The clear-up begins

I ordered an 8-cubic-yard skip, the largest that would take building waste - anything bigger would be too heavy to load onto the truck.

Pips Skips put it exactly where I wanted it and supplied one with a drop-door at the end which is very useful for loading the first couple of tons by barrow.  After that it does need to be closed or it all comes out again.  So from that point onward it all needed lifting over he sides either by bucket or shovel.

If it was hard work digging it out of the ground and throwing it into a pile, it was harder digging it out of the pile, barrowing it round the house and tipping or shovelling it into the skip.  Part of the problem is the rain we have had recently has made it much stickier and heavier.  It was lovely dry sand and soil when I dug it up, now it is heavy mud.

The last bits had a half-way stop on a tarp at the front of the house because I was too tired to load it all in one go.

I had hoped to be able to get rid of all the soil and rubble at the same time, but weight and volume dictated that it wasn't all going to fit, so the soil went.  This has cleared the 3m behind the extension so I can put the scaffolding up and get the soffit & fascia ready for the roof membrane and battens.

In addition to my scaffold tower I managed to buy a second tower through Gumtree.  A lady near halesworth was selling it before she moved house and only wanted £15 for it.  Between my phone call and turning up to collect it she had another 20 calls - I think it will sell well afterwards!

So though the two towers are not compatible, now I can split them to make four bases.  I bought 10 Scaffold Boards (deals) each 3.9m long and have a good working platform outside the extension.  Trouble is now if you want to get to the garden you have to go through the garage, still it should mean that I can get the gable end of the extension ready for the roof membrane, battens, windows and doors.

The plan is to have the extension water-tight by the end of the Christmas holiday, not with the real windows and doors- they will cost something like £4,000 - £5,000 - but with OSB panels cut to size and fastened in temporarily so it can dry out and I can work on the electrics, plumbing, floor and the like, however, until we have the real bifold patio doors on the back I can't really brick-up the old back door because we will still want access out of the back of the house. 

The skip is full and needs to go,but I will have to get a second one at some point to get rid of the brick rubble, and there's bound to be a lot more to go as the project continues.

Mid November update

A couple of things have moved on:

The wall plate I bolted to the parapet wall adjoining Jean's house was only a 4" x 2" timber held by half a dozen sleeve anchors and when I thought about it I decided that I needed something more substantial.  So I removed all the rafters and unbolted the wall-plate.  I cut a couple of lengths of 8" x 2" down to 6" x 2" and drilled it with about 20 bolts.

Once it was on I re-fitted the rafters using galvanised truss clips to locate and secure them.  The rafters are nailed to the ridge plate and spaced equally from the centre point with correct gaps for the 4 velux windows.  Now I need to cut a whole shed-load of noggins to keep the rafters straight and stop them from twisting.

The outside gable end of the extension needs some work to fit the fascia and soffit so I can build the box gulley and lay the roof membrane and battens.  Unfortunately i can't get scaffolding to that end because that is where all the sand/soil/rubble is piled up.  So the next job is to get a skip and clear the space outside the back wall for the scaffold.  The largest I could order to fill with building rubble is 8yd.  I don't think it will be big enough for all the waste, but at least it will clear enough space for the scaffold to move into position and get the roof moved on another stage.

I'm not keen on the short, dark evenings and cold, wet and windy weekends for working on the extension.  I think the chances of getting the roof covered by Christmas are getting slim.

Happy ever rafter

The rafters are 8" x 2" timbers, nominally 14' long (200mm x 50mm x 4200mm) which needed cutting to length and notching at each end to fit over the ridge beam and onto the wall plates.  I cut a piece of timber that had been nailed to the back wall of the house as the wall plate for the old conservatory to make the ridge plate on top of the steel ridge beam.  It needed cutting down from 6" to 4" but was clean and in good condition so it seemed a waste not to use it.


Each rafter needed to be mitred at the end to the 20 degree pitch and then notched to fit the exact distance between the ridge plate and the wall plate.  I started by using my mitre saw, but moving the rafters into position for each cut was difficult without having roller stands to slide them along, so I resorted to clamping them to a pair of trestles and using my old circular saw - which coped well with the 2" depth of cut.  I did have to finish each cut off with a hand saw so that the circular blade didn't over cut any of the lines and weaken the timbers.

At each of the gaps for the velux windows I needed to double the rafters to ensure sufficient strength to support the windows.  The wooden ridge plate and the two wall plates overhang the end wall of the extension so I can build in a 6" soffit overhang above the triangular gable end windows.

These pictures only show the rafters laid on the plates, not adjusted for position or trimmed to ensure they are straight, parallel or at right angles to the walls - all this will come later.

It is interesting to note how much more of a feel for the actual size of the finished room it is possible to get now there is a roof structure.  What would be useful at this point would be a second scaffold tower and/or some wheels for this one as it is difficult to drag and I will need to move it all over the extension to be able to get to every part of the roof structure.  I suppose if I can get a second one I could easily sell it afterwards...