Apples and Pears!

In my last post we skipped ahead a little by concentrating purely on the roof tiling, which took place over two weekends, but the rest of us did not rest on out laurels while that was happening, so lets rewind a little to the week of the 10th June...the roof tiling over the weekend had started, but hadn't managed quite as much as planned, due to the weather.

Carl and Ash returned on the Monday, Ash having worked on our canopy gallows brackets over the weekend and he did not disappoint. They were absolutely brilliant! You can really see the time and effort that he put in and it was much appreciated. He'd even primed them for us..

Unfortunately the roof delay, meant the scaffolding couldn't come down, which meant our builders couldn't do the canopy (you see the knock on effect, I don't need to explain it). Not ones to be held back by that and with other things to do, they focussed their efforts inside and knocked though upstairs into the side extension.

Upstairs on the landing there was a large window, and a small window in the bathroom. Now the build had reached the roof, both the windows looked out into the upstairs of the side extension, so the builders set about blocking both of these up first. An acrow prop was used to take the weight of the ceiling, while they replaced the old lintel over the window with two concrete lintels in the ceiling. This means the landing through into the side extension will have the same ceiling height and look seamless to the rest of the house.

Carl and Ash used a Stihl saw to cut through the wall and create the opening. Everything was covered, to try and limit the amount of dust, but as anyone who has done building work before will tell you, it is a thankless and quite frankly pointless exercise. It gets everywhere! I think I can say, I am quite laid back and can switch off and ride the wave that is my children's mess, with a sigh and a smile, but brick dust is a whole other beast! Over the course of the build even I struggled with it all. Something else to bear in mind if you like it nice and clean and have a hint of OCD- you will need to leave! To say the least I was extremely happy when all the dusty jobs were done, but unfortunately, that wasn't this week!

During the stihl sawing, and luckily without cutting though it, they found the gas pipe from the meter downstairs. This meant a quick call out to Simon, the gas man, who moved the pipe safely out of the way and got everything connected back up again. I don't think anyone could have predicted the route the pipe would take.

Happily, with that out of the way, Carl and Ash were able to build the small piece of staircase needed to access the extension upstairs. In our house there are roughly ten steps then a square platform, off that platform there are three more steps up to the landing on the left. The builders were making us the mirror of these three steps on the right. The new right hand steps will lead up to a small landing with the two bedroom doors off.

They did a brilliant job. It is the right height, no one has tripped and it doesn't creak, which is more than a can say for the original staircase!

It was really lovely to be able to walk about in that part of the house, thinking about where the boys wanted their things.

They then bricked up the wall in the garage, which ran underneath the staircase...

Once things were tidied up, the builders could do no more until the scaffolding was down. While they were forced to leave and wait for the roofers to finish up, I started building a stud wall upstairs. Sadly, I didn't get as far as I'd have liked before life as a mother of four made it more of a challenge, but here is the start...

I measured and made a cut list, then cut all the CLS timber to length, using my Triton SuperJaws to hold the timber in place and a hand saw. As it is a stud wall I didn't worry about rough edges, as it will be encased in plaster board, the only thing that I concerned myself with was ensuring it was strong and level.

I attached into the brick work in several places and joined into the floor joists below and the ceiling joists above. I used only one of the smaller lengths as a strut across the width for strength.

I attached it all using 4 inch screws. As I'm still lacking a pocket hole jig to sink in screws completely and it will be incased in the plasterboard anyway, my diagonal screws won't be a problem.

While I was getting on with that, Adam re routed the pipework for the boiler through the new loft and the new outside wall, he also connected the new flue pipe to the boiler.

With all the work going on and so much changing in a small space of time, it's been exhausting but absolutely brilliant to watch. The most exciting part is still to come...lets get the scaffolding down!

x

Tyler The Tiler...

...honestly you can't make this stuff up!

Three tilers arrived on Sunday 9th June and Tyler was just one of the team, but as our youngest thought he was the coolest, he can have a special mention. The roofers had been rained off on Saturday and so they cracked straight on. First stripping the original roof at the front, of the tiles, felt and lath and throwing it all off the scaffolding onto the front 'lawn' (not that there is any lawn left at this point!). The old tiles were the only things saved, ready to be fitted to the rear of the side extension.

Next they put new felt and lath on to the old front trusses and tiled it with new Marley Major roof tiles in smooth grey. These tiles will be used across the whole front of the roof and on the canopy as well, once it's built.

They managed to felt and lath the entire side extension, tile in part the rear of the side extension with the old tiles, put in the flue pipe for the boiler, lay the troughs and place on some of the ridge tiles too, before the weather sadly took a turn and they had to stop..

They returned the following weekend and by the end of the day on Saturday 15th June, they had tiled all of the roof of the original house and the double storey side extension, fixing the ridge tiles in place. The ridge tiles clip in, which means zero maintenance. The older tiles, which were mortared in place, could erode and slip over time, these won't. This is great news for us, as we tend to like to do things ourselves and getting on the roof is neither of our favourite job!

The following day they tiled the single storey rear extension and leaded both roofs. They did run out of caps for the edges, but returned the following weekend to fit those too.

By the end we were nearly water tight and considering the weather we'd been having, they had it done really quickly. Most of all were were unbelievably pleased to know the scaffolding could come down, then we could have a really good look underneath and see it properly.

x

"Big bloody roof!"

I mentioned in my previous post 'Ready for roofing' that although we were ready and set, the roof trusses weren't quite a 'go' yet, but in the week commencing 3rd June they arrived on site and boy were they stronger, and unfortunately heavier, than we banked on! Thankfully though, our builders were determined and... well must have had their weetabix that morning. We were all oblivious at the time of ordering at just how much the "big bloody roof" weighed or else I'd have been stuck with a whopping bill for a crane. It was far heavier, though stronger, than we ordered. But hey, it fit! I cannot express how much I appreciated that we had our builders and no one else that day. I doubt any other builders would have managed or even attempted to manage this...legends!

When they'd done the side extension and nearly broken their backs, they moved around to the back extension to get the more reasonably sized trusses in place...

After a huge change, this is where we were after only two days...

By the 6th we were onto the brickwork for the rear gable..

and by the end of the day on the 8th, they had done all the gables ends and all the fascia too...

...despite having to work up on the scaffolding in very heavy rain!

All this meant we were ready for the front roof of the original house to be felt, lathed and tiled. The old tiles will be used on the rear roof of the side extension, which will mean the whole of the front roof and canopy will be completely new and match, and the rear of the house will be all old tiles and match. The single storey rear extension has flat tiles, so those are all new too, which is nice as they are more visible at ground level. The idea is that whether you are looking at the front or the back of the house you will not be able to see where the old meets the new and it will all tie in nicely. Also, edge caps on the side of the roof will cover any difference noticeable there and offer extra weather proofing, as an added bonus!

x

P.S. The builders love the camera!