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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Mike's ext'n & renovation (solar panels)
- Thread starter Mike G
- Start date
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It's absolutely p...........p.................persisting down, so an early halt to the day's play, and an early post.
Having done the southern gable yesterday, it was the northern end's turn today. Now, just to check to make sure you're all paying attention....
Why is this gable woodwork so different from the other one?
After completing the studwork, it was time to attack the old cottage. An imminent task is to put a temporary flat roof through between the old and the new, and I want to attach this to the eaves of the old place. The first problem was access, so I grabbed a small cold chisel and a lump hammer, and started bashing some holes:
This is looking into the wall from the outside, showing clearly the back of the lath & plaster inner face of the wall, and the side of an oak stud (post).
Here is the reason for the holes:
The temporary bearers are packed off the floor plate as support for some scaffold boards, which were screwed in place:
My task was to remove the eaves soffit. I undid some modern screws and hauled off a bit of ply to reveal:
That's a bit of a surprise: a rendered soffit. Instead of using timber, it has been built with lath & plaster. The reason for the bit of ply is obvious, and it won't be the last rats nest I find inside the structure. Time for a mask & gloves:
Who is our resident ladybird specialist? I uncovered a bunch hibernating, and their colours vary so much I suspect the dreaded American import Harlequin Ladybird. I love the black ones with red spots!
Anyway, I soon got the soffit down (the half that I can access), and am not optimistic that the rafter feet are strong enough to hold the weight of a temporary roof:
One rafter foot broke off completely. The birdsmouth had been cut way too deep, and woodworm has finished the job:
Finally, your first close-up view of the slate roof. Quiz question......what are the little lead strips called which hold up slates whose nails have rusted away?
Having done the southern gable yesterday, it was the northern end's turn today. Now, just to check to make sure you're all paying attention....
Why is this gable woodwork so different from the other one?
After completing the studwork, it was time to attack the old cottage. An imminent task is to put a temporary flat roof through between the old and the new, and I want to attach this to the eaves of the old place. The first problem was access, so I grabbed a small cold chisel and a lump hammer, and started bashing some holes:
This is looking into the wall from the outside, showing clearly the back of the lath & plaster inner face of the wall, and the side of an oak stud (post).
Here is the reason for the holes:
The temporary bearers are packed off the floor plate as support for some scaffold boards, which were screwed in place:
My task was to remove the eaves soffit. I undid some modern screws and hauled off a bit of ply to reveal:
That's a bit of a surprise: a rendered soffit. Instead of using timber, it has been built with lath & plaster. The reason for the bit of ply is obvious, and it won't be the last rats nest I find inside the structure. Time for a mask & gloves:
Who is our resident ladybird specialist? I uncovered a bunch hibernating, and their colours vary so much I suspect the dreaded American import Harlequin Ladybird. I love the black ones with red spots!
Anyway, I soon got the soffit down (the half that I can access), and am not optimistic that the rafter feet are strong enough to hold the weight of a temporary roof:
One rafter foot broke off completely. The birdsmouth had been cut way too deep, and woodworm has finished the job:
Finally, your first close-up view of the slate roof. Quiz question......what are the little lead strips called which hold up slates whose nails have rusted away?
Afternoon Mike
Why is this gable woodwork so different from the other one?
Judging by the double studs, double noggins and diagonal bracing, it will support something big and heavy.
Could it be one end of an oak ridge purlin?
This temporary roof between the old and new. How will you drain off the rainwater?
Cheers
Dave
Why is this gable woodwork so different from the other one?
Judging by the double studs, double noggins and diagonal bracing, it will support something big and heavy.
Could it be one end of an oak ridge purlin?
This temporary roof between the old and new. How will you drain off the rainwater?
Cheers
Dave
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Well done guys. Dave, it is indeed an oak ridge purlin (oh, and water will get off my flat roof because I'll put a fall on it to both ends). Roger was the first with tingles, holding the loose slates in place.
billybuntus
New Shoots
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Mike G":kbos4doo said:Who is our resident ladybird specialist? I uncovered a bunch hibernating, and their colours vary so much I suspect the dreaded American import Harlequin Ladybird. I love the black ones with red spots!
