Week 30-32 - External Render and Guttering to road side

Although far from finished the external rendering and gutters to the road side of the building are now finished. So the largest and most expensive climbing frame I've ever had could come down and we can finally see what we've been doing.

 Looking back at the 'before' photo to write this post - I had honestly forgotten how much of a wreak she was! Certainly looking a lot more proud now, Im very pleased (and realise why the neighbors are too).

There is still all the front ground works and drainage to do, the staircase up to the front door of the flat (currently just hanging out, floating in the middle of a wall). Which is to be clad in oak along with the front section under blue cover, and the front doors and windows into the two ground floor workshops. So a lot! No time to hang about patting myself on the back anyway.

Before the render was applied the building had to be prepared for it. All render on old masonry parts of the building had to be stripped. Then all the new timber frame sections first has to be painted in a bitumen paint then coated in a wire mesh for the render to key into.

The mesh comes in long, quite narrow sheets and was time consuming, but a straight forward job. The black and steel mesh did make the building look very space age for a few days too - although it also turned it into a giant cheese grater. Or more accurately a giant wrist and elbow flesh grater.

We also had to fit all the lead work to seal the new flat staircase into the building once built. This means I have to stick to the exact plans now!

 First scratch coat applied and edging beads around the windows revels are fitted

I got a wash and first full coat of paint onto the render while the scaffolding was up but it will get more once the other work is complete. We haven't decided on a final colour choice yet, but it wont be white - front runner at the moment is a pale grey/blue. So it will be less Miami vice - just call me Crockett