East Wing Sarking boards

Ric had covered the west side of the east wing roof with sarking, to allow him to tie in the first 8 north wing trusses, using the joining kit provided by Stevenson & Kelly. He started boarding the east side and got about halfway up the east side before he moved on to building up windows on the walls of the north wing. He had not left gaps in the boards to use as footholds, so we dragged out a bay of scaffolding and our two roof ladders. 

We started at the south end, working upwards with groups of four boards making sure the ends of the boards got nailed in to different trusses. We picked up Ric’s hot tip and used the blades of mortar trowels to form the 2mm gaps we needed between boards, then nailed down the top 3 boards. We pulled out the bottom, loose, one and gave ourselves a footrest to work up the next set of boards. As we got to the ridge of the roof, we nailed all the boards down, including a full width one at the ridge. This left a gap below that was less than a boards-width, we sawed a board to size and nailed it in. Then we worked down the roof, nailing boards into the gaps we had left. 

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We worked our way along the roof until we got close to the north end of the roof and cut the boards so that they stuck out over the gable-end blockwork and a bit over the parapet. We can trim them up when we build up the parapet and re-lay the stonework.

More concrete blocks

The only things stopping us putting up the remaining roof trusses on the north wing are the incomplete front door and one of the kitchen windows. The front door is a job for another day because it needs a good weeks work to build up the stonework, including either side of the garage door – it would not be easy to do them separately. The kitchen window, however, is just missing the concrete blocks above the lintels that will support the trusses, a half-days work. We had mild, still and mostly sunny weather for the duration of the visit. We checked our weather forecasts and decided to risk it. We used cement mortar because a) we had only one bag of lime left over from the summer and I was not sure what state it was in and b) the cement was in plastic bags and was still usable. 

It took two mixes of mortar and one bucket mixed by hand to lay one course of blocks widthways across the concrete and granite lintels and two courses lengthways along the inside edge of the wall. We covered it for a couple of days just in case of sudden frosts, then cleared it all off. 

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So when we move up, we can install 28 or so trusses along the wall whilst we finish the front door.

Boarding the big window

Our big 3m x 3m window faces south and gets hit directly by strong winds whistling up from the south-west, we needed a heavy-duty covering. We collected the chunky angle brackets I had ordered from Screwfix, and used them to fix a couple of left over 47×147 timbers across the width of the window, at 1.2m and 2.4m respectively above the base. We fixed some 47×75 vertical ‘noggings’ between and below these and were able to screw a row of three OSB boards right across the bottom of the opening. We used three part sheets above, screwed to the top timber and tied in with strapping to the opening. Much tougher than the other windows, hopefully it will survive any remaining winter gales! 

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Boarding up windows & doors

We planned to cover doors and windows in the east & north wings, as part of getting the structure weathertight. We have 11 windows, including the relatively huge 3m x 3m one in the south gable wall of the east wing. We also planned to cover two of the four doors. We expect to do the other two once we have got the north wing trusses in place, but may want to make sure we can open them to get in and out!

Knowing that Ellon Timber are closed over the Christmas/New Year period, we ordered 22 sheets of 9mmx1200mmx2400mm OSB3 and 20 lengths 47×75 treated timber for the week before we arrived. The plan was to cut the OSB wider and taller than the opening and use horizontal and vertical pieces of timber to brace the OSB and to lodge the board against the opening. We would use our steel strapping screwed to the timber bracing and to the back of the opening to hold it all in place. Most of the openings are too wide for a single piece of board so I had done a rather rough estimate of how to cut boards so that we did not have a lot of waste left over. 

The plan turned out to be OK and we did not waste any board. We used horizontal bracing timber at the base (to rest on the window/door sill) and near the top where we needed to join two pieces of boards. I cut a single vertical brace to run between the horizontal ones and used 40mm stainless steel screws to fix it all together. I cut four pieces of steel strap, one for each end of the horizontal braces, screwed them on, then drilled and screwed the other ends to the back of the openings, well away from anything that would show once the windows are installed. We got over half of them made up on the first day and finished them the next morning, except for the big window. I needed to install a much sturdier frame for that one, to withstand the gale force winds that we can expect to hit it face on. We discovered after we got on site that we had used up all the heavy duty angle brackets. I ordered more from Screwfix. We will pick them up in due course.

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Meantime, we got on with other jobs.

Hiring a removals van

We had pondered what to do with our possessions until we had enough storage space inside the steading. We had supposed that we would use a self-store facility somewhere not too far away. Then Jill twigged that the massive shed/garage on our immediate neighbour’s property was probably not full. It is right in our faces, but we have developed the ability to not notice it as we grow trees in front of it. She enquired, our neighbour agreed. So we started paying him a reasonable monthly rent and thought about using our Christmas/New Year break to get a first load of stuff up. 

We looked on the Enterprise hire site at hire costs over the Christmas period. For a bit over £400, we could get the largest panel van they hire for the duration of our visit. We went for it and on the last Friday at work before the break, I cycled down in the rain, collected the the long wheel-base, extra-high transit van and drove it warily back to our house. I had supposed I could back it up to our garage but a) it wouldn’t fit width-wise, b) it wouldn’t fit height-wise and c) I did not trust myself to back the van in a confined area. After 6 hours, we had the van full of furniture, household goods & fabric (in mouse-proof plastic crates), a workbench from our garden shed and a variety of garden stuff. 

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The run up to Aberdeen was surprisingly easy, the van had plenty of power, we kept just about to the speed limits and stopped at Weatherby services for lunch. I got a coffee after scotch corner and motored on up. I filled up the tank at North Berwick Morrisons, we had used 66l diesel up to that point. We got onto the AWPR at Stonehaven and zoomed over to the Craibstone roundabout and down to the in-laws in about 20 minutes. So we made the journey as fast as we would have done in the car. We met up with Mr Aitken the following afternoon and emptied the van. Most went into his shed, some we shoved in the bothy. We think we have moved about a third of our possessions, we will ponder whether we hire the van twice more or get a small lorry in April.

Christmas 2018

We had a couple of jobs in mind over Christmas/New Year. Firstly, to get a load of our possessions up and stored in our immediate neighbour’s large shed/garage. Secondly, we want to temporarily board up windows and doors in the north and east wings, so that as the roof goes on we can start to dry them out and create a reasonably protected working area. 

As it happened the weather was unseasonably warm, still & sunny, so we got a small stretch of wallhead blockwork finished and the missing sarking board over the east wing trusses. So it did turn out to be a quite productive visit. It has knocked a week off our schedule for when we move up permanently in April 2019. 

We got a Christmas bonus – our replacement big lintel, for the garage door, was waiting for us nine months after we ordered the original!