Back to slating

Slating around the first rooflight 
We reached the first of our 15 rooflights, so we dug out one of our flashing kits, sat through a couple of YouTube clips and tried to make sense of the instruction leaflet. We had to cut slates to run them about 20 mm below the frame. This was going to be out of sight so I used the small angle grinder with a diamond blade. The bottom part of the flashing lapped over the slates and part way up the side of the frame to work as a soaker for the next course. We used the slate guillotine to trim the next five courses to size, fitting the soakers as we worked upwards. Our slates are quite chunky, so the top edge of the soakers were a bit above the top of the frame, we used the aero snips to trim the tops back. Next up we slid the covers up each side over the soakers onto the frame, screwed them down and fitted the top part of the flashing up against the top of the frame. That screwed in place and we cut the two courses of slate above the rooflight to lap onto the top flashing, 60mm or so from the frame. And that was it. It was slow but not difficult despite the instructions. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Flashing the coping stones 
We started this section of roof against one of the gable ends with a raised parapet and coping stones. We had already cut a groove 30mm from the top of the stones, around 6mm wide and 25mm deep. Our rolls of code 3 lead were 240mm wide, enough to cut down the middle. We cut a 1.5m length, scored a line along with a Stanley knife, folded it back a few times and it split into two 120mm strips quite neatly. We lay the first strip over the edge of the workbench and used a rubber mallet to gently fold one long edge over on itself by 5mm. We cut away the end 75mm of the fold so there would be room to lap the next length of flashing into the groove in the coping. Then a second fold 25mm in, the other way down, leaving a skirt about 80mm deep. The lead was surprisingly soft and floppy, so needed carrying with both hands. We made up three lengths, more than enough to run from the base of the roof up to just short of the top. When we do the other side of the roof, we will finish the top courses on both sides, run a length of flashing right over the ridge and fit the ridge tiles over it. Back on the scaffolding, we gently tapped the 25mm lip on the first length into the groove in the coping and used a bolster to knock the folded edge against the back, raising it enough to lock it into place. We had trimmed the bottom end to 42 degrees, to fit against the top of the wall extension that is a feature of this corner of the east wing. To finish the job, we mixed a bucket of stiff dry mortar and pushed it into the groove to hold the flashing in place. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The rest of the roof
We made rapid progress once we were able to get a couple of full days in. We have moved two bays of scaffolding along, with less than two more to go. We have got the second, large, rooflight half-done after which it is simple slating right up to the north gable-end.

• 

• 

Rooflights Fitted

We got most of the rooflights fitted over two days, with not much hassle. We did have to check that the rafters we planned to seat them into were wide enough, given there is at best 10mm of slack between our rafters at 600mm centres and the actual width of the frames. It did not take much misalignment of one or both rafters to end up with not enough room. We had to move two of the rooflights along the roof by one truss because of this.

• 

• 

• 

We had much more trouble with our big escape window – 940mm x 1600mm. It weighed a good 200kg and was really difficult to handle. The bit I had feared was easier than expected: I cut through the rafter that was in the way, at the top & bottom of the window area, adjusted for the noggins that I then nailed into place. I was expecting some sort of reaction from the truss, but it just sat there. I cut a timber and nailed it between the noggins to form the fourth side of the window area. We decided to unpack & prepare the rooflight on our platform on the joists of the attic trusses, so we gingerly used the chain hoist to haul it up, in the packaging, ready to pull onto the sheets of OSB. Unfortunately, in ‘portrait’ form it was too long and we could not get the base high enough. So we lowered it down and hauled it up in ‘landscape’. This was OK, we dragged the package onto the boards and with difficulty got the packaging off, detached the glass light, got the brackets on the frame and got it ready to drop into place in the sarking. Except that I had not read the packaging and I was convinced it was 900mm wide. It would not fit, being 40mm too narrow. I hacked out the last timber I had inserted, trimmed the boards back by 40mm, then fitted a new timber. This was fine, it all fitted and we got Ric up to help get the glass light into the frame. This was an absolute *******. We had real trouble getting a good grip in the confined space to lift it up, then to keep it upright – I had horror visions of it tilting away from us and crashing down the roof to the ground. After a couple of minutes fiddling, we got one of the side catches to engage, then the other went in and it all dropped into place. The thing is, we have to do it all again, in the west wing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The opening is less than the statutory 1100mm above final floor, but because it is set well back into the roof, we will probably put a window seat below it anyway.

