The insulation in the roof consists of 50mm slabs of insulation between the rafters and the insulated plasterboard on top. The plasterers weren’t very keen on fitting the insulated boards. It has to be cut into strips and jammed in between the rafters. It is a messy and time-consuming job.
So guess who gets to do it?
These are going to be my next project!
And the rest of them! 48 in total.
The Blanchon oil arrived last week from Peak Oak and I painted a small patch to see what impact it has on the colour of the oak. Just as planned. It is the natural finish, but it did look dark when I painted it on. It takes 6 hours to dry. It hasn’t really lighten up very much as it has dried, so I am in two minds about it. Even leaving it to dry for 3 days hasn’t made that much difference.
I would like to get the oak sealed before the plasterers start any work. Otherwise, there is a chance that we will get plaster (and/or paint) on the oak and it will be very difficult to get off.
The architect is on site tomorrow, so I will seek some guidance before doing anything else.
With the windows all installed, our attentions have moved to getting the openings sorted out for two pairs of large doors at the rear of the house. I always knew that there were big (particularly after having seen the quote for supplying them!), but I hadn’t realised quite how big until I saw the openings – each door is over a metre wide.
The ashlar surrounds for the window at the rear and the two openings for the doors was around £3,000 (just for the materials).
Where openings have been walled up, there are now some stones that need to be sandblasted. It just mean getting the sandblaster out again, but he is relatively local and doesn’t seem to mind. It shouldn’t take long to sort out these odd patches.
The gas board have also disconnected the gas supply so that we can move the pipework at the front of the house. This leaves black marks on the stonework where the sandblaster could get to the stonework as the pipes were in the way. This can all get picked up when he comes back.
The windows are all in and they are covered on the inside with some lightweight plastic to protect them while the inside of the property is being plastered.
The last of the wagons collected the waste spoil in Friday and the site is starting to look altogether more tidy.
We have now replaced the ashlar above the window to the left. The window head is now the same thickness as the other windows, but the stones that have been used to wall it up need to be sandblasted. There are two pairs of doors at the rear and the stone surround for the first of them has gone in.
The newly rebuilt extension is looking really great. Still a bit of tidying up to do and some pointing, but we are definitely getting there.
Now all of the windows are in, we have covered the insides with a lightweight plastic to protect them while the inside is being plastered. The windows were installed with the final coat of paint already on.
I have been down in London for the past couple of days and it is always great to come back and see the progress on the house. The builders always seem to make more progress when I am not here! I wonder why!
Anyway, the roof is finally complete on the rebuilt extension. We were held up for a few days after the wrong size Velux rooflights were delivered. Anyway, the correct ones arrived earlier in the week and the roofers returned to finish off the job they had started.
It looks really nice and it very light inside. We have double the size of the window in the wall and increased the size of the rooflight and then put in two instead of one! Much of the window sizing was based on what was there previously (although there was never a rooflight). The problem with this approach is that this part of the building was a coal hole! There was no point in rebuilding it to have a very modern coal hole. It was easier enough to increase the window sizes. Since none of the windows overlook anyone else, or in fact can be seen by anyone, we didn’t need to go back to Planning.
When I get some time, I will take some photos from the inside.
The roof on the newly re-built extension has been completed. The Velux windows finally arrived a couple of days ago which meant that the roofer could get on and finish the job (despite the rain!).
The large oak trusses in the existing property have been sandblasted and were treated at the weekend for woodworm and associated problems.
The question now is Do we leave the beams as they are? Or treat them in some way?
We don’t really want to change the colour of them, but it would be good to seal the wood a bit to make it less prone to picking up dust and dirt. Something that would accentuate the grain with a matt finish would be ideal.
Peak Oak recommended Blanchon Maintenance Oil (http://www.peakoak.co.uk/blanchon-maintenance-oil.html). I have ordered a tin so that we can try out a small test patch first.
Inside number 9. You can see the King post truss and the tenon joints (with pegs) that join the purlins to the principal rafters.
The roofing felt and lathes are now in place on the rebuilt extension. Tomorrow the stone slates will be replaced and with any luck the roof will have been completed by the end of this week. It will make a big difference.
The sandblasting of the extension is planned for the weekend so that we can get on with the pointing of the extension next week.
Felted and battened and ready for the stone slates to go back on tomorrow. This should be done by the end of the week.
Inside everything has a greenish hue due to the felt on the roof.
Looking out of the window in the rebuilt extension. It feels a bit like camping!
This is turning out to be a lot slower than anyone thought. This is largely due to every stone having to be cut to make sure that the depth of the stone allows for a cavity in the wall. There is blockwork on the inside, 100mm of insulation, an air cavity and then stonework on the outside. Each of the stones that makes up the external face of the extension has been cut using a Stihl saw – noisy and dusty work.
Today, the stone ashlar surround was installed. There are only a few courses left on two sides then the walls are completed. The rafters are installed. There is a large green oak beam to be installed (roughly where a thin batten has been fixed) and the holes need to be cut for the two rooflights. Then we are ready for the roofers to return.
Another view showing the new window and the newly installed roof timbers
We have used ashlar that we have salvaged from elsewhere on site to create the new door surround for the re-built extension.
The ashlar for this window was salvaged from the front of the property
Although the floorboards are still to be laid upstairs, it is possible to get around on planks (as long as you are very careful).
From upstairs, it is much easier to see the roof detail in the king post trusses. The oak is pretty much as we found it. It has been lightly sandblasted to clean it up and a number of the purlins and one of the tie beams had to be replaced. But other than that (!), it is in good shape.
Once the insulation is installed between the rafters, then these will disappear from sight. However, you will still be able to see the truss and the purlins.
This is a drawing here showing the makeup of a king post truss as well as an interactive 3D image (courtesy of Microsoft Photosynth) here.
Inside number 9. You can see the King post truss and the tenon joints (with pegs) that join the purlins to the principal rafters.
Another view of the roof truss in number 9.
Well, the floorboards haven’t gone in yet, but that hasn’t stopped me walking across some planks to get a view upstairs.
I have used Microsoft Photosynth to produce an interactive 3D panorama. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t allow embedding of iFrames.
So here is the link
The existing cottages have three original king post roof trusses that date back to the 1700’s. We have replaced the tie beam on the middle cottage and then replaced 6 purlins through the 3 cottages (2 were later replacements and 4 were cracked). We have used reclaimed oak with all the replacements to ensure that it matches the existing timbers.
In addition, we replaced around 50m of wall plate (this is timber that runs along the top of the wall and carries the ends of the rafters).
Other than that the existing oaks timbers were simply sandblasted to clean off the years of muck. They will be treated with a wood preserver later.
A traditional King Post roof truss. This is the configuration that we have in our property. There are three in the existing properties.
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