Why can’t we have weather like this every week?  Blue sky, sunshine and warm temperatures, it was a pleasure to work in those conditions.  Forecast for next week, rain.  Typical!

On Monday Stu and I finished off the final internal block work wall on the first floor, just leaving the hallway brick wall to do.  In the afternoon we fixed all the remaining timber strapping on the inside of the main roof.  On Tuesday we put the remaining roof trusses into position now the scaffold was out of our way and we could fix them in, and then fixed all the timber strapping into position.  On Wednesday we fixed all the soffit and facia, and made a start on the felting and timber battening.  On Thursday we nearly had the roof finished when we came up one length of felt short!  So we got into the van and had a trip out to Huntingdon to get a 50 metre roll so we could finish the final 4 metres!

On Friday we had a trip over to Swindon to visit the National Homebuild and Renovation Centre, with my Dad coming along out of interest.  Half the centre is made up of ‘cut away’ displays showing all the different types of construction on foundations, walls, roofs etc, with easy to understand wording to go with them.  The other half of the centre is made of various exhibiters.  If you are doing a self build, having a new build done or having a large extension done it is a great place to visit to gain some knowledge and see things first hand.

It was a good week this week, even though it was tinged with sadness as it was Wayne’s last week before he disappeared for the summer onto his boat.  Months of peace and quiet ahead, can’t be bad!

Wayne finished off building up the three gable ends, carried out the finishing touches and completed the chimney and did the last of the brick corbelling.  While he was doing that, Stu and I loaded out the main roof with the roof tiles, and then put on the soffit, facia and guttering.  Once that was done, we made a start on getting the roof tiled.  By the end of Thursday we just had the last couple of courses of tiles to run and then pop the ridge tiles on to finish the job.

The weather on Friday was grey, windy, cold and over cast with the threat of rain at any moment.  Just want we didn’t want if we wanted to get the roof finished.  As it turns out, conditions were difficult, and we had several ‘shall we, shall we not’ get off the roof as the threat of rain loomed, but we managed to escape the rain in the end.  We put on a dry ridge tile system which is a fairly new product, and in the conditions it was the right way to go.  The finish using this system looked better than the usual cement pointing up of ridge tiles, and as there is no cement involved in the system, we could get the ridge tiles on and into position without having the fear of turning up on Monday to see most of the cement pointing up having run down the tiles after a rain shower!  So I’m glad we tried it, and I would defiantly use it on my next job.  The main roof was all done and completed, and we can move onto the single storey roof next week.

I called the scaffolders and told them we had finished with the scaffold, and that they could take the scaffold down next week.  A big turning point in the job, as we get to see the house as it is meant to be without being shrouded by planks and poles.  We said our good byes to Captain Birdseye, aka Wayne, wished him safe travelling, and Stu and I looked forward to moving the build forward and getting started on the various first fix tasks.

Now the trusses are in place, we can get on with getting the roof done.  Stu had Monday off, recovering from a lads weekend away, leaving Wayne and I to get the roof felt laid onto the trusses, fixing the timber baton as we went.  As the new build we are working on is pretty exposed location wise, I always knew it was going to be fun and games trying to get the roof felt laid, and that’s how it turned out.  With a strong wind blowing in across the fields, it’s a good thing Wayne is an experienced sailor, as it was more akin to getting the sails up and down rather than trying to lay roof felt!  After a long day, we had the roof felt down, and the baton on.

For the rest of the week it was a case of getting the two gable ends all finished off, and the finishing touches to the chimney carried out.  So I kept loading out the blocks for Wayne, with Stu’s assistance when he wasn’t keeping Wayne’s boards loaded out with muck.  By then end of play Thursday, Wayne had everything finished.  On the Good Friday, Stu and I did a half day to make a start on getting the facia, soffit and guttering into place prior to tiling.

We were all off on Monday and back on site Tuesday.  I was given a delivery time of between 8am and 9am on the Friday for the timber truss delivery, so with that in mind I planned out the day. I arranged for Quinto cranes to be on site to carry out a contract lift, which is a crane and driver, and two other men to see the materials lifted safely into position.  Stu was taking the Friday off as he was having a long weekend away, so Wayne brought along his son Alex to fill the void and provide an extra bit of assistance.

During the week we built up the three gable ends, so all we need to do is run in the last few blocks in line with the trusses when the trusses are in position.  We also got two thirds of the first floor internal wall built up. 

So the big day arrived, Friday, and the truss delivery.  The crane and three men turned up for 8am, and so did Wayne and Alex, so all we needed was the trusses.  9am came and went no delivery? Phoned the truss people again, delivery would be with me for 10am at the latest.  10am came and went, still no delivery?  I was then told delivery would be between 11am and 11.30am!  After their mess up with the joists, and the problems with the truss order, you would have thought they would have made the effort to turn up on time, and they couldn’t even do that!  So after six men and a crane had been sitting around doing nothing for three hours, we got the lorry un-loaded and started lifting the trusses into position.  A couple of hours later, the trusses were in place, and it was just a case of fixing the timber strapping into place.  At last, the trusses were in place, and I have no need to deal with the timber truss people again.  Hooray!!