pumpkinstrokemarrow

So far very pleased with the work, which was finished a month or more ago and which is getting its first serious rain test this morning. I ought to get up into the roof later to smell for damp.

Three words of warning. First, the whole thing, from first contact with roofer to paying him off must of taken around six months, including the roofer's antipodean Christmas break. Doesn't do to be in too much of a hurry, even in a double dip. Second, putting the scaffold up makes a great deal of noise. Only goes on for half a day or so but, being retired and at home when it happened, we knew all about it. Especially the boards banging down. Third, despite having a boarded roof and the boards were left in place, large amounts of dirt and dust found their way down through the boards and down into the roof space. Good job that the roofer had warned us about this and that we had put dust sheets down. Clearing up still a dirty old job. Plenty of coughing and spluttering.

The illustration is of a sort of builder's mark; left to mark their territory while they were away for the weekend. We were assured that the thing was perfectly safe, which it might well have been. But because the board was slightly warped, it rocked in the wind making an interesting bonging noise through the night. Sprog 2 enlisted to climb up and take the thing down. Seems a very long time since I was able to climb up multi-storey scaffolds without the benefit of a ladder.

I will also put in a mention for health and safety. The roofer said that when he started out, he might well have done the job without a scaffold; a practise now outlawed by the H&S crew. But I thought the scaffold was worth the expense. Much less likely to get the job done properly if the chaps doing it are putting most of their brain cycles into not falling off, rather than into our roof. Plus I know someone on disability for falling off a much shorter ladder than would be involved here. It does happen. And I know someone else who smashed up a forearm, quite badly, in the same way. At least in his case, now OK; not on disability, at least not on account of falling off a ladder.