This left three of the small 500mm x 980mm lights to put in the east wing. Here we had more problem with slightly misaligned trusses. One was easily moved along a truss, but two of them were to go over our gallery area and needed to be opposite each other. One side was a good 9-10mm too narrow. On advice, I planed 1mm from each side of the frame, then planed away at the rafters until they were wide enough. The plane would not run into the corners, but I could run the circular saw down the planed edge and get right to the corners, with the exception of the curved sliver below where the blade could not reach, that I chiselled out. Once the frame fitted, it was easy and, because I was working from the attic trusses, I was able to lift the lights in by myself. Incidentally the two rooflights on the west side of the east wing roof has a fairly uninterrupted view of Bennachie, the local ‘mountain’. It is 600m or so high but I very distinctive and is a selling point for houses. Except in our case it must be a good 20 miles away, and was framed by next-door’s massive metal shed and by the poles that carry our electricity supply!

• 

• 

Rooflights delivered

We nagged Ellon Timber at points about our rooflights and were a bit surprised a week ago when they phoned Fakro and found that the units were now in the UK. We were even more surprised when we chased it a few days later and were told they were on the lorry and on our way. We awaited them during a period of heavy rain, they duly arrived, the windows teetering on a single pallet and the flashing kits on a second. The driver got them off in one piece, but we were seriously worried for a couple of minutes because the rooflights swung at an alarming angle before they landed. The following morning, we took one of them out of the packaging, in the comfort of the caravan, to understand a) how to put them together and b) how to fit them to sarking boards. In fact they were easy to prepare. We took out the glass unit, screwed the air vent unit across the top end of the frame, removed transport packers and worked out where to screw four metal angle brackets to the sides.

This done, we spent quite a while working out where to put them in the north wing roof. We decided to space them between windows, to get more even lighting in the big rooms. The next decision was where to position the rooflights vertically. There is not quite enough space between our studwork and the collars of the trusses, but we found a sweet spot where we can bring the top plasterboard down at a shallow angle to meet the ceiling at the break of slope and can run the lower plasterboard down to meet the wall at a steeper angle, to improve scattering of light. We checked that the width between trusses was enough, at the points we wanted to install them. There is only around 10mm spare space between the trusses, if they are absolutely parallel. We had one place that we could not use because there was not quite enough width.

We used a jigsaw to cut out the sarking boards and discovered that the frames slotted in easily and just needed screwing down to the sarking and trusses. Re-fitting the opening parts was a little tricky because of the weight of them, but once they had slotted back together, they were done. The whole thing was a lot easier than I had imagined and we got four units installed in an afternoon/evening.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Rooflights ordered and delayed

We ordered rooflights for our east and north wings early in May. These comprised 14 small ones (55x98cm) and the larger escape window (90×160). I phoned Ellon Timber after the expected 5 days to ask after them. They phoned Fakro, who gave them the bad news: We had ordered triple glazing, those units had to come from Poland and would be delayed by at least two weeks. There was nothing we could do, we decided to work on building the front door and garage gable walls until the rooflights turned up.

And It seems that triple-glazing is still a bit of a luxury or oddity. We decided on it because we wanted the bit extra insulation – a window U value of 0.97 against the standard 1.3 – and the improved acoustics.

We need to prepare for windows

With our roof starting to take shape, we need to think about doors and windows. We would like to make our own.

This might seems a bit cranky, but there are big plusses for us. We want wooden windows/doors with powder-coated aluminium on the outside. We can choose the species of wood and we think we can create a big enough oven to powder-coat largeish bits of aluminium. Powder-coating is readily available in a bewildering array of RAL colours. We want windows with a single (probably top-opening) casement & our big 3m x 3m window will not have casements but will be in three vertical sections, each with one horizontal bar i.e. it will be like 6 smaller windows. Ric has a piece of equipment that he can ship up that will thickness-plane timber and has a spindle moulder. Ric would make some of the windows and then train us up to carry on. We can make the wooden shutters we want to use in place of curtains (downstairs, at least) and we are not interested in the current fashion for really skinny window frames. We can buy the grade of sealed units, opening mechanisms and door furniture we want – subject to meeting standards of course. It may also work out cheaper than buying made-to-measure windows – none of our openings are any sort of standard size.

We would not be interested in making our own roof lights – they will be comparative invisible and are more technically challenging to make weather-proof.

We had a look at suppliers of Scottish Hardwood, there are quite a few of them (although some sell more generic UK-sourced wood) and we got a bit of a feel for prices. Typically oak and beech are at the higher end, with ash, lime and larch at the lower end. Ric converted our list of windows and doors into a spreadsheet of timbers, large enough to allow for machining down to size. Most of the window frames will need 125mm x 100mm timber (uncut dimensions) and 75mm x 75mm for the casements. The big window would need 200mm x 100mm timbers, to provide the strength to resist strong winds. We would use 200mm x 65mm timber for the doors and 150mm x 35mm timber for the frames.

Anyway, we would need lots of timber, more than 200 pieces, which amount to 3.24 cubic metres or 114 cubic feet. We need to contact a few suppliers and get guide prices for different types of timber…