We started this week with good dry weather in resuming the job of mounting Slates up on to the roof. We finished off the little bit left to do on the “N” roof section and then moved around to then complete the whole of the “O” section in the first couple of days.
N-O-Complete
One of the finishing task was to place and nail the flashing slates along both sides of the Hip and Ridge lines, remembering to do this job each time we got up a strip of slates as the opportunity had only a limited window to practically and safely do the nailing while leaning over across the slates.
We had one small moment of interruption with the forecast of the weather showing an afternoon of sharp summer thunderstorms so we diverted our efforts to the workshop and got on with the task of preparing the next batch of Oak Timber to make the vertical side framing pieces of our 13 windows. We pulled out 26 lengths of Oak timber and after careful analysis of the grain patterns, we swopped six of these planks for another set. The first job was to trim off one edge to make it straight using our track saw. Then after that, we set up our bench saw with the fence guide set at 105mm and proceeded to slice all 26 planks down to this width. Some of the cut-off pieces, the bigger ones, went back on the Oak rack storage for later use, and the smaller pieces went into the garden shed to be added to other left-over pieces, also to be use later on.
Window-sides-cut-to-size
But when the sun was out and the day was dry, we carried on working on the roof, mounting more Slates, now on the “P” section. This large area has one complex situation to be dealt with and that is the Conservatory roof (the “Q” section) poking out. The way slates (and for that matter, all other types of roofing tiles as well) are installed, one has to always start at the bottom of the cascading nature of these overlapping tiles. This means that we have to start at the bottom at the gutters, on both side of the conservatory and we must get the alignment of the slates the same so when the two sides come up and meet at the middle of the “Q” ridge line, they will marry together “Nice and Neat” and continue up to finish off at the skylight.
So we had to project a couple of vertical lines and then project out sideways over the ridge line and come back down again to the gutter on the other side. We hope this will work but we will double check when we get to work on the other side and compare the positioning of the slates etc.
By the end of the week, we got about half of the “P” roof covered, almost reaching the “Q” Ridge line, which is where we stopped.
P-Half-done
So for this week’s work, we put up about 1800 slates, about the content of one crate, and next week, we will then do the two sides of the “Q” roof and start on the second side of the “P” roof (after making sure we are aligned). We hope the weather will hold good again but if not, then we will work in the workshop on our windows again – No Rest for the Crew – smile!