The roof after one week

The roofer was stressed as he thinks things are going too slow, but to me, he and his colleagues worked their asses off, and quite a lot was done in one week. It can't be easy dealing with an old house like this, where nothing is straight!

The plan

Having said that, there is a dependancy on the bricklayers for some of the roof work on the back of the house, and they only return from holiday next week (assuming they turn up), so I can feel myself getting stressed soon enough if they don't rebuild that wall.

But back to the front of the roof: Monday, they removed all the tiles as previously posted. I was away for three days, so coming back there was a world of a difference. Timbers have been added to the sides of the roof beams to provide an even surface on both the inside and out. On top of these timbers, a 35mm thick layer insulation board was added (made of wood fibre), on top of which counter lathes and lathes are to be laid. They also had to cut through a few of the beams to make way for the shed dormers (Schleppgauben), and finished building the frames for these. What more can I say? Let the pictures tell the story.

Sunday

Monday

  Being away mid-week, I missed a lot :)

Friday

And close of business, Friday

Under the covers

  I'm pretty happy so far, and great to see a part of the plan in physical form.

Roof work begins

Der Lutz (who also happens to be a neighbour) began working on the roof today. Miserable weather for it, but they got most of the front roof off today. It's slow, as we decided to keep as many of the old tiles as we can to use on the far side of the barn, which could do with some replacements. We have about 1,000 on pallets now, so we told them to just junk the rest of them, so tomorrow should go quicker.

It's strange looking at the roof structure from the outside, with the floors in the attic held up by a skeletal structure. Some substantial timbers involved, but it still looks a bit flimsy. No beam along the apex seems weird.

Tile rescue production line in action.

 It's even better from the inside. Compare to previous shots from the first and second attic levels.

The 2nd attic level, west, open to the elements

And closed again. Gives a nice view of the structural elements.

The Spitzboden on the west side. Lots to clean up.

I think I preferred it dark...

The guys also removed the cladding from the east gable, exposing the half-timbered construction we knew was hiding behind it. It's really hard to make out from this angle and all the scaffolding in the way, so I'll do some climbing at the weekend to try and get a better view.

Scaffolding up!

Next stage complete. Over Thursday and Friday last week, two guys erected the scaffolding. A fairly tricky job in places, particularly between the house and barn, as they had to poke through parts of the barn roof overhang. It means we now have broken gutters and water pouring all over the place when it rains, despite my patchwork after. I also had to take the corrugated iron roof off the old machine house between the two buildings which used to house a winch for the barn. Sadly, the guys had to take apart the gear wheels as they were in the way.

New look!

Tight squeeze between the house and barn.

The old machine room between house and barn.

West gable (just before the rains).

Tomorrow, work begins on the roof. The forecast is a bit grim, but fingers crossed.

No smoke without a... chimney.

Another day, another bit of destruction. The two builders, Werner and Wally (nickname, and not sure how you spell it here), arrived this afternoon, despite supposed to being on holiday, to take the top off one of our chimneys. Top blokes, and clearly make a great team (although perhaps a little like the Odd Couple). This chimney will be removed all the way down, but just the top needed to be taken off today in preparation for the roofing work which begins next Monday. They even re-tiled the hole where the chimney was, so you'd hardly know there was ever one there! They did warn us not to hang around the back of the house too much though, just in case.

Before (or rather during).

After (when the sun came out).

In the Dachspitze, right at the top, before.

In the Dachspitze, after.

Next level down, let's call it 3rd floor, before.

And after.

And still a long way down. Cleaner than expected!

In the meantime, after removing the ceiling plasterboards in the slaughter room (I really need to stop calling it that, as it was formerly a bakehouse) to be sure there wasn't any water damage after last Friday's torrent, I'm wondering what they'll do when rebuilding the back wall. This is the wall that was an internal wall till the bathroom was knocked down, and it really needs to be rebuilt as we'll have a new placement for a door and window in this wall. The beams from the floor above span between the wall and an original, large oak beam (must be 7 metres long, spanning two rooms). Either they prop the whole lot up while rebuilding the wall, or we have to take the floor above out and reinstate it later. I'd almost prefer this, as it might give more scope to use lighter, modern material, and tank it better as the bathroom will go above.

Relatively new beams and boards, above which is concrete.

Spot the difference

We should be very happy. The heavy work has begun. But I'm not feeling the love. Having met with three of the firms last Monday, the brickies, who are to do the heavy demolition work, were to begin the next morning, between 8:00 and 8:30, we were assured. Nobody arrived, and there was no call, no explanations. On Wednesday, two experienced, mature men arrived, and by Thursday they had completely removed the extension at the back. Brilliant work! Having spent two days away for work, it was quite a sight to turn the corner at the back of the house have have a completely new view of the garden. So much space has been released behind the house, we now get a feel for what it might be like to sit outside the kitchen on a warm summer evening. Lovely

Before.

After. Rear facade, July 2011.

The only problem i had was the sacking used to cover the gaping hole where the extension roof was. But, it was Thursday, and they were to return on the morning to put some plastic sheeting over it, and to take the top off the left chimney. This has to be completed this week, as they go on holiday next week, and the chimney has to go before the roofer starts in just over a week.

