanoid, New Paltzian or otherwise.
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