Time to play squash the bug I think unfortunately.
http://www.harlequin-survey.org/recogni ... nction.htm
http://www.harlequin-survey.org/factfile/concern.htm
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Lots of photos today, but not much building work.
The first job was to bash a few more holes in the wall at 1st floor level to extend my temporary boarded access to the ridge. Whilst doing this, I found 2 or 3 flints embedded in lime within the wall. Most odd. I'll have to look out for more to see if there is some sort of clue as to what they were all about:
Anyway, I made the holes:
Then put the supports across and screwed some scaffold boards in place. I wandered along seeing some of the roof up close for the first time, and in the corner found this:
I hate that detail! Whoever thought some softwood lapping over the top of the tiles would last more than a couple of years were just nuts. Never mind the wedge holding the gutter up, and the gutter holding the corner slates in position!!
I really like this, though. We're talking about a pretty lowly building here, although it was a farmhouse (rather than a farmworker's cottage). Nevertheless, it was low status, and yet, someone has taken the trouble to put a bead moulding on the edge of the fascia boards. No routers in those days. This was made by hand:
Having pulled the fascia and soffit off all along, I came to another sizeable rat's nest:
My original plan had been to hang the temporary interconnecting roof from the rafter feet, but having had one fall off yesterday, and having found a number in this state:
I had decided against it. Instead, I decided to pull back the wall render some 9" or so, to get a fastening onto the timbers in the wall. In the course of doing this I found quite a bit. Behind an airbrick:
Another rats nest.
This one, though, also had a newspaper and a tea towel stuff into it from the vent on the inside, by a human (presumably to stop drafts. The newspaper was from 1952, when RA Butler was a minister, and Stalin was in charge in the USSR:
All 3 airbricks had nests behind them. This one was stuffed with a silk scarf:
I also uncovered a wasps nest and a bees nest. Luckily, long since deserted:
Anyway, eventually, the filthy job was done and I could take off the mask and goggles:
I did the first half of the temporary roof, between impressive thunder storms:
I laid it to fall about 3 inches over 16 feet, or roughly 1 in 60. That's plenty enough. The other half will fall the other way, and the whole thing will be covered by old fashioned under-slate felt, or maybe some green mineral felt. It has only got to keep the water out for a couple of months or so. You can see the fall here:
The first job was to bash a few more holes in the wall at 1st floor level to extend my temporary boarded access to the ridge. Whilst doing this, I found 2 or 3 flints embedded in lime within the wall. Most odd. I'll have to look out for more to see if there is some sort of clue as to what they were all about:
Anyway, I made the holes:
Then put the supports across and screwed some scaffold boards in place. I wandered along seeing some of the roof up close for the first time, and in the corner found this:
I hate that detail! Whoever thought some softwood lapping over the top of the tiles would last more than a couple of years were just nuts. Never mind the wedge holding the gutter up, and the gutter holding the corner slates in position!!
I really like this, though. We're talking about a pretty lowly building here, although it was a farmhouse (rather than a farmworker's cottage). Nevertheless, it was low status, and yet, someone has taken the trouble to put a bead moulding on the edge of the fascia boards. No routers in those days. This was made by hand:
Having pulled the fascia and soffit off all along, I came to another sizeable rat's nest:
My original plan had been to hang the temporary interconnecting roof from the rafter feet, but having had one fall off yesterday, and having found a number in this state:
I had decided against it. Instead, I decided to pull back the wall render some 9" or so, to get a fastening onto the timbers in the wall. In the course of doing this I found quite a bit. Behind an airbrick:
Another rats nest.
This one, though, also had a newspaper and a tea towel stuff into it from the vent on the inside, by a human (presumably to stop drafts. The newspaper was from 1952, when RA Butler was a minister, and Stalin was in charge in the USSR:
All 3 airbricks had nests behind them. This one was stuffed with a silk scarf:
I also uncovered a wasps nest and a bees nest. Luckily, long since deserted:
Anyway, eventually, the filthy job was done and I could take off the mask and goggles:
I did the first half of the temporary roof, between impressive thunder storms:
I laid it to fall about 3 inches over 16 feet, or roughly 1 in 60. That's plenty enough. The other half will fall the other way, and the whole thing will be covered by old fashioned under-slate felt, or maybe some green mineral felt. It has only got to keep the water out for a couple of months or so. You can see the fall here:
Amazing what you find in walls and floor cavities, even on younger buildings than this.
