Just in case you think the roof is finished...

...it's not.

One might imagine that now with the slates done, the roof is finished...

...but unfortunately that's hardly the case.

There's still a long list of things that needs to be done before the roof work is officially finished, the scaffolding can come down, and I can go back to New York:

• The Ridge tiles need to be installed along the sloping edge of each roof plane. These tiles are triangular shaped and cover the gaps where the roof planes meet (at one of the dreaded corners) with a bed or mortar. The tiles are placed on the mortar which holds everything together and seals all the openings. (You can see one of these ridge tiles sitting on the edge in the picture above.)
• The eaves, which are plywood, need to be be protected from the rain so they don't rot away. They can either painted (which would mean they would have to be re-painted every few years), or - preferably - covered by a waterproof sheet (so they won't fade or need repainting).
• The gutters need to replaced because we took the old ones out in order to remove the roof joists back in January as part of the structural work. Besides being in the way, the old gutters were metal and rusting away - it was only a matter of time before they started falling off...
• There's a small area of re-pointing to be completed in the brick party wall over the flat roof.
• The flashing needs to be completed along the brick wall - primarily where the flat roof is.
• Once the flashing is completely finished, I need to apply a special waterproof caulk in the open joints where the lead is inserted into the brick. The caulk is formulated to bond between the brick and lead, but allows each to expand and contract properly - this avoids the problems associated with water getting into cracked mortar, which is the traditional way to seal the joint.
• Our neighbors' TV antennas, which are cluttered along the face of the dormer, will need to be relocated.
• And now on to the dormer - the first element of the dormer that needs to be done is all of the final exterior trim-work and facing. The plan is to do this with wood and then paint it (beacuse it will be easily accessible for repainting)
• Once the dormer is trimmed out, the wood needs to be treated for exposure to the rain & damp weather with a protective coating for the wood. Once that's dry (2 days later), all joists and screw holes need to be patched with an exterior filler. After drying and sanding, the wood is ready to be primed, and then finally painted with 3 coats of black exterior paint.
• Once the dormer is painted and finished, the final flashing/cap can be installed over the top edge. this will prevent water from coming in along the edge of the dormer where the slates stop. The trick with this is that the detail needs to span both types of roofing: traditional slates and modern membranes, yet look the same for visual consistency.
• The vents for the boiler, kitchen exhaust and bathroom exhaust need to be cut through the brick wall in the rear and the vents need to be installed. This has to be done before the scaffolding comes down because otherwise there is no way to install the vents and patch the holes. The plumbers will do the boiler vents and I'll take care of the others.
• The hole from the old boiler vent needs to be patched (once the plumbers take it down) - otherwise we'll have a 4" hole on the side of the building!
• The windows need to scraped and painted (not replaced) because in a few years we would like to replace the windows with efficient double-glazed windows. 
• Paint the exterior stone sills and other decorative stone elements that frame the windows. These are probably the most distinctive features of our building's facade.
• The floor of the Juliette balcony needs to be poured in concrete. To do this, the wood form-work must be made, followed by the placement of steel reinforcing bars, followed by the brackets that hold the railing posts. Once all of that is done...then you can pour the concrete...
• Once the balcony is poured and dry, the balcony railing can be installed.
• Finally...the scaffolding needs to be cleared of all the debris that's piled up since November, and then it can be taken down by the scaffolding company!

Repointing (is annoying!!)

It's the last day of a short (3 day) week here in London because of the Royal Wedding tomorrow and the bank holiday on Monday. As a result I decided to to do the re-pointing of the brickwork along our party wall, figuring it would be a simple, one-day job, and necessary to do before moving forward with the flashing (see next post).

Re-pointing is when you remove some of the old (often cracked) mortar between bricks and then put new mortar back. The first step is to remove the old mortar - this is usually done with a small angle grinder that cuts out the old mortar. Once that's done, the open joints are cleaned, the bricks are moistened, and the new mortar is put into the joints. Once the mortar has dried a bit, it can be finished in a number of different styles.

The brick wall

The old, deteriorated and missing mortar joints

This all sounds fairly straight forward (to me at least), but it's a tedious, time consuming and messy job. As i was researching online the correct way to do this, I came across a web page where the guy said something along the lines of: "I find re-pointing meditative, but it's not for everyone. If you don't find it meditative, then it's probably best you don't do it yourself." Turns out he was right...I definitely did not find it meditative!

The cleaned and cut-out joints (after using the grinder)

Cutting the mortar is messy and you end up completely covered in dust. As if that was not enough, pointing the bricks with new mortar is much harder than it looks. One is actually not supposed to get it onto the face of the brick as it may stain...but as you can see that's exactly what I did!

The new mortar in the upper joints, old mortar below

Cut & cleaned out joints

Yours truly placing mortar in the joints

The finished joints

Perhaps today I did not have my usual patience, or felt rushed to get it done, but regardless, I learned that re-pointing is just not something I'm good at, or enjoy doing. Fortunately it's a small wall and I did not have to do too much, but it still took all day...

The completed wall