roofing decisions

Today Paul and Paul (the roofers) arrived.

Their first job has been to nail felt onto the roof trusses and to fix wooden battens. The south elevation of the roof was completed within the first day. The battens are the wooden strips onto which the roof tiles (cedar shingles) will be nailed.

Paul and Paul then combined with the John Brash rep to puncture the balloon we'd puffed up about Roger and me doing the roof tiling ourselves.

The roofers think there's a month's skilled work to complete the cedar shingling and the rep thought this might be a conservative estimate. If it is going to take skilled tradesmen a month, this task could keep the two of us gainfully employed till Easter!! So, that's the end of that bright idea then.

The felt and battening has given even greater solidity to the structure and gives an even better idea of how beautiful it will be when it grows up.

We have raised the concern that we'll be paying roofers to nail expensive cedar shingles onto a roof that will subsequently be penetrated and covered as we instal photovoltaic panels. We meet on Monday to sort this one out!

Newtec directors Tim Crosby and Steve Waring

So much of what we're involved with now takes us out of our comfort zone. I don't like to keep going on about how good our builders are. In fact, I've included a photo here to show that they're not much to look at, but they have been absolutely great in leading us through some difficult decisions. Thanks Newtec!