In our first house I found a cigarette box from the 30's and a thrupenny bit. Kept them both with the intention of making a small display case for them but we long since moved so they're in a box somewhere now…
Cheers
Mark
In our first house I found a cigarette box from the 30's and a thrupenny bit. Kept them both with the intention of making a small display case for them but we long since moved so they're in a box somewhere now…
Cheers
Mark
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Right, a couple of days to catch up on. Camera batteries failed at an important moment yesterday, with me stuck on the roof in fading light, and no time to go and get new ones. Anyway, I managed to get the flat roof felted:
Remember, this is a very temporary arrangement. Now my original plan had been to tuck the felt under the slates, but that proved utterly impossible. The compromise was to nail the felt to the upstand under the slates, and then to push some DPC between the underside of the slates and the top of the first batten on which the slates were sitting. Nightmare job!. It took 2 hours, lying on my side, working in a 2 inch gap, and unable to see what I was doing. In some places the slates were nailed tightly down onto the batten, and needed prising up. It got done in the end, but I was not a happy bunny.
The other problem was that felt is 1 metre wide, and the flat roof is approx 1.2 metres wide. I decided to nail a batten at the edge of the sheet, and dress the felt up onto that before clout-nailing it in place, and then do the same from the other side, lapping over the first piece of felt. I have no idea at all whether this is the right thing to do: I am making this stuff up as I go along! It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
My first job today was to get some gutters up at either end, and lead the discharge water away to somewhere it can't do any harm. However, access to the roof was difficult. I couldn't properly get a ladder to it at either end, so I built one up the utility room roof:
Then screwing a gutter in place was easy........but fixing a downpipe when there is only one of you was a bit of a challenge:
My plan today had been to felt and batten the rear aspect of the main roof, but it was not only windy, it was forecast to turn into gales again by the evening (and they were right......it's howling now). It is difficult enough trying to put sarking on a roof in a breeze if there are two of you, but it is virtually impossible by yourself, so, I was forced into a change of plan.
The inside of the building had turned into a complete tip, and so I spent 2 or 3 hours tidying it up. Separating the timber laths from the render so that the former can be burned and the latter buried took some time. I noticed that the last of the modern render on the brick plinth was about to drop, and I didn't want it to damage my plastic DPM, so I took it off in pieces. This is what happens when you put a hard modern cement render onto old bricks:
Just to confirm, you are looking at the back of removed bits of cement render there, and you can clearly see they have pulled the faces off the bricks, wrecking them. This is what the remnant plinth looks like:
I have a new theory about the soil between the render and the bricks. I reckon it was taken up there by ants and worms, initially through the mortar courses. Another reason why rendering down to the ground is such a stupid, stupid idea.
Anyway, a couple of hours with a shovel and broom, and the place looked a bit better:
Next, to the workshop, and more sprockets, this time for the main roof. These are going to be slightly chunkier, and with a slightly bigger overhang, compared to the utility sprockets.....so, a new template. I drew it in Autocad, printed it full size, and pasted the print onto a piece of scrap MDF:
Then I cut it out on the bandsaw:
....and there you have your template, which just needed a little cleaning up.
Finally, grab some oak, mark around the template, and get cutting:
Just 23 to go......
Remember, this is a very temporary arrangement. Now my original plan had been to tuck the felt under the slates, but that proved utterly impossible. The compromise was to nail the felt to the upstand under the slates, and then to push some DPC between the underside of the slates and the top of the first batten on which the slates were sitting. Nightmare job!. It took 2 hours, lying on my side, working in a 2 inch gap, and unable to see what I was doing. In some places the slates were nailed tightly down onto the batten, and needed prising up. It got done in the end, but I was not a happy bunny.
