In a coincidental but fitting end to 2011, we’ve been finishing up several jobs that were almost but not quite complete. Both upper rooms in the larger building now have new floors and finally we have finished the roof!
Following on from the last post on the subject – and a bit overdue since they’ve been completed at least a couple of weeks now – we have finished the stairs on both sides of the building. This makes 3 sides of the building now protected from the weather by an extra overhang. All that remains now is to complete a lean-to roof along the back wall, dig a large drain into the bedrock behind it, and we should have a substantially watertight building … even without all the windows and doors.
After a break of the best part of 3 months, we’ve been able to start work on building renovations again. The first priority is to complete the roof of the larger building. The roof over the main body of the building itself is done, but we need to extend it either end of the building to cover the external staircases, and to butt a lean-to roof up to it along the back of the building before it’s finally finished.
Extending the roof area right round the house in this way will, aside from providing covered walkways, give all round protection to the walls from most direct weather action: a major consideration with dry-stone walls, especially ones that are going to be clay-pointed.
This 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.
Big progress on a Big Thing (the roof) over the last couple of days.
The cleaned, preserved and oiled chestnut rafters, beams and wall plates are now all leveled and in place and work has begun on fixing the wooden planking to them. These photos are from this morning. By the end of the day, the planking had been completed up as far as the middle beam.
Michael, Wayne and Chris lay the first planks
Renovation work on the roof has been progressing. All the chestnut timbers have now been removed, cleaned, preserved and oiled and are ready to be put back on the roof, as is the timber boarding to go on top of them. Next will come 50mm of cork insulation followed by a breathable membrane, then the original schist slabs.
The chestnut timbers have a satisfyingly rich colour after being cleaned with a draw knife, treated with an ecological preservative and coated with linseed oil
We’ve made a start on re-roofing the larger of the two buildings on the quinta. As luck would have it, Chris has a brother who’s a roofer, and he’s come to join us and help out with replacing the roofs on both buildings since neither in their present state are watertight. Welcome Michael!
Removing the large slabs of schist
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