After our conclusion of the slates on the roof (the front porch section) on Monday, we finished dismantling of all the remaining platform modules apart from two full height modules that we managed to move inside the house and a further three modules were cut down to provide a new lower working platforms.
Truncated-platforms
We then repaired and completely replaced the covering over the swimming lane storage area. The old tarpaulin that has fallen apart due to long exposure under the power of the sun. We also removed all the old wet hardboard material and chucked them up to our fire pile. Using the old plywood sheets that were the walking surface of the platform modules, we used eight of them to recover the swimming lane, also using a series of the narrow strips to fill in the gap at the front of the roof too. Finally, we recycled two very large tarpaulin off-pieces which was 14metres long by 3metres wide and draped it over the new roof surface, having it folded over to form a double layer. Everything was tied down with pieces of oak strips (from our burn pile) and stapled into place.
The-recovered-swimming-lane-store-1
The-recovered-swimming-lane-store-2
The rest of the week was spent on preparing the eves, removing sticking through nails and removing the last of excess brown rubber glue material around the back of the fascia and sanding it down smooth. Then we got out our new paint sprayer we bought in the Summer, set it up, with water ready to practice spraying only to discover that it didn’t work. There was no suction into the inlet tube. This is the second time this fault occurred as it happened when be bought it but we exchanged it for a new one, which we tested it with water back then. So we contacted the retailer and they said, take it back to the shop and get your full refund. I am glad that we found the receipt because the till insisted that the product only costs £70 but our receipt says £180! The store manager had to override the till so we got all our money back!
We then found another model which was nearly double the price and went to buy that one instead. We tested that and after a little false start, we got it working with emulsion paint.
By this time, the day was over and the following day was wet so we didn’t get to spray the under side of the eves until Saturday.
The black acrylic paint we are using is very very thick and dense, even after diluting it by 30% as instructed on the tin, the paint still wouldn’t spray through the nozzle. So we had to dilute it by a further 10% before it got going. The diluted paint was still very thick like thick custard so this acrylic paint is amazingly heavy for external surfaces (it’s made for barns etc).
The other piece of equipment we made was a protective shield to stop any splatter reaching the guttering. We just wanted to spray behind the fascia and up the roof board and the rafters coming out from the walls.
This shield was put on legs so we could prop it up against the fascia edge, but also we mounted 5 little LED flood lamps to help brighten up inside the eves.
We started around next to the conservatory at the front of the house and worked our way along the front.
But after a short while, the initial litre of paint we put into the hopper was gone and we had only done a few metres. We did realise that by spraying the paint, it uses it up more quickly, giving the surface a thicker finish, but not that quickly! So we diluted the paint by another 10% and got on with the task, hoping that we will get a fair way around the whole 75 metres of eves!
And .. we actually got back to the beginning but only just! We do need to buy more paint anyway because the two porches with their under surfaces disappearing high up to a point and we need to get up on a platform module to give us the reach and finish off the last bit. It also looks like some of the rafters need a second coat.
Eaves-painted-black-1
Eaves-painted-black-2
We will get that done next week and then we will start on the task of putting up the wall cladding.