Reroof

At the end of the mill on the eastern end is a two storey extension.  On the ground floor is a piggery which is accessed from the garden while the upper threshing room is just beyond the mill room up a few steps and it was previously used to refine and weigh out the flour.  

Our intention is to convert this room into a lounge, kids playroom and occasional 

spare bedroom.  Firstly the leaky and rotten roof needed changing.

The weather forecast a few weeks back looked good so on the Monday morning, we started removing tiles and the very rotten tongue and groove that was sitting on the joists. Al had a few scary moments and felt more comfortable once he could rope himself to some strong beams.

As the week progressed we checked removed and replaced around 10 of the joists which were rotten.  Thankfully only those that were wet from the leaking tiles were really rotten.  We also cut into a beam and cross braced it in order to be able to fit a wood burning stove in the future snug.  We gave everything two coats of wood preserver.

By Thursday we managed to finish the waterproof membrane and batten along the beams and across the joists on which the new canal tiles will be placed.  We were relieved to get a waterproof layer onto the roof before any wet weather came in and we could get the tiles completed at a more leisurely pace now it was at least watertight. 

We had decided to use the traditional hand made canal tiles of this area  (aparently the tiles are made by shaping the clay over the thigh of a virgin!) to improve the look of the extension but we wanted to futureproof the roof so we used modern hooked under tiles with reclaimed cover tiles to keep the originality.  Furthermore we used steel hooks to keep the cover tiles from moving.

The tiling was started 10 days ago and it was not a speedy job, the tiles themselves needed lifting onto the scaffold one by one and then up onto the roof.   

Starting at one edge of the roof, we installed the tiles row by row going up and down the roof.  The edge tiles needed to be mortared on to hold them securely in place and where the roof arrives at the main house roof at the top, the masonry of the top of the house wall needed to be chopped out and the final tile slipping underneath and mortered in place.  

We finished yesterday morning with a big sigh of relief just before a huge rain storm!