Two and half years, and three layers of breather membrane later, I thought I might take the opportunity (afforded by the endless wait for replacement oak) of slating my workshop roof. In assessing the job, however, I realised it wasn't as simple as that. The rear of the workshop has had an ad hoc shelter tacked to it for a while now, sheltering all sorts of building materials under some old bits of polycarbonate roof sheets, and all that would require moving just to enable access. You may recall that I had previously laid a few bricks on the northern end of the workshop, as a start to a store-room extension:
So, I decided to build that store first, as a place to house all the toot from behind the workshop, and as a bonus, to enable me to clear out my workshop and return that to use. It's approx 1350 x 3750 (4'-4" x 12'-4"). After that was built I would be able to put slates on the roof of the 'shop.
I started with a simple 45x45 frame, sitting on the inside half of the bricks:
The roof is of 95x45 (4x2) rafters, and although I am planning on putting Onduline corrugated roofing sheets on now, I wanted it man enough to take a slate roof in future. This also forced the 22.5 degree pitch:
Shelves in:
Eaves detail. I did um and ahh a bit before going to this trouble, but decided that I want to be able to keep wasps and bees out, as they can take over a little used outbuilding for a summer and prevent access:
I used roofing membrane for the walls too:
This end of the workshop is close to our boundary, and surrounded by stinging nettles, so there are only a few places I can take photos from, including in the adjacent field. The wheat is already suffering in the drought (it hasn't rained here for about 6 or 8 weeks):
I then did my normal detail, vertical battens over the vertical frame members, with a wedge at the bottom to kick the bottom board out over the plinth, insect mesh at the bottom. Then I had to scribe ever board around the boards on the workshop, so this bit of work took some time:
I took a different approach on the other side, because I had a whole lot of off-cuts which were about an inch short otherwise:
Flashing in, only the LH side of the opening needing boarding. It's now finished, so I'll grab a piccie tomorrow.
Finally, I could get on with the main roof. To start with, I fitted barge boards and erected a scaffold:
I also fitted a fascia to take the bottom edge of the first slates. Finally, I was rid of all that flapping overhanging membrane which has bugged me for a couple of years!! Next, I thrashed down the stinging nettles with a shovel to reveal my stash of old slates recovered from the roof of the cottage prior to re-roofing:
There's getting on for 500 610 x 305 (2 foot by 1 foot) slates, which if they are original to the house, as I suspect, are 300 plus years old. Setting out involves a little thought, and some basic maths:
I fixed a batten to the barge board to give me the line of the overhang, put an additional batten on the roof to take the under-eaves slate, and got cracking:
Each slate required cleaning and re-holing, but considering their age and thinness I suffered very little wastage. They are pretty variable in size, so there was a bit of cutting to do approaching the far end of the roof. There are plenty enough to do the larger rear roof, and maybe just enough to do one of the smaller rooves as well.
