The Roof

The dream was to make the roof pretty much watertight before Christmas, but it just didn't happen. Too many school and social carol services etc. and wet evenings and weekends left me with bare rafters into the Christmas holiday.

So the noggins needed to be cut and fitted, the frames for the velux windows had to be made and squared and some additional bracing needed to be fitted at the ridge beam.  All of this meant multiple moves of the scaffolding.


Initially I had set it up right across the back of the extension so I could fit the soffitt overhang and fascia.  The new tower was split into two - part indoors and part out with the 4m boards lapped over three sections of scaffolding to make a long run.

Once that was complete I moved it to the drive to finish attaching the rafters to the wall plate using truss clips and angle brackets for the double rafters.  The noggins were all awkward because the gap between the rafters gave too little room either for the drill or for hammering in nails.  Once again every job took three jobs because of moving scaffolding and re-assembling it in the new position.

Once all the structural timber was up I went to Cushions for 11mm OSB3 boards to put on top. Wickes wanted £15 for each board, Cushions' were £9.80 so as I bought 15 I saved £78.  I spent 2 days fastening them to the rafters and taping the seams.  I made the box gulley out of off-cuts from the rafter ends - all cut at 20'.

It needed to slope 2" over the 4m run so it was a matter of lining up first and last, running a string between them and measuring at each rafter then trimming them with the table saw to fit.  It only took a morning and with the OSB cut and screwed down, with a little bit of silicone to seal the end - and a lot of yellow tape along all the edges, it should be water-tight enough until I get the membrane and battens.

I have left the holes for the velux windows covered with the OSB and will simply jigsaw them out when I am ready to fit them.  So now i may be able to get the floor dry enough to lay the final screed.  There are still some little bits of brick/block laying to finish off around the ends of the lintel, along the top of the driveway wall, the old back door and covering the steel post that supports the ridge beam.  I need to work out how many bricks/blocks I need and give a Saturday over to completing so I can do the last bits of insulation and fit the cavity closers.