Odds and ends of weather boards should be kept for the door end of the house, which requires short pieces only, and is not boarded below the top of b2.  The door may be weather-boarded to match the rest of the end, or covered by a few strakes of match-boarding put on vertically.

The two base pieces, b1 and b2, and the ridge should be marked off for the rafters at the same time.  All three are 10-foot lengths of 4 by 1 wood, unless you prefer the ridge to project a bit, in which case you must allow accordingly.

Stand all three pieces together on edge, and make the marks with a square across the tops.  Allow a distance of 4 feet between the outside faces of r1 and r3; halve this distance to get the centre of r2; and subdivide the distance between r3 and r6 so that each rafter is separated from its neighbours by an equal space, which will be 1 foot 11 inches.  Number the marks and continue them down the sides of the boards with the square.  There should be a mark on each side of the place to be occupied by the intermediate rafters, to prevent mistakes; for it is obvious that if a rafter is fixed on the left side of a single ridge mark and on the right of the corresponding mark on the base, the result will not be pleasing.

Erection.—­The services of a second pair of hands are needed here, to hold while nailing is done.  Nail holes having been drilled in the tops of the rafters and in the base pieces, the ends are stood upright and tacked to the ridge at the places marked for them, and after them the intermediate rafters, working from one end to the other.  Then tack on the base pieces, b1, b3.  Get the ends quite perpendicular, and nail a temporary cross strut or two on the outside of the rafters to prevent shifting while the final nailing up is done.

Covering the Shed.—­Sixteen boards, 4 feet 2 inches long, are needed for each side, as, owing to the overlap of one inch, each tier covers only five of the 80 inches.  The ridge is made watertight by a strip of sheet zinc, a foot wide, bent over the top and nailed along each edge.

Waterproofing.—­All the woodwork should now be given a coating of well-boiled tar, paint, creosote, or some other preservative, worked well down into the cracks.  Creosote and stoprot are most convenient to use, as they dry quickly.

Netting.—­When the preservative has dried, fix on the netting with 3/4-inch wire staples.  Begin at the base on one side, strain the netting over the ridge, and down to the base on the other side.  Be careful not to draw the rafters out of line sideways.  The last edge stapled should be that on the roof of the house.

Note.—­When driving nails or staples into a rafter or other part, get a helper to hold up some object considerably heavier than the hammer on the farther side to deaden the blow.  Lack of such support may cause damage, besides making the work much more tedious and difficult.