Day 3: roof no more
DE are back and E is up at an unearthly hour in giddy expectation of seeing these wonderful creatures called "builders" who she has never seen before. They arrive a little before 8 so her desires are gratified. She and D go out and I introduce them.
Ian comes round for a look and chat; the roof is indeed to go, and at roughly the same time they are chipping away at the edges near the gutters. Soon the brick saw starts as they cut a line through the asphalt so they can chip off our side and leave Dots in peace. They way they did this impressed me: they measured the distance on the inside, transferred it to the outside, then using a scaffolding plank Peter marked the line down; and then cut it; and they got it right. If I had done it, I would have made multiple measurements and multiple cross checks and got it wrong. Sorry the picture is so poor: its taken through a window that is - ahem - not quite as clean as it might be. Plus reflections.
I go off to Cambourn (elec) and come back at 10; the gutters are down (that I painted so carefully 7 or so years ago...) and in the skip; the asphalt is chipped off. I go to work. When I get back past 12 the roof is down in a heap (D said it was exciting to watch) and they are breaking the bits up into a skip and carefully separating out the not-very-dangerous asbestos, all while wearing masks which I suppose is necessary. It becomes clear that the roof was asb formers, with reinforcing rods (actually twisted pairs of thick wire) laid in place and pebbly concrete poured on top.
Ian comes round again with a redrawn plan to show to Robert, who is due "now" and arrives in now+10mins, which is close. I have my lunch and let him and Ian discuss it outside, then ask them whats up. Costings will be a few days, but it looks like everyone is happy this way: the room will be bigger, and the work will be less fiddly for the builders. Of course the total cost is likely to go up... We discuss what to do with the "pergola"; in the short term, just shift one of the legs.
The skip gets taken away and replaced by an empty; 3:30 they have stopped clearing rubble and are tidying up. Now its nice and sunny. A side effect of the roof being off is that the passageway door is brightly lit and this is good. They have brought some reinforcing mesh and some other things which I think are only going to be needed if we do dig out new foundations, which is not supposed to be a firmly made decision yet, although its near-inevitable and only dependent on some reasonable costings from BTB. The picture shows the roofless state. If you look carefully at the left you can see how the "beams" lie between us and Dot: they are slightly awkwardly on our side, and this will require a wooden beam along the side to tie the rafters to.
Ian comes round for a look and chat; the roof is indeed to go, and at roughly the same time they are chipping away at the edges near the gutters. Soon the brick saw starts as they cut a line through the asphalt so they can chip off our side and leave Dots in peace. They way they did this impressed me: they measured the distance on the inside, transferred it to the outside, then using a scaffolding plank Peter marked the line down; and then cut it; and they got it right. If I had done it, I would have made multiple measurements and multiple cross checks and got it wrong. Sorry the picture is so poor: its taken through a window that is - ahem - not quite as clean as it might be. Plus reflections.I go off to Cambourn (elec) and come back at 10; the gutters are down (that I painted so carefully 7 or so years ago...) and in the skip; the asphalt is chipped off. I go to work. When I get back past 12 the roof is down in a heap (D said it was exciting to watch) and they are breaking the bits up into a skip and carefully separating out the not-very-dangerous asbestos, all while wearing masks which I suppose is necessary. It becomes clear that the roof was asb formers, with reinforcing rods (actually twisted pairs of thick wire) laid in place and pebbly concrete poured on top.
Ian comes round again with a redrawn plan to show to Robert, who is due "now" and arrives in now+10mins, which is close. I have my lunch and let him and Ian discuss it outside, then ask them whats up. Costings will be a few days, but it looks like everyone is happy this way: the room will be bigger, and the work will be less fiddly for the builders. Of course the total cost is likely to go up... We discuss what to do with the "pergola"; in the short term, just shift one of the legs.
The skip gets taken away and replaced by an empty; 3:30 they have stopped clearing rubble and are tidying up. Now its nice and sunny. A side effect of the roof being off is that the passageway door is brightly lit and this is good. They have brought some reinforcing mesh and some other things which I think are only going to be needed if we do dig out new foundations, which is not supposed to be a firmly made decision yet, although its near-inevitable and only dependent on some reasonable costings from BTB. The picture shows the roofless state. If you look carefully at the left you can see how the "beams" lie between us and Dot: they are slightly awkwardly on our side, and this will require a wooden beam along the side to tie the rafters to.
posted by William M. Connolley at 7:15 AM
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