It’s a very odd heading, and there is a reason for it. It comes from internal audit methodology, but also good common sense.

It is important that one understands a topic, and to get to that most basic genuine understanding, one must ask “why”, 5 times.

The response to the first “why”, is generally an assumption. You would be wrong to accept the first answer as the reason for being.

The second response generally demonstrates that the responder has an inkling that you seek a deeper more meaningful response, but still, the second response tends to be symptomatic.

To get to the root cause, you must continue asking why, and by response 5, you may have an elementary understanding.

The husband and I are constructing a cabin on the farm.

He comes from “construction stock”, but never actually built a dwelling before. I come from numbers stock, and similarly, while I consider myself very creative and pragmatic, never actually built a dwelling before.

So, what follows, is the application of the 5 why theory, to a real-life situation.

Question (Why 1): Why does the roof have to have a pitch?

Answer 1 (The assumption): Because the rain must run off

Here, the counter argument is: But there are flat roof homes all over the world. To which the response is something like: “But it has all kinds of other engineering issues, and finishing off, and product requirements which I don’t know, so stop arguing and just do what I say”. Trust me, that line of argument does not lead anywhere. No, let me correct that. It does lead somewhere. But nowhere you want to go without your lawyer present.

Why 2: But why can the pitch not be 1 degree?

By now, you must have gathered that these are verbatim questions, and if you know the husband and I, you would at this point get behind the safety glass.

A bit of background to this question. Somewhere in the far-off recesses of my grey matter, I can recall something about the span of the horizontal leg of a right sided triangle, determining the height of the vertical leg, if you were after a certain pitch. But, because I did not bother with the 5 why’s at the time, I could not recall the reason, nor the method of calculation.

The Husband wanted to extend the one wall with 20 cm, which according to him, would give enough pitch. In my calculations, given a 6-meter span, would give something like a 0.1-degree pitch. i.e., effectively flat.

Answer 2 (the assumption): because a steeper pitch means the rain runs off faster.

Technically this is correct, but it is not a complete. And this is why, a third why, is important.

Why #3: But why is the speed of the runoff important. When water runs, it runs.

Answer 3:

Here is where the respondent needs to haul out their patience reserves. Because logic must prevail, and it is important for the other party to understand why, so that the next dwelling they build, is designed correctly to begin with.

(Spock would be so proud of me )

Answer 3: If the speed is too slow, then the water at the bottom edge of the pitch, starts creeping uphill under the roof, back into the house, causing mouldy walls and all.

You better believe it!

Why #4: But why must the vertical wall be 3 m taller (by now reaching a whopping 5,5m in height!)?

Fair question, and one that led to some mental arithmetics, google research, and fortuitously, a better answer.

Answer 4: I’m glad you asked that question. It does not have to be 3m taller. We don’t have to deal with snow fall here in this desert country, so we don’t have to worry about large build ups on the roof coming down on an innocent bystander – like that iconic building in Chicago that now has an entrance on the high wall during winter……

Turns out, a 10-degree angle is sufficient to keep rain run off at an acceptable rate, and co-incidentally, also relatively wind proof. Windproof being an important consideration in this dry dust devil prone country of ours.

Why #5: Advanced grade: But if the one stoep is 3m, and the other stoep is 4m, but they must start and stop at the same heights, then their angles will be different. How on earth are you going to get the two stoep roofs to meet at the corner?

Answer 5: You ask Dustin, at Frametech Solutions.

But, because it’s important to understand how in the event something does not work, and you have to make a plan, we constructed a 3D scale model to define the problem and see the solution. Turns out, it does not matter. The one pitch (below 5 degrees) meets the cross bar which has its own angle. And the other pitch, (above 5 degrees) meets the same cross bar. The roof sheeting is cut at an angle to meet the cross bar, in progressively shorter sheets. And magically, just like that, the problem is solved.

Happy problem solving in the week ahead!

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