R and B Carpentry's April conversion

For April I thought I’d put a blog up to follow our progress as we take on a loft conversion to first fix stage for our latest client, here it is.

The ‘drop’

With Travis making us first drop on Saturday morning, we had a good start to prep everything for a Monday kick off, but not without a hiccup of course. Half the timber ordered hadn’t been loaded, most of which were the joisting timbers we’d need first, apparently it had to come from another branch, not that we were informed beforehand. Still, we would have enough to get things going come Monday morning, provided the rest of the materials turned up then. So with all the wood stacked and tarped up, we opened up an entrance in the roof and weathered it back in, so no bothering the residents by knocking on their door first thing.

Day one. Monday 7th April

After that snowfall on Sunday it was a tad chilly first thing, but we soon warmed up bumping piles of timber into the loft for the joisting. The steels turned up mid morning, which we had drilled out and ready to place by the afternoon, setting out keeps the brain working, but all fairly straight forward stuff. The owners, ‘Andy and Sarah’, setting the standard for tea and coffee from day one, “just shout when you want one”, always a good sign.
Travis turned up with the rest of the delivery from Saturday last thing, so all hands to loading the timber into the racks and weathered in ready for the next day, a good physical day all in all.

Day two. Tuesday 8th April

Still fairly chilly starts, frost on the windscreen first thing, but beaut weather after that. Me, Beau, and Ed had all the steels in and two thirds through the joisting, while Andy set about ripping out the remainder of his loft plumbing, tanks, pipes, lagging, and insulation.
Feeding us with toast, as well as continuous hot drinks as required, nice.

Day three. Wednesday 9th April

Glorious weather today, always improves the outlook. Having completed all the steels and joisting, we set off to order the roofing materials for delivery, grab a decent full English breakfast at Carats café over on Southwick beach, then pick up a velux window to fit in the afternoon. The roofers normally fit these but we thought we’d sort it this time in their absence, we got it in ok, but with a little help from Mark Hemsley, our roofer, who just happened to turn up last thing to check on things prior to his boys turning up next day to strip our roof for us.

Day four. Thursday 10th April

More decent weather, a seven o clock start, and Mark and his boys fairly tore into our roof, having it stripped in little over an hour between them, leaving myself, Beau and Ed to extend the roof out to a barn end gable in time for them to return later and weather it in. it wasn’t a struggle exactly, but it wasn’t a day of hanging around either. The day went well, with all targets achieved, and lively banter along the way, not least of which came from one of Mark’s lads, Wesley, taking the mickey out of me and Beau from outside on the roof, “who’s the wife?”, "sounds like they're 'avin' a tear up", and “my money’s on the midget”. Another good day at the office, even an enquiry at the end regarding another possible job from an impressed neighbour, there’s no better advert for us than a job in progress.

Right, well it's Tuesday night now, and after a hectic few days collar I'm officially cream crackered!. After the 'Big Thursday', we gave ourselves an easy (ish) Friday's work load, just tying up a few loose ends and preparing for the 'Big Monday' dormer pull out. All good, or so we thought. Owing to a lapse in memory on the part of the roofers, we were on our own to strip off before cracking on with the dormer, they've never let me down before, but there you go. So we're behind from the starters pistol. Nonetheless we motored along, forming the new dormer before we could rip out the old rafters under glorious sunshine, at first. Later on in the day we were watching nervously as a huge dirty cloud was making it's way towards us from Lancing College, sheets of rain evident from the ground up, and coming at pace with an ever increasing wind.

The sweat was running freely as we fought to get the box covered in tarpaulins before we got hit, and almost as soon as we had the job weathered we were under a blanket of hail stones and thunderous rain, but the house was safe, bar a few minor drips which the buckets caught.

So with the time lost to weathering and unweathering after the worst had passed, we were properly under the cosh by then. Fortunately Mark and his lads turned up at the end of the day to help us weather everything back in properly. But we were working til 7.30 before we finally pulled the pin and went home, I went straight to the pub, greatly in need of a beer or two, and not really interested in food after that day.

Mercifully today (Tuesday 15th) was infinitely better, so we could untarp and complete the flat roof ready for the roofers to weather in tomorrow. Even getting inside and tying things up in there at the end of the day, all good.

Andy cooked us all a mean breakfast in appreciation of our efforts, which went down a treat. Although the pace has taken it's toll on moi, currently feeling rough as old boots, and looking forward to some rest at the end of this job.

Wednesday 16th April, Day 8

Slightly easier day for me and Beau, framing out for the second rooflight window at the front. A few issues there with tiling positions, but overcome by juggling the rafters a bit. Dez and Aaron got cracking with the flat roof, which is now weathered properly, then they jumped on the leadwork and tiling to the dormer front.

We opened up the groundfloor ceiling for the staircase today, a dusty, messy affair, but done and cleaned ready for the joiners to come and measure up. We used to make our own, but this mob have CNC setting machines that spit one out in 3 days, so if the price is right then we'll have one, if not, it won't be the first staircase we've built, and it's a job I enjoy anyway.

I've got the day off tomorrow, so a bit of rest at last.