Friday, 24 January 2014

Roof: Part 2 - Fascias and membrane

With the roof timbers complete and the wet weather showing no sign of letting up, we were keen to get the roof covered as soon as possible. The roofers had offered to fit breather membrane with temporary 'fly' battens to get us dry, but they needed the fascias, soffits and barge boards in place before they could start.
We had originally planned to fit them ourselves (everyone we spoke to wanted to charge an arm and a leg to do it) but with the inside of the house getting constantly rained on we needed to get the fascias done as quickly as possible. Luckily Dan and Tom agreed to stay on an extra day to help fit them.




After very carefully lining everything up, the fascias were fitted onto the rafter ends.




The soffits were fitted to the underside of the gable ladder.




Soffits were attached to the fascia boards.




Rain hammered down all day and started filling the field next to our house.






We'd managed to get just enough done by the time the roofers arrived at midday.






It was such a relief to get the roof covered. Even though we'd only completed the roof structure the day before, the wet weather had soaked the interior of the house. The timbers are all treated so it can take a bit of a battering, nevertheless we wanted it protected sooner rather than later.








We fitted the barge boards and box-ends while the roofers laid the membrane at the other end of the house.






Looking up at the membrane from our bedroom.









With high winds arriving, Alan and I set about trying to reinforce the polythene around the windows.





We left our large bedroom window uncovered in the hope that the wind would blow through and help dry out the interior. Unfortunately for the next two days the wind decided to blow harder than it had in over 100 years and tore a hole straight through the new membrane.










And if we thought that was bad, the real storm was yet to come...