Week 15-18 - Completion of roof and external Walls

In my last update I praised the Cumbrian weather for being so kind to us while we were taking off and starting to put the new roof back on, since then, i'm not sure how, but I've annoyed mother nature - and she's pissed on our parade ever since.
We have in fact had some averagely mediocre flooding around Keswick - including some water for the first time ever sneaking into the old (current) workshop while I was down at the new one worrying about the river level - which seemed a little ironic.

Therefore things have taken a little longer than i had hoped, but we've got there, and it was reassuring to see, despite the high river levels it was still more the 2 meters below where we are protected to.

So barring a few finishing touches (as you can see in photos below) the roof is now water tight. We have also finished all the external skins to the newly built outside walls to the road side of the building. I am informed by the architecturally savvy that this is refereed to as 'completion of the building envelope'.... so there you go, we're licked and sticked!

The join of the rear roof to the front roof is still to be done, so just covered by some tarp at the moment

I will freely admit that it does does look a lot like a giant shed at the moment - but i like to think the manly-ist of all the man sheds around. I will be starting work on the windows soon, once they are installed we can render and clad the outside of the building properly (as appose to its plastic wrapping) and it should look the part...

(above) Photos of the roof from the inside in the gallery level and then the residential area. The sections above the windows in the gallery will eventually be a combintion of glass and slate but we have just used some left over of the old steel sheeting to keep the rain off until we tackle this in the spring.

  

Work in progress shots of us sheeting out the pitched roof over the residential area of the building. A big thank you to Greame, Jamie and Sky for helping me out and braving the winds with 4 metre long steel sheets with me (waiting for a day with no rain AND no wind proved too much to hope for)

Currently sheeted over to be cut out once the frames and glass arrive for the roof windows in the pitched roof. Large 1.8 x 2m ski light over the final location of the dining table in the flat and a velux window over each side of the bed in the master bedroom.

Week 12-14 - Putting the roof back on...

So it has been a pretty (very) hectic and tiring few weeks since we took the old roof off and started putting our nice shinny and strong roof back on. Its taking a little longer than i hoped it might as we've had to do a lot of work to the old walls to make them level and true to the new pitch before the new timber work could start going in... but it is getting there now

So lets start with the steel....

We took up and closed the road for the day with a very big crane, which was exciting (well maybe not for the neighbors)

This has been the first day where ive handed control of the job 100% over to others. I took into consideration that i have no idea what the hand signals for a crane operator are, or any serious welding experience and decided 3/4 tone 'I' beams that i plan to live underneath were not the place to start.

The steels went right over the top of next doors roofs and we did have a few worried looks from the kitchen window (which i dont necessarily blame them for!) 

All the steel went in well easily in the day and fits well. I have however made the decision to increase the size and strength of the center pier that holds up where the two spine steels meet. Although confirmed as strong enough on the structural drawings it doesn't really have the girth or substance to instill you with confidence!

 So we propped up the steel on 4 acro props for a week or so and knocked it down back to the old stone wall and some solid concrete block work from (at a guess) renovation work in the 60's ish. I have now increased the width and depth of the pillar to about double and put in lots or re-bar in tie it all together.

New pillar is now all shuttered out for a concrete pour. I will leave the acro's in place for a week or so to set and then remove the shuttering.

So the steels are all in, 9 pieces in total and we have put the timber webbing into the 3 main cranked arms to hang our purlins from. Site should be about to go from an uninterrupted sky view sun deck to a matrix of timber - or thats the plan...

Rear river roof from above and below with all timber work in place, you can see the gaps in the 45 degree leg down to the river above each window, this is where the glazing will wrap around into the roof section to get full views of the fells behind the park.

The pitched roof to the road side of the building above the accommodation area of the building, a lot of heavy gauge timber has gone into this but it does feel reassuringly strong to be underneath. You can see the gaps between the vertical cross member where there will be roof lights (4 in total)

View from front of roof looking back towards the park

I may of had one to many shandys the night before my task for this Saturday - putting all the 180 bolts through the timber work to tie it all into the steel. Luckily it only required a spanner and hammer and came with a good view, but going up and down a ladder 180 times is not great for a suffering head! (was a good night tho)

The now view from the park, there are a few last bits of timber work to do on the small from roof and the internal gutter between the two building to sort but otherwise it is time to start putting the skin on - looking forward to getting at least semi water tight again now

Week 11 - Taking off the roof

Although started last week with the smaller front asbestos roof this week we took off the mains roofs proper ready for the new steels to arrive next week.
There was a lot of swinging of hammers and crow bars and general aggression applied - we are now totally ruthless tradesman, who are now without roof!

 Outer skins of steel sheeting and the old felt and chipboard roof removed (still mainly on the floor)

Had the extended Wilson family workers on site this week, Sophie's cousin helping me up top ripping the roof apart and my ever reliable and hard working head laborer Graeme (sophs dad - supposed to be retired - sorry!), as well as help from some very kind friends how came by to help with the mammoth skip loading tasks at the end of each day.

 All the old timber frame/structure now also removed...

We had some amazing weather and sun that made the job a lot easier, i even got sunburned (in the lakes in September - who knew) All in all a very hard working but very successful week.

View from the park looking back at the river wall - which currently looks from here at least to be the only structure left of the building, no wonder everyone is pointing and staring as they walk past!

Week 10 - Roofs start coming off

Its been a busy week on site this week, starting with the asbestos guys coming in on Monday and Tuesday to take the last of the asbestos out of the building. It may be nasty and expensive stuff to get rid of - but it was keeping us dry... and now its not.

So as you can see we now have no roof over the (to be) flat/living area and the rear section to the river. On a positive not we are due for some great weather for the rest of the week so we can crack on with rebuilding walls and gable ends etc that were otherwise impossible because they were supporting the old roof - its also very nice and bright light to work in without roofs, who would have guessed.

First of which was rebuilding the new gable end of the building facing the road. It has been clear for a few weeks now that this old structure was quite pathetically weak and crumbing, which meant it took Ben Lane and I no time at all to have it all demolished and waste stacked up on Tuesday evening. Exactly how weak and easily destroyed is shown in the video above...

For the rest of the week i roped in Mark Stuart and Jamie Cooper to help me lug around the long timbers rebuilding the new gable end. Went up quite nicely, it is good to be able to see the new larger south facing window views.
We also removed the outer sheet steel skin of the rear roof while the weather was good and used it to try and protect the floorboards under the now roofless area from some of the elements - it will eather work or give us a nice 1st floor water feature: i know which my money is on!

 Road side roof and gable end cleared and ready for rebuilding

 Mark looking proud of his work. We rebuilt with a slightly taller apex and 15 degree pitch

 View looking backwards across the now missing and skinless roofs into the park

Our very private and/or communal toilet!


Sophie and I came to a very wet and rainy site on Saturday to mix and pour some concrete over the now finished soil pipe trenches. Sophie decided using a cement mixer was a lot like using a cake mixer, just less appetizing.

A very rainy morning, with no roof and pouring concrete may not be the perfect way to spend your Saturday, but if we hadn't, we would of met this little guy!