Thread: shed Upgrades wood heater & bitumen black

Love the couch next to the firebox. With 4 degrees C at midday, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I agree - mini-rain inside the shed is Not fun!

Why did you choose the brush on bitumen? I've never heard of that before.

RR i chose the paint on bitumen mostly because of recommendations from several people. The black stuff is specifically designed to go onto steel so theres no need to prime the surface or anything else. Also Tar doesn't freeze to therefore - hopefully - neither will any moisture on the rafters.

Ah Ha! Thanks Rattrap. I will be very interested to see how it works for you.

cheers
Wendy

well job is done & i think we are due for a frost tonight by the look of the sky so tomorrow will tell.
If it doesn't work the next move will be a full false ceiling. At $40 for bitumen black & a brush plus half a days labor was worth a try for sure.

rat im a ranbuild installer in western australia so not as cold as tasmania but down here in pemberton it does get a bit chilly. anyway being a full time shed erector and carpenter ive got to ask do you have a membrane under your roof sheets as that will make a difference ,i think its to do with temperature differential .also the membrane actes as run off and discharges the condensation down hill as it were ,if you do have it im a bit confused as to why it drips off your rafter but not your sheets.for a membrane you can use sisalation commonly called paper here or aircell /insulbreak a bit dearer but very effective it would mean ripping your roof off but better that than damaging a beautiful piece of furniture anyway hope this helps no problem if it doesnt cheers steve

Steve yer my shed has sisalation installed & the tar idea didn't work. big fat drips this morning.

I'm intrigued by this as I'm in Melbourne, and have had sisilation in both my sheds with no drips, whereas the pergolas and carports without it, drip like crazy.

Is your shed fully enclosed? I notice the large opening to the left of the fireplace, does that have a door?

Hi Yonnee, my shed is fully enclosed.
It has 2 roller doors in one long side & a standard door in 1 of the ends. It also has 4 'clear' fiberglass panels in the roof. There is however quite a gap between the top of the roller door & the top of the roller doorway - horizontally not vertically. The shed is all steel with a concrete floor & is 6m x 15m i think. . As i mentioned earlier it has full sisilation over the entire roof except where the skylight panels are. The sisilation is sandwiched between the roof iron & the C section trusses with box wiring holding the sisilation in place across the entire roof. I had to cut thru some of the sisilation to install the woodheater & it looked like 2 sheets of alfoil sandwiching a thin layer of tar.
The shed doesn't leak at all when its raining, only when its fine & we have a frost & then pretty much along the entire length of the rafters.
I'm hoping that once i get busier in the shed the wood heater will keep enough warmth thru the night to ease the problem. In the meantime its tarps over everything.

very confusing will ask around

Rattrap,

I have foil backed wool insulation on my roof and the roof is at a 22 degree pitch and no problems so far.

I am guessing that we have a similar climate to you, lots of frosts and snow during winter.

Is it possible that the clear panels are the source of the problem?

It must be extremely disappointing having to tarp everything every cold night.

as mentioned before im a shed builder and skylight panels have heavy condensation more so than zincalume sheeting are your skylights near the rafter?

I had a strip of skylight in my first shed, and it was the only place it dripped. Current shed, no skylight, no drips.

Oh, and I love the heater. Did you buy it or build it? I might just have to "borrow" that idea... I have a couple of 44's lying around.

Originally Posted by Rattrap

Steve yer my shed has sisalation installed & the tar idea didn't work. big fat drips this morning.

I wsa going to ask how the bitumen was supposed to work

to stop the condensation freezing on the steel I think you'll have to wrap insulation arround the steel