The other problem was that felt is 1 metre wide, and the flat roof is approx 1.2 metres wide. I decided to nail a batten at the edge of the sheet, and dress the felt up onto that before clout-nailing it in place, and then do the same from the other side, lapping over the first piece of felt. I have no idea at all whether this is the right thing to do: I am making this stuff up as I go along! It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
My first job today was to get some gutters up at either end, and lead the discharge water away to somewhere it can't do any harm. However, access to the roof was difficult. I couldn't properly get a ladder to it at either end, so I built one up the utility room roof:
Then screwing a gutter in place was easy........but fixing a downpipe when there is only one of you was a bit of a challenge:
My plan today had been to felt and batten the rear aspect of the main roof, but it was not only windy, it was forecast to turn into gales again by the evening (and they were right......it's howling now). It is difficult enough trying to put sarking on a roof in a breeze if there are two of you, but it is virtually impossible by yourself, so, I was forced into a change of plan.
The inside of the building had turned into a complete tip, and so I spent 2 or 3 hours tidying it up. Separating the timber laths from the render so that the former can be burned and the latter buried took some time. I noticed that the last of the modern render on the brick plinth was about to drop, and I didn't want it to damage my plastic DPM, so I took it off in pieces. This is what happens when you put a hard modern cement render onto old bricks:
Just to confirm, you are looking at the back of removed bits of cement render there, and you can clearly see they have pulled the faces off the bricks, wrecking them. This is what the remnant plinth looks like:
I have a new theory about the soil between the render and the bricks. I reckon it was taken up there by ants and worms, initially through the mortar courses. Another reason why rendering down to the ground is such a stupid, stupid idea.
Anyway, a couple of hours with a shovel and broom, and the place looked a bit better:
Next, to the workshop, and more sprockets, this time for the main roof. These are going to be slightly chunkier, and with a slightly bigger overhang, compared to the utility sprockets.....so, a new template. I drew it in Autocad, printed it full size, and pasted the print onto a piece of scrap MDF:
Then I cut it out on the bandsaw:
....and there you have your template, which just needed a little cleaning up.
Finally, grab some oak, mark around the template, and get cutting:
Just 23 to go......
Looking very nice inside there now it's tidy Mike. Always feels good when you do that, even if it has meant you not moving as quickly as you would like on the outside.
Cheers
Mark
Cheers
Mark
StevieB
Nordic Pine
Lead working tool?
Still very impressed with your work rate Mike - top notch!
Steve
Still very impressed with your work rate Mike - top notch!
Steve
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Until I blew up the diagram to see the dimensions I thought it was one of those gadgets to set out the pitch of the tiling battens but it it far too big.
No other ideas ATM
Bob
PS, I've fixed the link to the picture of your sprockets.
No other ideas ATM
Bob
PS, I've fixed the link to the picture of your sprockets.
DaveL
Old Oak
First thought was for clearing gutters but why the cross bar? No idea really!
Rod
Old Oak
No idea - anything to do with the roof?
Rod
Rod
With the 22.5% angle, and given my recent dialogue with Mike, I'm almost sure it has something to do with roofing, but more than that I have not...!
Cheers
Mark
Cheers
Mark
Mike
How/where to you attach guttering with those sprockets? The exposed rafters round my way are still full thickness so brackets are just screwed in the end. Yours seem to terminate to a very narrow end without enough meat to attach to
Mark
How/where to you attach guttering with those sprockets? The exposed rafters round my way are still full thickness so brackets are just screwed in the end. Yours seem to terminate to a very narrow end without enough meat to attach to
Mark
Mike G
Petrified Pine
kostello":111ijbw7 said:
Bingo!! We have a winner.....
In light of my experience so far, removing 6 inches from the top of one wall under the eaves using a mega crowbar, it just became obvious what sort of tool I need for the job. At one stage, before attempting the job, I imagined I would use a splitting axe to hammer/ cut the stuff off in sections, but having had a go, I see that it needs to be prised off rather than bashed in. The curved blade is designed such that there is always a point of contact at 90 degrees to the inner face of the render, whatever the angle of the handle. It is designed to work through a 45 degree range.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
the bear":2kr57kh9 said:
Good question, Mark.
