March 28, 2011

After Six Weeks...

After six weeks (!) of not working, we’ve decided that the first order of business is to finish the roof—both for peace of mind and, on a more practical level, so we can take the scaffolding down sooner rather than later! There’s still a ways to go, though: we have to lay down the battens that will support the slate tiles, and then lay all the tiles. We also have to re-build the eaves, replace the gutters, do the flashing and lay down the membrane on the flat roof.

Today M. (our day laborer) and I started by taking out the temporary battens that were holding the waterproof membrane at the dormer where the final counter-battens (vertical orientation) had not been installed. Once they were gone, we marked the location of the rafters so we could position the permanent counter-battens, and then finally installed them.

The starting point after 6 weeks...
Installing the final counter-battens
Before we could start installing the horizontal battens, we needed to have a clear starting point. Because the new insulation and decking added so much height to the roof, I realized we needed to have the new eave in place (we had had to remove the original one) to give us the new edge of the roof and starting point for the battens.

The old eave...
Old eave is gone - end of rafters exposed
View from inside - showing the openings after the eave is removed
Installing the new eave
After we installed the first few pieces of the eave, M. carried on with that job while I reminded myself how to install the tiles... 
Checking my notebook on how to install the slates
After a few hours - the final assembly