Every day…

It’s a-getting closer. It’s not going quite as quickly as a roller-coaster but the finishing line is almost in sight. I didn’t manage to get anything like a full day in today but nevertheless, I was still able to make good progress on the new wood store. The morning started wet but it cleared up before lunch time and although the forecast was for showers on and off for the whole day, that was all the rain that we ended up getting. When I went out to start work, it was obvious that we’d had quite a bit of rain overnight and that some had dripped down inside off the sides of the boards that I’d placed on the roof to keep the job as dry as possible. But they’d done their job quite well though, and it didn’t take that long to clean up.

The boards themselves are not strictly waterproof. They are made of a material called OSB3 that consists of compressed wood chips and shavings bound in a hard glue or resin. They are not designed to be constantly exposed to the weather but a few wet days (or nights) won’t do them any harm. The main danger is allowing water to penetrate the material from its edges and that won’t be a problem in the long term as it will be painted with a sealant and then covered by a layer of roofing felt.

I didn’t expect to be working on the roof itself today, but I did want to get the whole of the rest of the basic framework completed, which is what I managed to do. That included all of the remaining horizontal frame bars, bracers for the tops of the door frame sides and most especially, the back horizontal roof support. I hadn’t been looking forward to doing the latter at all because it had to be firmly fixed to the house wall, which is not only made of very uneven stone making it difficult to find regularly spaced fixing points, but is also very hard to drill.

My solution was to pop down to Les Briconautes for some new diamond-tipped stone drills in progressive sizes so I could start small and gradually increase the hole diameters up to the size that I required. They made the job very much easier than I’d expected, so my old drills that I had been using up until then must be pretty well worn out!

But anyway, I did it and here are some shots that I took at the end of the day as the light was failing after I’d finished work and cleared up for the day.

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So all being well, if the weather is kind again, tomorrow should be the day of the great leap forward involving the fitting of the roof. I’ve got to complete the top of the door frame first and fix the top board on each side. I have to do that to give me my level to work to and my exact roof dimensions but I won’t bother explaining as it’s a bit complicated and all to do with calculations of the number of wall boards from bottom to top, having the right amount of overhang below the bottom of the frame down the sides of the concrete base so the weather can’t get at the bottom wood of the frame and having the ‘right’ amount of board over the door and at the top on each side. After all, what matters most in the final event, is that not only should it look right but it must also work 😉