(Actual) Start Day!
(Actual) Start Day!
Anyway, it’s Monday and you know what that means!? START DAY!!
I’m a bit concerned as the early start we had pencilled in seems to have slipped already as there’s no sign of Donald. I manage to get hold of him though and it turns out he’s busy trying to retrieve a few horses who have decided to jump the fences and head off for a walkabout. I have to laugh and add this to the list of challenges being in the countryside brings and it’s something I would never have heard if we hadn’t started this project!
We’re only delayed for about an hour so once he arrives, we get stuck straight into clearing the roof. There are a few oak rafters which are stubbornly clinging to the beams which need removing and this requires me to step out of the scaffolding with a claw hammer and start convincing them to come off, which they do without much fuss. Then, we need to clean up and treat the beams to kill off any woodworm or critters which might be residing in the timbers. It’s pretty strong stuff, so it’s PPE time.
With that drying, we get started on cutting the timbers for the ridge plate and put on some 4″ x 2″ timbers onto the 12′ oak purlins to both level up and provide a softer material to secure the rafters to. That said, these are all C24 timbers (a hardwood) but compared the salt-hardened oak purlins, they are far easier to drive a nail through. The purlins will give for maybe the first half-inch but then the huge hardened nails we’re using to secure the 4x2s just stop dead and end up being bent over, they simply won’t go in any further!
We then get on with levelling up the wall ready to accept the 4″x4″ wall plate which is like a long piece of level timber running the length of the building. The wall is more than the length it came in, so it needs joining so they sit together neatly. It’s this which the new rafters will sit on and helps secure everything. It isn’t fixed in place yet as we’ll need to measure and check it against the ridge beam which we get stuck into next.
The original chimney stack on the southern gable-end has collapsed some years ago with most of the stone currently either sitting in the field beside it or inside the chimney stack itself. This will need to be lined before we can reinstate a log burner but that will need to wait until we have a solid roof.
I wasn’t aware of this but at the end of the day it appears I’ve been on some sort of assessment day. Me and Donald have never worked together before and he’s been watching how I handle myself on site, what I’m comfortable doing and how fast I can do it to try and figure out if we’re going to stay on schedule or if he’s going to need to bring in some help. Fortunately, his appraisal ends with, “you’ll be alright” and he leaves me to carry on cutting birds mouths into the 6″ x 3″ rafters ready for the morning. Given how awful last night’s sleep in the van was, I’m not in any hurry to clock off, so just keep going until it gets too dark to keep going safely and manage to get all of the 28 rafters cut ready to go.
All in all, I’m really happy with how much we’ve managed to get done today. Considering this is the first roof I’ve ever worked on I’m feeling pretty chuffed with myself too.