Countdown to Christmas – Day 5

The two heroes from yesterday turned up on site again at 8.30am this morning and this time were joined by a third colleague. The forecast for today was not that good with dull skies and showers expected for the whole of the day and into the evening and the question was whether they’d be able to catch up on what was left over from yesterday and press on to finish making the house waterproof before the holiday.

To be honest, the conditions on site were pretty poor with the ground soft and muddy with standing water and parts of the oversite inside the house under more than an inch of rainwater. Conditions like that are not good to work in when you’re up and down ladders carrying heavy weights and the slightest slip can send you crashing down onto the ground or the concrete floor below.

Making the house waterproof wasn’t as simple as it sounds. Covering the roof with the waterproof plastic sheeting that they began to fit yesterday was only part of the job. If it was just left and not securely fixed down it would take hardly any wind at all to get under it and rip the whole lot off in seconds, so not only had they got to finish covering the roof today but they also had to get some or all of the wooden battens on that will secure the plastic and eventually support the roof tiles.

I noticed a few of the tiles that will be fitted leaning up against the wall yesterday.

Today they’d been laid out on the floor so measurements could be taken for the spacing between the battens so they obviously had in mind to start putting them in place as soon as they’d finished fitting the plastic sheeting. The question was whether they’d be able to beat the weather and as before, they got off at a cracking pace. But this time there were three of them, not just two, and this helped to speed things up even more because two could be working on the roof while the third ran the materials up that they required.

They did incredibly well. Not only did they get the whole roof finished and fully battened ready for tiling by lunchtime but they had time to do a really good clean-up job before they left. Luckily the weather was more kind to them today than yesterday, although ironically whereas yesterday it rained almost without stopping and they got soaked through, today they’d persuaded their employer to supply them with waterproofs that they didn’t need.

They did a fine a job that was very neat and tidy inside and out and I’m very pleased with it.

There are still some odds and ends to be finished off after the holiday. They’ve started on the ridges, for example, but there’s still work left to be done on them and I’ll guess they’ll be back to do that after the roof tiles have been delivered. But at least I can breath a sigh of relief as although the rain has continued on and off since they left and into the evening, at least very little of it will have found its way inside the house. And more importantly, the main trusses can now begin to slowly dry out.

And there are also signs that the builder is now thinking ahead to take the project forward as after 6.00pm this evening I received an email asking for confirmation regarding internal door dimensions. I don’t care that I’ve already provided it because I’m just happy to see that they’ve obviously now got an eye on the completion deadline and for that I must be thankful 🙂