Week 17 - Roof Complete

Since the last post the project has come on leaps and bounds.  The roof is complete including the roof lantern above the stairwell.  Mark Bucknell from MJ roofing has done an awesome job and comes with our highest recommendation.

All the slate complete

From the field side

The roof lantern

Gary, Graham and Danny have put all the floors in, which has allowed for the internal studwork to be constructed.  We can now walk around the building and begin to imagine the spaces in more detail.

The stonemasons have been completing the last of the repairs to the existing structure, which has involved numerous helibars being inserted to stitch the walls back together. We have reinstated the windows in the front and back of the long barn which had previously been blocked up.  Steve has reused some of the vousoirs to create new arches which look great.

Pete and Barney have cracked on with pointing on the gable end overlooking the canal and are making good progress with getting this end water tight.

The plumbers from Simon Kittow have also arrived on site and have fitted the first fix for the bathrooms in the Mill.  We have also moved the bath up into our bathroom in order to get it's position exactly right before the pipework is installed.

In goes the bath

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The Farm looking great!!

We have spent our spare weekends insulating the walls with celotex.  This is easily the most horrible job on site and the builders were happy for us to crack on.  We were glad to get most of it finished over the bank holiday - just the roof to do now!!

Kitchen insulation complete

Spare bedroom and bathroom (incl first fix plumbing)

Top floor bedrooms and bathroom

Our bedroom and bathroom

The next few weeks will be pretty quiet as we enter the holiday season - not for us unfortunately!!

The next jobs will be to OSB board over the celotex to create the service void for the electrician Henry Pring to come in and install the first fix.

After that it we will be ready to plaster board which will release the plasterers before we get cracking with the underfloor heating.

The replacement windows have been ordered from Terry Martin Joinery, as soon as they are installed we will be able to wave goodbye to the scaffolding.

We will try and update more regularly!!

Cheers!!

Outside

Pumba - chillin'

Week 14

Since out last update the project has begun to resemble a home.  We have a roof on, the felting and battening is complete, half the roof lights have been installed and the slate is going on.

Battening complete

JCB to rescue lifting slate onto the scaffolding

Roof lights being installed

Half of one side complete

Tapco Slate

The slate we are using is an imitation slate made with slate dust and a composite plastic.  The benefits include the weight and speed of fixing as well as zero breakage during installation.

Internally we have been able to crack on with the structural studwork to begin constructing the floors.    The most exciting part of the internal work has been the construction of the fireplace in the sitting room.

Studwork in the kitchen

Fire place being constructed

Fire place nearly complete

Adrian and Steve constructing the fire place

Final stages

Externally there are a few remaining structural repairs which need to completed; repairs to vousoirs above a couple of windows, areas of stitching and the never ending raking out and re-pointing.

Bedroom floor joists

We have the floor in the bedroom and floor joists in to support the bedroom above the sitting room are almost complete.

The kitchen beginning to look little more like a room

The final survey for the windows has been completed and the central roof light should arrive in the next week or two.

Raking out and pointing

It was also great to see some friends on Easter Saturday, thank you to everyone who popped in to say hi.

Week 10 - Roof On

With the ridge beams in place it was time to crack on to get the rafters in place.  Before that could happen we had to move all of the scaffolding from the inside of the outside walls and position it in the centre below the ridge beam in order to allow the builders to position and fix the rafters.

Tom and Naomi took a break from their renovation and were brilliant in giving up their weekend to help us with the mammoth task, the also brought supper with them - legends!!  We also took the opportunity to have a good old clear up on site.

Naomi doing some essential tidying up

Retired Royal Engineer to the rescue

With most of the reconfiguring complete the builders finished the scaffolding and began the process of fixing the rafters.

It took just 2 days to get the majority of the rafters on, with the rest of the week being taken up fitting the double rafters and trimmers for the ridge and roof lights.

Kitchen looking up to our bedroom

The stones masons' effort switched to building the gables back up in order to allow the roof sheeting to be fixed prior to the roofer arriving in the middle of April.

With the rafters in place it was time to move the scaffolding again.  Chris' Mum and Dad popped down for the weekend and the weekend scaffolding crew set to work repositioning the scaffolding in the kitchen to allow the floor joists in the double height section to be fixed.  Mum and Cat cracked on with a second coat paint on the barge boarding before it is fixed in place as well as yet more clearance of scrap from the yard - when will it end!!

Trust Brackets

We have fixed another 4 roof truss brackets - only another 9 to go!!

The roof is on

Boarding the roof has taken just 2 days, there is a little still to do as the stone masons need to finish building the gable end on the left back up.

The Kitchen looking back to the hall way and sitting room

The Kitchen

It is beginning to feel like a house and with another place in cover it does give the team flexibility to continue working in the event of bad weather.  

Chris has also attended a renewables show to work out the best biomass solution for the property.  Slowly but surely we are cutting through the salesman bluff and additional cost and getting near to a solution we are happy with.

Roof lights and slates are ordered and we are all set to begin slating at the start of week 12!!

Week 8 and 9 update

The past two weeks have been focused on continuing the repairs to the gable ends and the construction of the internal structural walls in order to allow the team to insert the internal and roof beams.

Work has also continued on the structural studwork at the front of the mill enabling the wall plate to be secured in place.

The rafters have been been cut and the supporting beams for the staircase inserted.

The glulam ridge beams arrived early at the start of week 9 whilst the oak beams were delayed by a day as the sawyer was unable to source a piece of oak large enough for the beam in the bedroom (500mm x 350mm x 6.8m).

With everything in place we booked the crane and on Friday afternoon it arrived on time ready to start lifting.

The first beam to be lifted was on of the two internal glulams to support the kitchen ceiling. We quickly realised that the sockets were not deep enough to allow for those beams to be swung into place. The solution was to rest the beam in place release the straps to allow the crane to carry on with the other lifts whilst the stone masons turned the sockets for the glulams into holes in the wall to allow the beams to be slid through the wall before being slid back and slotted into their final positions.

We took the opportunity to also lift into place the rafters which have been cut this week, something which will save a huge amount of time.

This was the only hiccup and 2 hours after the crane arrived it was turning around and making its way back to Barnstable with all the beams in place, another milestone reached and the first bottle of champagne cracked to celebrate everyone's efforts.

In other news the trust brackets for the long barn have arrived and Cat's dad fitted the first one on Friday - another significant milestone achieved. 

Next week we look forward to fitting the rafters and boarding the roof.