There are side-fixing gutter brackets, which essentially are a strap which screws to the side of the rafter foot, rather than the end. I am hoping the budget allows me to use cast iron or aluminium-looks-like-cast-iron guttering and downpipes, and most of the available systems have a bracket which fixes to the side of the rafter foot as I described.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I've been waiting for a still day for a while now, and at last it arrived. Unfortunately, so did friends, an MOT, and a long winded complication at a builder's merchant, so I didn't actually get the hours in that I should have done. You just can't do felt & battens when there is a wind, so today was perfect.
Now, call me anal, but I want the tiles on the rear of the roof to be coursed and level with the tiles on the front of the roof. Because the rear roof is truncated by the flat roof (box gutter), that meant I needed to work out the gauge of the front roof, and transfer it to the rear. So, a visitor at 8.30 this morning found me up a ladder with a sprocket nailed temporarily in place, some tile samples, a tape measure, and a handy batten:
Working out the location of the first batten for a full tile is relatively straightforward. It should overhang the rafter foot by about 2", so that water drips approx. into the middle of the gutter. The gauge of clay plain tiles is about 4"(yep, they're Imperial)....but there is flexibility around that figure. The idea is that the tiles should arrive at the top with a whole tile, so you adjust the gaps between the battens to suit. As it happened, it worked out spot on for me if my batten spacing was 100mm, rather than 4", so I went metric. Those 2.5mm x 22 battens made all the difference.
Rooves are normally marked out from the eaves, but because my rear roof has no eaves (due to the raised junction with the flat roof), I needed to transfer the gauging I had just worked out for the front roof to the rear roof, with the ridge as the datum. This was my solution:
I climbed onto the flat roof, and after stapling my first sheet of breather membrane in place, nailed these to the outside edge of the gable their top end carefully located at ridge height. Then running a chalk line was easy:
The thing is, the temporary flat roof is much lower than the permanent one will be, so I had to put a few battens in place to hold the membrane down, but also to allow me to climb onto the roof. These are only temporary, so to make them removable:
Then it was just a case of pinging a chalk line, offering battens up, cutting them to length, nailing them in place:
Unfortunately, the battens were 4.8m long, and the roof about 10 metres long, plus overhangs, and because all joins need to be on a rafter, (and staggered from the joins above and below), there is actually quite a lot of work in just getting this far:
I had to stop 2 courses from the top to allow the membrane from the other side to lap over the ridge.
Getting half a roof watertight feels like a big step forward. Unfortunately, the forecast is a bit iffy tomorrow, so it may be a day or two until I can get the other side done. Still, there are plenty of other jobs to do........
Now, call me anal, but I want the tiles on the rear of the roof to be coursed and level with the tiles on the front of the roof. Because the rear roof is truncated by the flat roof (box gutter), that meant I needed to work out the gauge of the front roof, and transfer it to the rear. So, a visitor at 8.30 this morning found me up a ladder with a sprocket nailed temporarily in place, some tile samples, a tape measure, and a handy batten:
Working out the location of the first batten for a full tile is relatively straightforward. It should overhang the rafter foot by about 2", so that water drips approx. into the middle of the gutter. The gauge of clay plain tiles is about 4"(yep, they're Imperial)....but there is flexibility around that figure. The idea is that the tiles should arrive at the top with a whole tile, so you adjust the gaps between the battens to suit. As it happened, it worked out spot on for me if my batten spacing was 100mm, rather than 4", so I went metric. Those 2.5mm x 22 battens made all the difference.
Rooves are normally marked out from the eaves, but because my rear roof has no eaves (due to the raised junction with the flat roof), I needed to transfer the gauging I had just worked out for the front roof to the rear roof, with the ridge as the datum. This was my solution:
I climbed onto the flat roof, and after stapling my first sheet of breather membrane in place, nailed these to the outside edge of the gable their top end carefully located at ridge height. Then running a chalk line was easy:
The thing is, the temporary flat roof is much lower than the permanent one will be, so I had to put a few battens in place to hold the membrane down, but also to allow me to climb onto the roof. These are only temporary, so to make them removable:
Then it was just a case of pinging a chalk line, offering battens up, cutting them to length, nailing them in place:
Unfortunately, the battens were 4.8m long, and the roof about 10 metres long, plus overhangs, and because all joins need to be on a rafter, (and staggered from the joins above and below), there is actually quite a lot of work in just getting this far:
I had to stop 2 courses from the top to allow the membrane from the other side to lap over the ridge.
