Tag Archives: recycled plastic slates

Thursday 23rd July 2009 – THERE’S NO PICTURE TODAY, FOLKS.

We woke up at about 08.30 today to torrential (and I DO mean torrential) rain and thunderstorms. You should have seen the water cascading down the road – it was impressive.

well, not so impressive for working on a roof so we had something of a leisurely morning.

And just as we were settling down for the day the weather dramatically cleared so we went chaud-pied round to my place and the roof.

Chez moi, the weather wasn’t so nice – grey and windy. But that’s the beauty of living round here. The Combrailles is the junction of three different climatic zones (the Mediterranean, The Atlantic and the Continental European). Followers of my outpourings in all its previous guises will recall my discussions about the constantly-changing (and sometimes dramatically so) weather as the fronts collide above my head.

Added to that, the area is an old rocky plateau that is riven by deep valleys and gorges so that each valley has its own little micro-climate and that can often be confusing.

But anyway ….. we trimmed the plywood on the roof and then put on the covering sheet of damp-proof membrane. And that was no fun either, fitting a 10-metre square sheet on a roof in a howling gale.

After lunch I dangled over the roof fitting the tiles with the aid of Terry’s home-made tile hod. I built up the right-hand corner all the way to the top (this is the bit that takes the time – the rest is just quick nailing-on) but then we were driven off the roof and into Caliburn by a torrential downpour (hence the lack of photos).

Back here, it was bright sunshine and totally dry, which just proves my point about the different climates.

We had another marvellous lunch though thanks to Liz. And in the middle Terry announced
“Forget eBay – forget the lottery. If I could clone Liz I would be a millionaire”
“Yes, I would have a Liz clone” I offered
“Forget it, Eric. You’d be trampled to death in the stampede”

-4

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Wednesday 22nd July 2009 – DESPITE THE RAGING HEAT THIS MORNING …

… we’ve covered all of the back of the roof now.

All of the insulation is on and you can see that the waterproof plywood is on there covering it up. Most of the waterproof membrane is on too, and half of the slating is done.

It was hard work mauling everything over the top of the roof and with the weather the way it was, it called for frequent pauses that at one stage had us both dozing off.

Terry, having worked on the insulation which reflected brightly with the sun, developed a bit of a headache and asked if I could produce any tablets. Nothing like that round at my place so I wandered off to the Dutch neighbours’

Not a big choice in the medicine cupboard but some unidentified pills looked hopeful.
“They look like Tera’s “Morning After” pills” suggested Tijas, casting aspertions on his sister’s character.
“Actually, I think they might be stuff that Tera keeps for her horses”added Guus.
“Take them anyway” suggested Lieneke. “They might work”

But judging by the way that Terry was running up and down the ladder and swinging from the rafters in the afternoon, I’m sorely tempted to go round tomorrow to see if Guus and Lieneke have any more.

-4

Tuesday 21st July 2009 – WE’VE DONE OVER HALF …

… of the back of the roof now.

Yesterday we put on another row of insulation plywood and damp-proof membrane and then went off to Brico Depot to spend another 400 Euros. This roof is becoming expensive 🙁

We did it that way round because the weather forecast predicted a boiling hot day so we did the heavy work in the morning. Mind you it was still pretty uncomfortable in the heat that we had. And to show you just how concerned I am about my workforce I spent a whole 22 centimes on a bottle of water for Terry. copulatum expensium, as we Pompeiians say

And excitement at the Anglo-French conversation group where Antoine revealed that he had been approached by a Dutch TV company that wants to film one of our meetings. This should drag out of the woodwork a few of the star-struck lurkers of our group. But of course when you have talent like yours truly, dear reader, who needs a makeover?

Today we tiled over the plywood that we fitted yesterday and then started to fit another row. This time we are boarding vertically as we have reached the top row at the back. Tiling was much more easy with the safety harness that Terry persuaded me to buy. I felt like Peter Pan, swinging over the roof like that. But I couldn’t find Peter Pan anywhere so I gave up that idea. When Terry had a go in the safety harness, complete with the wet tea-towel on his head, I told him that he looked like Ena Sharples’ granma.
“Who’s helping you finish the roof?” was his response.

My retort was that I dunno why he was complaining. In Soho and places like that people pay good money to be swung from a safety harness from the roof of a building (not that I have any first-hand experience of that sort of thing of course) and if he wasn’t careful I’ll knock the money’s worth off his bill.

Now we are having torrential rain, thunder and lightning. I hope it clears for tomorrow.

-4

Sunday 19th July 2009 – WE STARTED PUTTING …

… the tiles back on the roof today as you can see in the pic, if it ever decides to load itself.

What you will also see is an overhanging ladder. The ground at the back of the house doesn’t belong to me so we can’t put a scaffolding up. This meant that yours truly had to sit perched on the bottom of that ladder hanging over a bottomless void while he built up the bottom few rows of the tiling.

Those of you who know me will know that I have a thing about ladders and heights, and so a photo of me on the end would have been priceless, But Terry, who was up on the roof, had his eyes closed while I was doing it.

And so did I.

How we are doing the roof is that we are putting the insulation on – this space-blanket stuff that’s hellishly expensive but brilliant, and then putting counter battens on top of the insulation. The third layer is some waterproof plywood, with the counter-battens making the air gap that the insulation needs, and then a damp-proof membrane and then finally the recycled plastic tiles.