Adding water to the general dirt is not nice.

Friday morning, up at 6:30 to go open the house by 7am. Nobody arrives. We don't have the boss's mobile number, for some crazy reason, so we call the architect who is told they had to deal with a gas pipe problem, and they'd send someone on Monday to cover the hole properly, and besides, the forecast was for no rain. Then, at 5pm, it rains. Heavily. Luckily I had put some small sheeting in the floor under the hole, carrying most of the water away, but no way could it hold back the torrent. Water literally poured in, and went through the floor into the kitchen below. In desperation we call the boss's home, and his wife calls him, and soon, the poor chap who had worked on this the previous two days, and who had been sent elsewhere for the day, left home and came over. I helped him put up the new sheeting. I don't blame him, but the management and communication is dismal and unprofessional. And I foolishly thought that German builders (or rather the management) would not conform to the stereotype!

That's more like it! Still only temporary.

Having punched holes in the plasterboard ceiling in the kitchen to release trapped water, I think I'll take the whole ceiling down tomorrow, as well as removing the corrugated iron roof on the machine room, which needs to go before the scaffolding goes up next week.

Still, let's think happy thoughts, and stop with a new vista of the barn.

Before.

After!

I really hope things improve with this firm's attitude when they return for more major work in two weeks.

All Systems Go

It's hard to believe. After months of delay, we finally got the "Rote Punkt" a couple of weeks ago that means we can do what we want (well, within the bounds of the planning application). What's more, this morning we met with our architect and three of the firms who'll be doing the main works on the house. Tomorrow morning at 8:30, the general builders start with demolishing the extension at the back of the house. They have a week to do this, after which the scaffolding will go up next week, and the week after, work begins on the roof.

In a few days, this ugly thing will be gone.

Demolishing the extension is not a simple task. As the roof is made of asbestos sheeting, they need to do it with protective gear and bag everything. They must also notify the building department, as they might do a spot check to be sure it's all done according to the rules. What we'll be left with is an internal will acting as a thin outer wall, with the bathroom door acting as a temporary back door till the general builder returns from holiday to rebuild the back wall, as well as the other major jobs on his list. But more of that anon.

In the meantime, we have some decisions to finalise about roof windows and what kind of beam do we want to replace the broken one in the living room: steel or a wood composite. The steel will have a smaller profile, but the wood might look nicer if we do not clad it. Perhaps one of the easier decisions to be made...

Like pulling teeth...

Location of cellar 4.

...literally! You'll see why below.

There haven't been many blog posts on progress of our own work, but that doesn't mean to say we've been doing nothing. It's just slow, dirty work, and the place is a mess. But then that's part of the fun, so there will follow a few "in progress" posts, despite the piles of plasterboard lying around the place (we need a container soon).

Cellar 4, before work began, June 2011.

The first rounds of estimates are in, and we're finalising details to select contractors. First off will be the Mauerer (equates to a bricklayer, but I think of it more like a general builder) who will demolish the 1970s bathroom, dispose of the asbestos roof, knock through walls, build new walls, sort out drainage and, one of the bigger jobs, re-lay the floor in cellar 4, as this is where the boiler and pellet storage is currently planned.

The floor of this cellar is a patchwork of cobbles, concrete tiles and poured concrete. All of that has to come out to a safe depth (foundations are probably quite shallow) and layers of gravel, membranes and concrete laid to reduce the capillary action that is currently making this quite a damp room. When it's raining, the borders between these patches of different floor look damp, so much so, that we wondered how high the ground water might be, considering the house is built into a slope.

Stratigraphy!

First job was to dig a test pit, about 60cm deep, after which it was ignored for a week to see if water would seep in. I was surprised it didn't, but then, there is quite solid clay, above which was a 12cm loose course of sand and lime followed by fairly deep limestone cobbles. There's definitely lots of moisture, but just not of the running water kind. If a cobble splits, it's shiny and moist inside, so definitely rising water issues to solve.

We want to keep the cobbles for further use, and that's monkey work I can do rather than paying someone to do it (every little helps), so this has been one of my tasks over the past couple of days (and after a week in Edinburgh, just what the Doctor ordered). Mostly, this has involved work with a lump hammer and masonry chisel to loosen the stone, then just lift. Not too heavy until two-thirds across the area where they are sitting, bonded in what looks like limecrete (I assume so if this goes back some time). This really is like pulling teeth, having to bash a gap between stones in order to then prise it out with a crowbar, leaving a socket behind. I had thoughts of lifting and re-laying the floor in cellar 1, which is completely cobbled, but that's now on the very long finger.

The stones are being stored in one of the cellars in the barn, which we now refer to as the Stone Room. All manner of reclaimed bricks, tiles and other stoney material are being stashed here for better times.

Part of the cobbled are remaining in cellar 4.

About a quarter done, with the easy stuff.

Where it starts getting hard. Literally.

There's been decades of cow and horse urine over these stones, but no treasure found under them yet!