Getting half a roof watertight feels like a big step forward. Unfortunately, the forecast is a bit iffy tomorrow, so it may be a day or two until I can get the other side done. Still, there are plenty of other jobs to do........
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I am getting quotes from 2 different suppliers of hand made clay plain tiles. They are imported, both of them, as the UK ones are getting very pricey indeed. I'll let you know when I make a decision.
Rod
Old Oak
Why didn't you felt both sides with less battens?
Rod
Rod
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Rod":2ziysdim said:
The batten spacing is dictated by the nominal tile size - no option to use greater spacing without using bigger tiles.
Rod
Old Oak
No I realise that - I meant felt both sides and correctly space (with gaps) as many battens as the time allowed. Enough to hold the felt in place.
Perhaps access was the issue?
Perhaps access was the issue?
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Rod":m43hgt17 said:
I think you are correct there Rod. One side has the short term flat roof to work off but there is nothing on t'other side to work off.
Bob
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I don't follow your question, Rod.
As Bob said, the battens have to be a certain distance apart, so I don't see what would be gained by leaving a few out, only to come back to finish off another day. Whilst you've got all the kit, (tools, nails, battens etc) in place on one side of the roof, it is just efficient to finish that side of the roof. Besides, I haven't finished the sprockets for the other side......and those marked-up battens I used for setting out the tile gauge would have to be taken off, then replaced in exactly the same place when returning to finish the job.
As Bob said, the battens have to be a certain distance apart, so I don't see what would be gained by leaving a few out, only to come back to finish off another day. Whilst you've got all the kit, (tools, nails, battens etc) in place on one side of the roof, it is just efficient to finish that side of the roof. Besides, I haven't finished the sprockets for the other side......and those marked-up battens I used for setting out the tile gauge would have to be taken off, then replaced in exactly the same place when returning to finish the job.
Halo Jones
New Shoots
Now, I'm not a builder but every building I have been involved with in Scotland has sarking on top of the rafters and then felting type material then tiles. I do find it it very strange to see such a fragile looking structure for the rooves! I've no doubt it works further south I just don't trust it!!!! Plus the sarking gives you somewhere to walk when you are tiling!!
H.
H.
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You get quite good at running up and down the battens after a while Halo. :lol:
Bob
Bob
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Halo Jones":2p1ml1bv said:
I've done a couple of buildings in Scotland, and the amount of timber on top of the rafters really staggered me: it's like a floor on a slope. This is all about wind, I'm told.
Rod
Old Oak
You've answered my question - I just thought you might have felt it more important to get it watertight ASAP?
Rod
Rod
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It was this cold this morning:
Battens which were delivered in a pile stayed frozen together all day. They even froze onto the roofing membrane when I put them in place. It snowed, it sleeted, and it rained. Despite messing around with scaffolding for a couple of hours, I still managed to get this far with the eastern side of the roof:
Felt & battens is one of those jobs where having 2 people makes the job 3 times as fast, and the wind didn't help (it flaps the membrane around, so you can't staple it in place initially, and you can't then ping a chalk line accurately on it). I was driven in early by a chalk-line failure. I think it had all got a bit wet this morning, then froze into a lump this evening, meaning I couldn't pull any off the reel. It's sitting in a colander in front of a fan heater ATM.
Despite a day of under achievement, it is actually quite an important milestone in the building of the house: I have a watertight roof!
Battens which were delivered in a pile stayed frozen together all day. They even froze onto the roofing membrane when I put them in place. It snowed, it sleeted, and it rained. Despite messing around with scaffolding for a couple of hours, I still managed to get this far with the eastern side of the roof:
Felt & battens is one of those jobs where having 2 people makes the job 3 times as fast, and the wind didn't help (it flaps the membrane around, so you can't staple it in place initially, and you can't then ping a chalk line accurately on it). I was driven in early by a chalk-line failure. I think it had all got a bit wet this morning, then froze into a lump this evening, meaning I couldn't pull any off the reel. It's sitting in a colander in front of a fan heater ATM.
Despite a day of under achievement, it is actually quite an important milestone in the building of the house: I have a watertight roof!