Stormsail

Had some fun and games working in the loft in preparation for moving the combi-boiler. The first task was to bring the central heating, hot and cold feeds up into the loft so they can be connected up when Andy the plumber physically moves the boiler from the kitchen up here. It’s the first time I’ve actually soldered plumbing work (let’s hope it doesn’t leak!) and seemed to go reasonably well. I say that because I actually avoided setting fire to anything else in the vicinity…… The trick seems to be using flux on the joint and then getting it hot enough for the lead free solder to melt into the joint.

The only other job was to use an angle grinder to cut a path for the pipes over to the wall to where the boiler will be mounted when it’s moved. The next big job is to get gas up here which travel via outside pipes rather than inside. That should be interesting to do and will obviously be certified by a fully qualified plumber before going into use as will the rest of my handy work!

So after actually building the shed door using tongue & groove floor board with cross batons on the back and then painting a couple of times it was ready to be finally hung on the shed. Using some hinges I managed to fit it on but only to find that it didn’t quite fit as expected due to me adding additional width to the door frame. However that wasn’t too much hassle to use Dad’s jigsaw and plane to remove the excess which then allowed the door to work. Once on, I then fitted a lock and then moved onto fitting a couple of shelves to make use of the upper space in the shed.

It’s amazing what you can do with space if you have a little think. We’re going to have to make all the use of the space in the entire house once Pheeb’s moves in. Right, onto the next job….

On Monday I got round to doing some work in the loft as I had a day off in lieu from my day job. The aim for the loft project was to board the entire loft and insulate the tunnel which provides light into the bathroom via the Velux window in the roof. The Velux got fitted on the 10th November by G & N roofing who did a good job despite the weather outside. Still, a good supply of tea helps to keep spirits high…….anyway back to the loft. Once the roof light tunnel was insulated I moved into some re-wiring which involved moving the light switch from the old loft access hatch to the new one + fitting an additional florescent tube light. That actually took me an entire two days during a previous weekend but at least I can see a little better up there. With that complete, I was then able to get some loft boards from Wickes and spend some time slotting them together over the rafters to form a decent platform. The idea is to provide some additional insulation, some storage space and a platform to finish the firewall ( I didn’t fancy balancing on the rafters whilst bricklaying…). So, a day later and 200 odd screws (to secure the boards) I finished. I just need to complete the other half and do some bricklaying to completely finish the job. Let’s hope I find some time……

Having spent the week off work, I managed to finish the shed roof in slate which was a remarkable improvement from the corrigated iron roof before. I essentially built a wooden frame on top of the brickwork and then put on some roofing felt. Once that was tacked onto the frame, I then put some battons before laying the slate tiles on top. I managed to cut the tiles using an angle grinder with a brick/tile disk as I couldn’t complete a row with whole tiles. Once the last layer was on it was only a matter of finishing it off with the flashing. For this I cheated and got some cheaper flashing as lead was about £50 for a very small amount. Now, it’s just a question of finding time to build the door…..

Yes, after a week of time and effort, Rick has finished rebuilding the top part of the back wall. Unfortunately, as Ricks getting on a bit and is no longer a spring chicken it came down to me to make lots of tea, mix up cement and run around collecting bricks so he could complete within a week. This meant collecting 320 total odd bricks from various reclamation yards during my lunch hours and then moving them out the back so Rick could use them on the wall. Unfortunately we couldn’t save that many when the wall was demolished. I’m glad it’s finished because I’m knackered but it was worth it in the end from looking at the finished job. Next on the hit list is to re-point the bottom half of the wall (both sides) and to rebuild the shed with a slate roof….