Day 24: Bill the roofer

Its a saturday, but work goes on: its nice to have keen builders. Fortunately the day is bright and clear so they can work, starting about 8:30. Gavin turns up and begins slicing strips off 18mm ply with a circ saw: amazing how fast you can work when you have the right tools (and how some right tools compensate for other poor ones: he has the stack of ply sheets on top of two wheelbarrows as a workbench). These get nailed on the roof (using a nail gun, another time saver) around the edge and he tastefully arranges the above-roof wires and boxes them in with more ply. I leave for town so I miss the next steps, which is putting the insulation on top of this.

I do get to see the laying of the tar covering, and the exciting "flaming" this involves. Or at least I watch layer 1 go on, apparently there are 4, with the top layer being a tasteful red, which is nearly finished when I get back at 6.

An interesting facet of this work is that it needs to be done quickly: you lay the sheet roll, flame it, roll it down, move along, flame that to a liquid surface, lay that, and so on. So that you don't over-flame and melt though, nor under- and have it not stick. Fun to watch for me and DE.

Talk briefly with Gavin over what-next: the window-work can go in, then get glazed, then the inside is waterproof and the plastering and stuff can be done.