Day 1910: The big cover-up

Today was Carolyn's 27th (ish) birthday .. so the day started off with flowers, pastries, cappuccinos and presents. And as if somebody upstairs in the meteorological department was watching, the rain magically stopped.

Not to waste a moment, the guys were back ripping the rest of the roof off. 

Thankfully they covered it back up again as there is more rain in the forecast this weekend.  

 

The battens, joints and roof slates .. and lots and lots of moss!

The guys were rewarded for all their hard work this week by freshly baked cookies delivered by Caitlin and Ashleigh. I think they may be setting the bar pretty high for future weeks. 

On Monday the carpenters come to start putting the roof back in place. Looking forward to it.

Day 1906: Going topless

First day and the work began in earnest. I was trying to take pictures from my cabin and they turned out terrible .. this was looking to be a pretty poor post until the guys at More Than Lofts send across some nice photos over WhatsApp. TOP TIP: If you ever find yourself blogging about what's happening on top of your house (a common occurrence I'm sure) invest in or find a friend with a drone .. or just ask the guys doing the work to take photos.

Today the roofers came .. and well de-roofed the house. Yup, in the middle of winter with a 10 day forecast of rain, rain and more rain we decided to remove the roof from the house. Fantastic planning. 

Watching them do this, I was surprised at how little there actually is on a roof. Tiles, battens and then finally felt underneath. A day of work and it was all gone with just the rafters exposed.

These guys know their trade and used the battens to fix plastic over the exposed roof. Looks pretty solid, let's hope it holds up in the English weather before the new roof goes back on :)

And BTW .. I'm not really joking about the the forecast for the next 10 days ..😬

Day 1643: What's a dog's favourite trade?

What's a dog's favourite trade? .. Roof-ing. Bad dad joke of the day today.

The skies were blue and the weather had warmed up a bit so time to get ready for the roofing. 

As the roof was insulated now, I just needed to put on a layer of 9mm WBP (outdoor) plywood and then put the shingles on top. 

I lifted the panels on first, put them in place and cut off the excess by hand. This was the easiest way and most exact way vs trying to cut to shape on the ground. The panels were heavy so would recommend having a helper if you try this yourselves. The biggest problem with a sloped roof is that the panels also tend to follow gravity and slide right off. 

The shingles were laid out on the ground. Given the colour could differ slightly between packs, it's always best to mix them up when installing. 

Also used were the slightly longer 9mm roofing nails to make sure the shingles got a decent hold in the plywood and some roof and gutter tar (bitumen) to hold everything in place. Nasty stuff to work with that sticks to everything (like tar). But needed to make sure the shingles were held tightly and watertight.