Bonnevaux

So it’s the last day. I’d re-booked my flight to give me a day to clear up. The plan is to get up at first light and tile out the dormer (half) and we’d be done.

The weather seems to have an amazing way of scuppering best laid plans: day breaks but we can’t go up on the tiles because there’s a frost and we slip too easily. (Mice and men)

The tension builds and we slide about trying to fit a fascia board. Dave breaks a small cut tile around the Velux and the language takes and turn for the “f&&&&&&” worst.

We hod up a weight of tiles whilst there are 3 laborers. We go through the Velux, handing them to Dave who slips, slides, and swears. But eventually it’s time. We need to move. Into the car and off the GVA. We’re just about in good time, but I worry if that Buster and Dan might wind up further abroad.

Back to the house and it’s a quick lunch. There’s a load to do and I do my best to optimise every descent of the ladder. I need to batten out the remaining half of the dormer and make some kind of valley from steal. By 8pm I’ve had it. The steal is secure and the tarps are redundant. At last.

Yet again the mountain weather is testing us. Two days of heavy showers have taken their toll. We have made good progress anyway, but it’s been uncomfortable.

Wet wet wet

Wet wet wet

It’s good to see a few other buildings with the roofs off to let us know it is not completely the wrong time of year.

Yesterday morning things looked really grim as the heavy rain came down. We walked up through the village almost in the cloud. Surprisingly after an hour it actually stopped. Once again work was underway between the downpours.

By some miracle, in the late afternoon the clouds part and we have a hour of clear weather.

All New Bling

The Veluxs are in and the tiles are cut around. The very expensive gutters are in and we have neat rows of snow stoppers. Last thing yesterday I put in the valley boards on and one side of the dormer is covered.

Last day tomorrow, I hope we can push through. But more beer first.

More beer

Yesterday we made good progress. I cut fancy alpine shaped facia board, Dave and Dan set about the battens. With tiling battens all through it looks like a proper roof. The beautiful weather held all day.

And a few drinks in the evening.

We left Exeter at around 5am and made for the airport. In good time we arrived, had breakfast and departed on schedule. We touched down in Geneva in the sunshine and soon had the car sorted out.

The afternoon was spent messing around at every shop in town looking for nail and lead flashing. After hours wasted in shops were Non! is the favorite word, we arrive in Bonnevaux. No wasting any time we finished up the T&G on the verge and sort out a BBQ supper.

So the last day came. The plan was to get cleared away and be off by 2pm or so. No such luck.

I finished the Dormer, but there was simple no time to do the sarking.

It took a good few hours to batten it all down and screw bits of wood in every hole I could seal for the weather. We finally finished and made an escape at 10:30pm.

We drove all night long and made the channel tunnel by about 8am. We were soon back in wonderful England. A quick stop in Sidcup to pick up Monika’s car and see Great Grandma. Having picked up a parking ticket in Sidcup, I made my way toward Sheffield. No money for the Dartford Crossing, so I was threatened with a police escort to a cash point. Luckily I found some Euros and they took them. (700 miles through France, tolls all the way and I can pay with a card … not in England). Traffic jams all the way to Sheffield, then I buy some sensible clothes for my sales presentation in Manchester the next day.

Finally some sleep. Up the next morning and Rob and I plan the presentation, and we’re off over the Snake Pass to Manchester. The presentation goes well and we’re in the pub for a debrief. Then it’s back on the road to Exeter. 5 hrs, 1126 miles and one sales presentation later and it’s over. Sleep.

Yesterday should have been the end of the construction of the dormer. Should have ….

First job is to do some bolting down. The big posts need 10mm threaded rods through the top to secure them to the frame. This requires a 500mm hole. I have a 400mm drill? I discover that a bit of sculpture with and angle grinder and a threaded rod becomes a big drill. All this takes time.

I finished cutting the remaining jacks and all looked good.

