We had about a two week delay waiting to crack on with the roof while it rained, but finally my anti-rain dance worked and we got started (my version of this involved dancing in underwear in the spare room while the cat gives you a judgmental look) and just to prove how effective my dancing skills are we were then blessed with 2 dry weeks.
First off we needed a way to have access to actually do the work, and once again, someone has put a river right in my way.
In theory at least we could have put up standard scaffolding down into the river. However then the environment agency wanted to get involved and insist on all sorts of impact reports and restrictions etc etc. Which to be honest we don't have the time, money or (most importantly) patience for. So instead I decided to cantilever a wooden platform out the upstairs windows.
The bulk of the support for this platform was built of the new steel work for the balcony. Unfortunately this doesnt go the full length of the building, and we needed the platform too, so to support the platform further out we build these two supports at each end, bolted them down the the floor, and then stuck them through the windows.
All the temporary old steel sheets removed to reveal the new roof structure.
First as mentioned in the last blog entry we fitted all the glass and them felted and battened out between for the slate.
After much deliberation and discussion with the the planning department we have used reclaimed welsh slate. We were keen to go for reclaimed as it will blend in with everything around it instantly and also for cost. Unfortunately you can only get 2nd hand Cumbrian slate in random length tiles. This isn't really a problem when you are doing a large single pitch roof as you just do multiple rows of ever decreasing length slates. However here we only actually have 5 sections of slate about 1.5 m2 each. I am of the very strong opinion it would have just looked a mess, and it turns out the national park planning authority agreed with me! - who knew that would happen.
Sophie decided she thought slating a roof looked like fun and wanted a go - I think maybe because it is, and I told her so every night when I got home. Unfortunately she only decided this once the roof was finished and point blank refused to go out on our 'totally rock solid' (or at least yet to be proved otherwise) temporary scaffold platform. So we improvised and tiled the ground level roof of the new bin shed instead, although she did still need a beer crate to stand on. As you can see, she did a grand job.
Note Sophs tool belt, I got serious brownie points for giving her this to wear! - she's so easily pleased
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