As Terry was leaving he told me to put on the rest of the tiles for the first row of plywood, and make sure I do them straight. Well, I did my best, but in years to come people will be coming up here, looking at the tiles and going “I wish I had a pint of whatever it was that he was on when he was putting all those tiles on”

-3

Wednesday 15th July 2009 – NOW THAT I HAVE THIS IMAGE THING SUSSED …

… and I’ve also sussed out how to use my laptop on Terry and Liz’s internet connection, I can post some work-in-progress photos of the roof.

We fixed the remaining rafters to the front of the house, dismantled the rafters at the rear, cut the new ones to size, fitted them, sprayed them in wood preservative and then began to paint them in the brown stuff that I like that comes from LIDL (although that was after I took the pic). We also dismantled one of the new windows to see how it fitted in.

That sounds like quite a lot and indeed it was. We were totally exhausted by 17.15 and it was a good job that Liz summoned us back to the house as we were having visitors.

In fact the phone rang twice, which is no joke when you are 8 metres up in the air on a scaffolding. If it keeps on ringing like this, badger the ladder – I’m going for a batpole. When I worked as a chauffeur for a diplomat, our garage was about 4 floors underneath our office and I did suggest that in our next budget we made provision for a batpole. No wonder they kicked me out.

Tomorrow we are finishing off the painting and then concreting the rafters in. When that sets we can start fitting the insulation.

-3

Tuesday 14th July 2009 – I HAD AN EARLY NIGHT LAST NIGHT

Yes, after the bedtime story (I can get quite used to staying at Liz and Terry’s), which was “The Chronologically-Challenged Duck That Was Admired More For Its Personal Qualities Than Its Physical Attributes”, I dozed off to sleep.

But not for long.

At 01:30 we were treated to the kind of spectacular storm that you only ever see once in a lifetime. Thunder and lightning continually until about 05:00. Impressive was not the word!

Terry stuck his head outside at 07:30 and it came back in wet so it wasn’t until about 08.30 until I got my coffee in bed (I can get quite used to …… “you’ve said that once” – ed) and once the rain quietened down at about 11:00 we set off to continue our attack on my roof. We had all of the chevrons on the front off (and half the front wall as well – this is going to be a longer job than I anticipated – we are even going to have to demolish the chimney and start again) and put half of the new ones on before the rain drove us off the roof again.

Terry came home and I stayed on to do some domestic chores but in actual fact I fell asleep.

It’s still thundering now so I dunno what’s going to happen in the morning. It was odds-on that the weather would change the moment I stripped the tiles off my roof.

-3

Sunday 12th July 2009 – WE STRIPPED THE ROOF

Yes, the roof is now off the house.

We all had a bit of a lie-in seeing as it was Sunday (and I can get used to having coffee brought to me in bed, I can tell you) and then we set off to chez moi. While I was sorting out the wood, the breathable membrane, the insulation and the new recycled slates, Terry did his war dance on the roof and the old slates didn’t last too long.

Getting up onto the roof though was easy. Not having a roof ladder (and refusing to pay £189.00 to Screwfix for one), the last time that I was in the UK I went to Toolstation and bought a bolt-on ladder hook for £25 or so and it’s certainly worth its weight in gold.

As well as removing all of the slates and much of the rotten wood, we also removed four mouse nests (and a large quantity of very angry mice), three birds nests, two plants and also one partridge and one pear tree. That took us until about 16:30 and in the words of the famous Arthur Naylor, “it’s not worth starting another case” and we drove back here.

Tomorrow we’re off to Brico Depot for the marine ply, some more chevrons, a roof window, the stainless tube we need for the chimney, the guttering and the crepi for the facade.

About 1000 Euros, I reckon. I’ll be selling my body on Boots Corner in Crewe if it carries on like this.

-8

Saturday 11th July 2009 – HELLO!

Welcome to the nth version of my blog.

The desertion of my previous blog was brought about by the closure of the service, although I left voluntarily just before the cut-off date.

It was in fact the first blogging site that I left voluntarily so I suppose that’s something to celebrate.

I’m only going to be here temporarily as once I find a reliable webhost for my websites I’ll be embedding my blog in there. That makes much more sense to me.

In the meantime, back to the plot. For those of you who have followed my adventures elsewhere, we finished putting up the scaffolding at home today. One leg went through the roof of the verandah and a lateral support went through the door. We had to knock part of the fence down though to get another lateral through.

And once we worked out how the scaffolding went and we put in the diagonals, it wasn’t half rigid. I can’t think of a purchase I’ve been more impressed with and it was certainly a good move to buy it.

Tomorrow Terry is going to smash in all of the slates and the rotten wood while I sort out the new wood, the recycled plastic roofing tiles and the insulation. At last I’ll be starting to empty the barn that I’ve been filling up for years and I can’t wait.

-6

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality

Tag Archives: recycled plastic slates

Thursday 23rd July 2009 – THERE’S NO PICTURE TODAY, FOLKS.

Wednesday 22nd July 2009 – DESPITE THE RAGING HEAT THIS MORNING …

Tuesday 21st July 2009 – WE’VE DONE OVER HALF …

Sunday 19th July 2009 – WE STARTED PUTTING …

Wednesday 15th July 2009 – NOW THAT I HAVE THIS IMAGE THING SUSSED …

Tuesday 14th July 2009 – I HAD AN EARLY NIGHT LAST NIGHT

Sunday 12th July 2009 – WE STRIPPED THE ROOF

Saturday 11th July 2009 – HELLO!

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