After years of patching, we discover the roof has been slyly leaking into the loft over one of the bedrooms. The beam is saturated. It’s time to bite the financial bullet. This is something we can’t do for ourselves. We lack the skill, the ability to do it quickly enough, besides which, our roof-clambering days are done. After shopping around and getting quotes, we go with a highly recommended local builder. His is, incidentally, the cheapest quote by several thousand. He agrees to come when the weather forecast promises a few dry days.
But first, as we couldn’t afford insulation when we built the extension, we get the walls backfilled with injected insulation.
Within two weeks of commissioning the work, the weather forecast is good, so timber and slates arrive and scaffolding is erected.
We score a winner, as the pair of builders are pleasant, work steadily without stress, and don’t mind at all being creative. We want pointy bits (they advise me these are called pigeon roofs) over the upstairs windows. We had originally purchased a job lot of windows that were eight inches too tall, so from the inside the eaves are visible. No bother, they say, and proceed to make holes in our roof.
The old roof was made in a traditional manner, with slates onto bare timber, sealed inside with lime plaster. The slates are crumbling, and the plaster is dropping into the attic. On a regular basis we hear a ‘thud!’ and look up, wondering whether the roof has finally given up the ghost…
What a pleasure to watch craftsmen at work. They cut the wood below, carry it up, and it fits together, perfect as a jigsaw puzzle. Note the hint of jealousy… Below, you can see the old roof timbers obscuring the top of the window, and the outline of the new pigeon roof. They will eventually stuff these with insulation before finishing the front.
When the three pigeon roofs have been constructed, the old slates are cleared. Note the blue sky. We hold our figurative breath for three days… Where we are living, only a few miles from the Atlantic, squalls can come over in minutes.
The weather holds long enough for the underfelt to be laid, and new battens nailed on. This makes the roof waterproof, even if it isn’t fully slated. Then, after a weekend break, the slating is completed in little more than a day.
The builders then attack the north side. Here, we want a gable to accommodate an upstairs bathroom. There’s a single, original window in the north side of the building, at the top of the stairs. This was always intended to lead through to an upstairs bathroom. We installed the Velux to bring light into the stairwell from the extension roof, but this will now be redundant. The new bathroom is situated above the downstairs bathroom, convenient for water and waste.
The builders decide that the most efficient way to do this, however, is not by a gable, but by a lifted sloping roof. Holes are made in the old roof to accommodate construction, and the framework is erected.
Timber in place, the roof is waterproofed (kind of) for the weekend break. There is a smattering of rain, but nothing too drastic.
Three days later, the rain blows over, and the new room is clad with two layers of board.
Then felt and battens are added, and it’s ready for slating. This wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but it was cost-effective, and the end result is a usable space. The builder supplied us with a secondhand window, too.
Although we lined the chimney with a ceramic liner, the wood tar from one hundred and fifty years of open fires seeps through the wall, creating a yellow stain. This end of the building is lashed by Atlantic squalls, creating a machine-gunned effect, so we intend to have the original wall clad with concrete board when finances permit.
This is the inside space for the bathroom, which we will complete ourselves when the builders have gone. The wall above the window will be knocked out, and the sill lowered, replaced by a couple of steps and a door with glass panels.
Finally, our neighbour came up with his mobility ride – he broke his ankle badly some months ago, slipping off a roof – and helped to clear the huge pile of rubble from the road into our yard. We rescued all the old timbers and threw them in the woodshed for winter kindling.
The major structural works now completed, the pile of building rubble in our yard will soon be removed by another friendly farmer. This pile of slates, stones, earth and plaster will end up as landfill – back from whence it came.
It’s about twelve years since we purchased this sad wreck.
And this is what it looks like today (summer, 2022).
