Still more roof
August 26th, 2010. Post by WendyThis week the roof is really starting to look like a roof from the outside as well as the inside. Monday we laid the insulation (50mm cork) on top of the boards of maritime pine, followed by the waterproof breathable membrane. No sooner had that gone down than the weather decided to test it out. We haven’t had a drop of rain since we took the roof off back at the beginning of July (well, apart from a 15-minute shower of dirt) and it waited until the very moment we got the waterproofing on. Considerate weather! Damn! When you’ve lived in Scotland for more than half your life, that’s a real novelty.
Cork insulation and breathable membrane go on
The view from the inside
With the membrane fixed in place, the roof was ready to start re-laying the original schist slabs.
Laying the schist. Chris looking over the first few courses
Handing up the large schist slabs
Wayne drilling slabs for nailing in place
We are fixing the bottom, middle and top courses of schist slabs in place to prevent any slippage. We’re also creating slightly more overlap between courses than was used in the original roof, both for better coverage and waterproofing and to hold the stone in place. This roof should never move!
Lunchtime today: two thirds of the way up the first half
The end of today: almost half complete
How it used to look before we started renovations
Tags: chestnut, round pole timber construction, schist, schist roof, schist slabs, sweet chestnut
August 26th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
it looks fantastic, what a great job you all have done! xxx
August 27th, 2010 at 7:20 am
its happening so fast…well done
August 27th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
What an amazing transformation; it show the obvious all round benefits of using traditional building materials with the skills of hand crafts people……..
An inspiration., thank you for sharing………….
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Brilliant ! Just seen this, forwarded from discussion i started on the expat site, about cork, so Sophie sent me link. Looks wonderful, that slate in particular. well done. we are far far behind on our main house roof.
I have just posted on the expat site the u-values for cork, and itºs not great. let me know if you want to know more. Maybe you plan to insulate further inside as well?
Abraços !
Magnus
December 7th, 2010 at 11:11 am
I am restoring a house and would like to buy cork for the roof. Do you know what is the best company I could import it from in Portugal?
December 7th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi Luis. I replied to you on Facebook, but I’ll put the response here too in case it’s useful for anyone else.
I only know of Amorim, the major cork wine-bottle stopper manufacturer. They manufactured the insulation I got, but I think there’s others and probably there’s also room for negotiation with your local building materials supplier, depending on quantity. See this forum page for a discussion about it. It’s the same page Magnus refers to in the comments above.
Good luck!