Roof repairs

No, not on the boat, nor, for that matter, on the house, but on an outbuilding.

The roof had been steadily collapsing over many years, and I was finally spurred on to do something about it when a wall fell down. The walls are clay lump, a traditional old Norfolk construction, and one end just couldn't absorb any more rain.

Trevor, our builder, patched up the wall with Thermalite blocks (yes, I know it's not ideal, but we had to do something quickly) and has completely replaced the roof.

Here is the roof before work started ...

... and here it is with new rafters and "felt" roughly battened down.

Rather than reconstruct the hips Trevor formed gable ends to make it easier. When it's rendered and painted black it will look good.

Today I painted my hands with black woodstain. Some of it went on the undersides of the rafter "feet" and boards visible from below.

More reclaimed pantiles are coming tomorrow, then Arthur, the roofer, will nail the battens in position and hang the tiles. Oh, and do the ridge. This will, apparently, take a huge amount of mortar. I had to buy five bags of cement (and a ton of sand). I hope the walls will take it!

When it's all finished the roof will be much better than it ever was. The original had no felt under the tiles, so it was always draughty and a bit damp up there. And now all the cobwebs have gone too.