Day 11: Cantilever

As ever, Pete the bricklayer turns up and sets to work in good order. By the end of the day he has the walls about up to the top and concrete lintels over the windows and all is looking good. A slight question over is-there-an-internal-lobby-wall is settled in favour of No, by reference to Ian/BtB. Pete would far rather talk to BtB (I give him Ians number, but its quite clear he isn't going to use it) and perhaps this is fair enough: he is used to BtB who is his employer. When I get back at 3 Ian is there and Bob recently departed, they having discussed this and another issue, viz:

How are we going to support the rafters at Dots end? There is only a single thickness of brick between us, and the roofing "beams" end awkwardly right at our side. Ian had thought of a stout beam running along the top fixed into the wall, but this might be a bit much for it to support. The chosen alternative (by them, but I agree) is to use 2x2"s fixed vertically to the walls to support the rafters, and a beam at the top. This will enable a bit (well, 2") of insulation/soundproofing between the plasterboard and the walls. We explore options (could the vertical beams be exposed and nice? Possible, but fiddly: involved cutting the plasterboard in between, and would spoil soundproofing). I wonder if the wall covering could be something other than the tedioously obvious plasterboard (pine? but M vetoes this). Ian had talked to Dot, who was worried about being able to see daylight through the wall: this will of course end up being fixed, and is anyway only because there is now daylight to shine.

Ian then notices that where the roof has been removed, the wall is cantilevered out by 1/2 a brick (see pic). This is apparently a Bad Thing, because the concrete roof (on which the bricks were partly sitting before, probably) is no longer there. Some infill will be needed for good form. Of course the other course of the cavity wall is still OK...

The digger is now gone. Apparently it was Off Hire as of friday, so we weren't paying for its presence. I clean a bit of mud from in front of Betty's house to avoid annoying her. There is now a fair amount of dust around the back, where Pete has been brick cutting, and my red bike is now a bit covered, though since it has a flat tyre I'm not too worried.