Full speed ahead to get the roof tiled…

Wow, what a week. It’s all feeling rather surreal at present with the spread of the coronavirus and the drastic but necessary measures governments globally are having to take in an attempt to try and control the speed at which it’s spreading. Scary stuff, particularly when we look at the huge impact this is having on the economy at home and abroad.

We’re “glass half full” people though and doing our best to focus on what we all need to do in the immediate to protect those around us, support any vulnerable in our community, and think ahead to the light at the end of the tunnel. It will come, we will come out the other side of this, and for sure we will come out the other side wiser, more creative, more resilient, more together as communities and ready to bounce back.

So, a rather belated post on what happened on site last week that I’d not yet had time to blog about, whilst getting support groups together in our immediate community, doing prescription and grocery runs for the elderly/vulberable, and getting my head around home schooling!

Meanwhile last week…the soffits and fascias have been completed, along with the air vents and trims. These aren’t compulsory, but we always put air vents in and black vent trims so that the roof felt sits in the vent and you tile over the top of these. This will stop the felt from falling in to the guttering and getting wet, which could otherwise potentially spread through the felt of the roof causing damp. It’s an extra layer of protection against damp that we see as a necessity.

At the beginning of the week 10 palettes of roof tiles were loaded out on to the scaffolding. The roofer fully secured the felt and battening and the roof is being tiled.

The two veluxes on each side of the house have been fitted. We shopped around for best price – on this occasion Selco Builders Warehouse came in best value. As part of the roof tiling, the tiles have now also been cut in around the Velux to ensure it is water-tight.

Internally the stud work on both the ground and upper floor has been completed.

By the end of the week, the carpenters used soffit board to create the front porch area. A temporary door was put in and any open windows boarded up to close the house in and look to secure the site.

With the latest, necessary government stipulation that everyone now stay at home except for key workers and those who are unable to work from home, with everyone to avoid non-essential travel, it leaves a real question mark over the building industry.

It’s clearly not work that we can do at home. In addition to our own project, my husband and his business partner are managing building works for 3 other customers. Listening to the news there is clear indication that they are wanting the construction industry to continue working – they don’t want to slow this part of the economy down as we’ll need it to support the bounce back effort when we come out of this the other side. Perhaps it’s also the fear of the government additionally having to support all the PAYE workers through this period, of which a high percentage are attached to the construction, building & utilities industries in some way! The package of help for the self-employed has yet to be announced so this industry is really in limbo in the current climate.

From what we can glean online, if the work they are doing is essential for safety or to get a property habitable or in the dry, then this is considered essential. Provided of course they can still get the supplies which is another matter.

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain “If it is the case you are reconstructing or building a home in which there is no one present, that is appropriate and it can go on.”

So onwards it is for now. Mac has therefore decided to crack on through this week. On our own chalet bungalow project, if we can get the roof fully tiled by the end of this week then the whole site should be water-tight and secure, so we could then potentially close site if needbe. They’re working out in the open on the roof and the number of workers on site are restricted to ensure 2m social distancing between them can be respected on site. We’ve got masks, gloves and hand sanitiser on site for safety too. So hopefully we can just see this week through, safely, to complete this essential work if we’re then asked to stop this activity.

Meanwhile on our customer’s jobs, they’ve moved out whilst we’re doing the work so if we can get them to a habitable and safe state by the end of the week then we may be in a position to pause for a couple of weeks.

Let’s see. Mac’s gone to work today to try and get as much done as possible to get the sites safe, in the dry and secure. Once we close site, or temporarily pull off a customer job, let’s hope we get through this quickly so we can finish what we started. He’s also keen to press ahead with customer jobs so they can move back in according to their time schedules. Very uncertain times, and a very grey area for the building industry. But we can do this. Onwards and upwards. Mac has been flat out, so the break and some family time will do him good! He’d planned to take some time off over Easter anyway. Maybe I’ll get him on to all those jobs around the house that have been pending! Yeah right…