I've been calling the north side of the roof (facing the street) the
Dark Side partly because it does not really get any direct sunlight, but mostly because it has always given me trouble. It's much smaller than its adjacent side, but it has the brick wall with all its
flashing on one side, and the other long, dreaded
corner. Also, its irregular shape means that towards the top, most of the slates need to be custom cut to the appropriate angle or size. I guess because of these factors, working on it has always taken me more time than I expected - and unfortunately completing it was no different...
I had hoped finishing this side would go quickly, maybe taking a day or two, but it ended up spanning over three days - not only because of the special factors mentioned above, but because on top of all that, the weather turned and it kept raining. The work involved required me to complete half a dozen rows of slates at the top, and then close up the long corner. As you can see from the picture it did not look too bad (at least that's what I thought). The first day went very well, with good weather, but then the weather started interfering.
So with the weather and all the irregular slates, the Dark Side continued to give me trouble, and completing it dragged on and on...
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| Morning of June 8th - the task ahead (did not look too bad) |
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| First few rows of slates added |
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| Final four rows |
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| Reaching the top (finally)... |
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| View from above |
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| Laying down one of the last slates |
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| For the last slate, you can see how irregular the space is, and the cut needed for the one below |
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| The top row had to have each piece cut irregularly on the top to match the slope of the flat roof |
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| The rows of slates completed...time to fill in the corner |
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| June 15th - (morning) - after some time away, starting the last major corner of the roof |
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| By the end of the day, I was more than halfway there, but it kept raining which slowed things down... |
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| June 16th - With rain all morning, work only really began in the afternoon |
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| The last row to be filled in. |
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| Finished! With both sides completed, roughly 95% of slates are down |
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| Montage of the finished slates |
