A grisly scene on the roof the last couple of days cutting out the old air conditioner, the existing roof vents, and sadly the unbelievably awesome original retractable TV antenna. This process was not made easier by the blazing heat nor the generous layer of elastomeric roofing coating the previous owners had slathered with abandon onto the roof.
I needed a clean flat-ish surface to mount some very big photovoltaic panels onto, and there just isn't enough real estate for all that other stuff up there. After cutting through a live 120V wire with a jig saw (oops!) I decided a skillsaw set very shallow and a grinder with a cut off wheel were the right tools for the job. Never having done this sort of work before, I'll admit to hours of baking myself to death on the roof in the direct sun while I endlessly climbed up and down the ladder to get more tools. At the end of two days of frustration and cursing, there was nothing left to remove, and me and my lovely assistant Georgiana built cover plates for the interior, painted them, and riveted them onto the underside of the roof, but cover plates weren't the only thing we added.....
I needed a clean flat-ish surface to mount some very big photovoltaic panels onto, and there just isn't enough real estate for all that other stuff up there. After cutting through a live 120V wire with a jig saw (oops!) I decided a skillsaw set very shallow and a grinder with a cut off wheel were the right tools for the job. Never having done this sort of work before, I'll admit to hours of baking myself to death on the roof in the direct sun while I endlessly climbed up and down the ladder to get more tools. At the end of two days of frustration and cursing, there was nothing left to remove, and me and my lovely assistant Georgiana built cover plates for the interior, painted them, and riveted them onto the underside of the roof, but cover plates weren't the only thing we added.....
With all the light that pours into the big windows in the front of an Argosy, the back of the coach seems just a little bit dim, and while others seem to be fond of skylights, I decided to take a different tack and opted for a marine hatch instead. The way I see it, if you're going to tackle the job of putting a hole in your roof, you might as well be able to climb through it now and again, especially considering how hard it is to get onto the roof an airstream without either falling off or scratching the paint. Also, lets just face it, hatches are awesome.
I've seen some amazing custom stainless steel and glass hatches online, but these are all custom fab jobs and at custom fab prices, so peasant airstream hatch shoppers are pretty much limited to lewmar and bomar hatches. I chose a lewmar medium profile hatch, and set it into some nice clear fir that I milled myself a few years ago. The process of putting it in went something like this:
Build a wooden curb to bridge the gap between the upper and lower layers of aluminum.
Cut an aluminum flashing sheet to sit atop that. Paint or finish both pieces.
Cut a hole in the roof that the curb will just fit into, while trying not to cut through any major structural members or electrical runs. This is harder than it looks with the major electrical running down the length of the roof.
Use the cutout from the aluminum flashing to mark the hole on the underside inside of the roof. Carefully cut that hole out.
Shape the curb until it fits perfectly with the curve of the underside roof, and as much as the hatch can handle it, shape the top side too.
Put butyl tape on the bottom of the flashing perimeter, already pre-drilled for rivets at 1 1/4 inch spacing.
Set flashing atop wooden curb/spacer, squirt a big bead of 5200 onto the inside perimeter where the hatch will sit and bed the hatch down in it.
Pilot and set appropriate fasteners, I used #12 1 1/4 stainless screws.
Drill through flashing, putty, and roof and set olympic rivets around the perimeter, trim and grind rivets with insanely expensive rivet head grinder.
Seal the edge of the flashing with self leveling caulk.
Go to the underside and screw the metal to the curb.
2 days and about $500 later, Voila! Hatch!
I've seen some amazing custom stainless steel and glass hatches online, but these are all custom fab jobs and at custom fab prices, so peasant airstream hatch shoppers are pretty much limited to lewmar and bomar hatches. I chose a lewmar medium profile hatch, and set it into some nice clear fir that I milled myself a few years ago. The process of putting it in went something like this:
Build a wooden curb to bridge the gap between the upper and lower layers of aluminum.
Cut an aluminum flashing sheet to sit atop that. Paint or finish both pieces.
Cut a hole in the roof that the curb will just fit into, while trying not to cut through any major structural members or electrical runs. This is harder than it looks with the major electrical running down the length of the roof.
Use the cutout from the aluminum flashing to mark the hole on the underside inside of the roof. Carefully cut that hole out.
Shape the curb until it fits perfectly with the curve of the underside roof, and as much as the hatch can handle it, shape the top side too.
Put butyl tape on the bottom of the flashing perimeter, already pre-drilled for rivets at 1 1/4 inch spacing.
Set flashing atop wooden curb/spacer, squirt a big bead of 5200 onto the inside perimeter where the hatch will sit and bed the hatch down in it.
Pilot and set appropriate fasteners, I used #12 1 1/4 stainless screws.
Drill through flashing, putty, and roof and set olympic rivets around the perimeter, trim and grind rivets with insanely expensive rivet head grinder.
Seal the edge of the flashing with self leveling caulk.
Go to the underside and screw the metal to the curb.
2 days and about $500 later, Voila! Hatch!
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