So this is it...the last two days of our marathon to finish the roof and get the scaffolding down. It's been a huge push - working 10-12 hour days and even with that, extending my trip by several days to get everything done. While i have loved being up on the roof (except when we
re-framed the joists in the dead of an
English winter) and seeing London from this unusually serene perch, I'm ready to finish and move on...
There are a lot of small things to finish before we can take the scaffolding down, but the last "big" item is to finish all the
flashing around the
dormer and along the edge - again, a tricky detail to span
both types of roofing: traditional slates and modern membranes.
So I started up on the flat portion of the dormer by installing lengths of heavy lead - known as "code 4 lead" - to cover the edge of the
flat roofing membrane that wraps up to face of the brick wall.
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| Where the roofing membrane meets the brick wall |
Before inserting the lead, one has to cut away at one row of mortar joints, so there's a gap for the lead to go into - fortunately I had done this messy job several weeks ago, so installing the flashing here went relatively quickly. that is (of course!) except for the tricky bits, which were at the various corners towards the edge of the dormer. That proved time consuming, but I had it done in time for a late lunch.
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| Late morning of July 4th - the rows of lead flashing installed |
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| This area is the trickiest - several corners and an overhang from the coping stone |
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| It's not too clear, but the corner flashing pieces are installed |
I then spent several hours working on some of the other tasks (see next post) but by the early evening I was able to start on the final flashing task, which involved installing the lead along the edge of the dormer. This flashing detail was worked out about a month or two ago when I was finishing the slates on the dormer. This is the tricky flashing detail I've mentioned several times: it has to span two very different types of roofing.
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| My sketchbook
where I worked out the flashing details - the one in the center of this
page is the final version for the edge detail of the dormer - a wooden
drip edge wrapped in lead that works over the slates and the membrane. |
Because we had previously
treated and painted the wood structure, I was able to start attaching the lead right away. To further enhance the durability of the detail (and because we had a lot of extra pieces), I decided to add a row of "soakers", which are folded sheets of stainless steel used to prevent water penetration at any
90 degree intersection of slates. These "soakers" helped seal the top of the wood and were then wrapped in the code 4 lead. The lead is held in place by a series of straps that are nailed into the wood, but are cleverly covered by the flashing - a great traditional detail used for hundreds of years.
This work was only completed the following day. The last tasks involved cleaning the roof for the last time, applying a protective patina coating on all the lead, and inserting a special caulk into the open joints where the lead is inserted into the brick. This caulk prevents water from going into the brickwork, and under the lead, while allowing for the naturally-occurring movement between the brick and lead without cracking.
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| In the early evening able to start the edge flashing - fitting the first pieces |
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| The stainless steel "soakers" with the lead clips awaiting the final piece of lead flashing |
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| The completed assembly - looking up |
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| The completed assembly - looking down. Here you can see the all-important drip-edge taking shape |
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| Morning of July 5th (final day) - preparing to flash the edge along the flat roof |
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| Ready to install the roughly formed lead |
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| Here you can see the stainless steel "soakers" ready for the lead |
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| A detail view of how the clips will be covered by the final piece of lead |
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| Flashing finished - cleaning the roof for the last time! |
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| View of the finished roof & flashing - her you can see the detail where two roofing types come together, with the recently completed edge flashing in the distance |
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| Final view of the upper roof - flashing completed, lead has it's patina coating, caulking done. |
