The roofing is getting on well

You do not often get a shot from the other side, but you need to see how the slating is getting on. Also, and more importantly, you should take a good look at the crane. It's coming down!
Yes, the crane is no longer going to be a feature of rue de la résidence. The heavy work is now over. Actually the couvreur and zinguier, that is he who does the slating and the zinc work uses his own JCB type thing as you can see. His man is collecting another load of Spanish slates to put on. They use elongated S-shaped clips  so there are no nails except for the bottom sides and top. Fascinating to watch.

The solar panels are in place.

The panels arrived today and have been put in place. Also met the man who provides the grants for all this sort of stuff. The greater the insulation, the greater the grant. Seems like the right way round to me.

Tomorrow they crack on with the slating and we have to make a trip to the bank. Money is required. It was going to happen sooner or later.

They've done some more roof

After failng to appear yesterday, they turned up again this afternoon, finished off the one side and started on the second. At this point they stopped because the solar panels are going on. This happens, I think, on Thursday. Quite whether they will crack on with other sides I am not sure.

We are using slates from Spain with a curved lower edge. This is the style of rooves round here albeit they are made of blue schist like the photo below. Rooves like this have to have a steeper pitch than ours but new ones are almost impossible to get hold of anyway

The roofing goes on apace.

The membrane has been put onto most of the roof now and the outside guttering is well under way. We are getting a real sense of what the outside of the building will look like. It is interesting too to see how the scaffold supports are done at the top of the walls. Not something I have ever seen in the UK.

They will finish off the covering tomorrow and start on the gulleys etc.

The solar panels are integral with the roof on the right as you look at it, so they will need to be attached so they can be slated around.

This has been activity day!

We had a meeting with the architect and the roofing man today. A little bit disappointed because the light-wells that we had looked are not going to be practical. The overall cost (bearing in mind that the floor of the loft in the old house is reinforced concrete!) was going to be ridiculous. We could have a low energy bulb on all the time for twenty years for the same price.
That said, the roof carpentry has gone on apace. The picture below is a panorama from two shots so the apparent curvature in some of the beams is an illusion.

Mostly done in Douglas fir, the biggest beams are so called manufactured. This factory gluing together of planks so that long beams can be made. You can also see that  tiles have been stripped off the old roof.
This is perhaps the most surprising feature, two trades working on site with one another. The couvreur, he who puts the slates on, has taken the tiles off three sides. The far side he has already put the membrane on. He has also scaffolded round the whole building at gutter height ready to start slating next week.

It really is beginning to come together. The picture below doesn't show very much but does show that I climbed up much, much higher than my scaredy-cat brain told me I should.

September has arrived!

The carpenter/joiner doing the roof came last week to check on some measurements and then they arrived in earnest this morning. I went over about three o'clock to see how they are getting on. Wow! Scaffolding had gone up, the first of the framing was there, five of them all beavering away.

Thierry, the boss was just getting the timber ready to make an A-frame. If you look closely (click on the picture to enlarge) you can see the enormous tenon joints.

These couple of  photos are from a sequence of the A-frame being assembled. Please forgive the Iphone cover (or my thumb) over some of the pictures, I was trying not to be too obvious. The whole thing was put together in about half an hour. It was all put together with enormous steel bolts and then joints were secured with dowels.

 

Then the crane comes into use. It was made off the property, in effect on the road.
 Then lifted up over the trees..

Over the extension, where it hung for a a few minutes whilst Thierry went inside to supervise the installation

Maneuvering it into position through thee other stuff was tricky to put it mildly.

 Done inch at a time...

Until finally Thierry climbed up to bang the dowels into position. For those with concerns about Health and Safety and people who have to carry out risk assessment have a close look.








Then, when we went back at six o'clock...