Jacks

Soon enough I pinned everything in place. All that was left to do was the four common rafters out in front on the cantilever. They’re simple, bird’s mouth, plumb cut, mark length … done.

Cuts

Before starting on these, I took a look from a distance. What’s this? The jacks are at a different angle to the rest of the dormer rafters! Panic.

Up on the tower, I gave the whole thing a good thick coat of looking-at. A bit of lunch later, and all is clear. All the rafters in the dormer at too high. This explains everything. Checking the model confirms this. Simple job to fix, just work out by how much and increase all the bird’s mouths cuts to drop the rafters. It turns out the I need an extra 25mm.

Dormer

Sky

This of course this takes time. By evening it’s all done and I even cut the final four rafters. I realise these need planing and oiling, so that finishes off the day.

Now I’m left with fixing and covering today, then in the car and head north.

Spent yesterday working on the complicated bits of the dormer wood work. It’s all a bit too slow, especially working alone when moving wood up and down for measuring and cutting. Although having other people around at this stage would probably not help as I need to concentrate.

I’m sure that there’s a method the makes all this easy, but I can’t work it out. In theory you just cut the end of a jack rafter with a compound angle: plumb (20/9.5 on the framing square) and 45 degs (10/10 on the square). That’s all fine but the valleys are not a perfect 45 and their faces are not perfectly vertical. So the cut is easy enough, but is not a great fit. A bit of tuning and I can get the jacks to mate up to the valley rafter with only a 3 or may be 4mm gap in places. It shouldn’t matter as there is a good point of contact and I’m using steel framing brackets designed for jack rafters. This is where the strength comes from.

My general impression of working the 5 inch sections of rough cut timber is that the mathematics becomes fuzzy. So is you want 30mm here and you start with 120, you measure 90mm, mark it, cut it and you end up with something in the region of 30mm. Put that up on your frame where you measured 30 and the a 5mm gap? My mindset is all wrong. I’m used to working in fractions of a millimeter, not fractions of a mile. As Andy kept saying, in this game “similar” is the same.

I’ve now got most of the dormers rafter cut. Just 4 easy ones to do today. The weather is going to be great. The sun is just coming up now, cutting between the mountains. As soon as it hits the house, I’ll be on it. Must finish today.

I’ve updated the Sarking post with a video; now I’ve worked out how to do it. Check it out at sarking

Yesterday I worked all day on setting out the dormer rafters. This looks simple. But, there’s much to consider. Two problems required hours of staring. First, how does a valley flashing, which is under the tiles, drain on to the top of the tiles? My useful guide to roofing simply doesn’t show this. It all works fine if the valley runs out to the edge and into a gutter. But ours runs onto the main roof.

Checking a nearby house, they seem to have simple bent the copper up? Seems crude. However, this morning I think I found the solution. The flashing is cut and bent to turn down the roof at the end and comes up onto the tiles surfaces.

The second problem was how to set the rafters out. They need to be square. The length of the eave needed to be set also. From the model I hadn’t realised that the valley would mainly discharge above the velux: bad design. The design was an 800mm eave, I settled on 600mm to avoid the valley draining onto the velux flashing. A quick application of Pythagoras and a lot of messing about and all the rafters were square.

Taking Shape

With all set, I started cutting. By dark I had a number in place and the others loosely set out forming the dormer roof. I was able to sheet up and make nearly water tight roof.

Yesterday’s weather wasn’t bad. Cloudy in the morning and broken sunshine as the day progressed. I finished preparing the dormer rafters as Llewellyn and family arrived. They were keen to help so lots of clearing up jobs got done.

I cut the other valley rafter which fitted exactly. I now discover that I’ve cut both valley rafters slightly wrong. They should be at 19 degs and I’ve cut them at 16 degs. It makes no real difference so I’ll leave them. Shame, should have paid more attention to the model.

I battened to main section of sarking board. This is a great relief. I kept having nightmares involving a northerly wind coming over the ridge and sucking the whole lot clean off.