sliemasteve
New Member
Irish-spread wants to see my special skills. I wouldn’t want to claim special skills but I have been very lucky with lesser skill and cock-ups.
The good news, in 1971 (I was 23) I bought a one-up, one–down, mid terrace house in Bradford for £125. The downside was a tenant and a rent of 10p per week. It had no windows or doors to the back wall and on the other side was a neighbour’s garage. Covering the roof were 6 ton of stone flags. The absence of a bathroom and a kitchen enabled a local authority grant with the stipulation that I had to replace the first floor ceiling which had an enormous bow in it.
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The tenant was wildly excited at the prospect of acquiring 20[SUP]th[/SUP]-Century luxury, as she saw it after 40 years of using an outside loo and was happy to put up with my part-time working.
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Being wage slaves a joiner friend and I started one Saturday morning moving the tenants bed and stuff downstairs, by the end of the day we had bagged-off the lath and plaster, tipped it and emptied a hundred years of junk from the loft space. That evening when we left the first floor was completely clear, ready for the removal of the ceiling joists and fitting and plastering of new ceiling the following weekend. We remarked on the cowboy bodgers who had tried to keep the ceiling from deflecting further by dropping struts from a roof purlin. I noticed that the purlin seemed to have bowed due to this extra load.
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The following Wednesday the tenant rang to say she had moved out because it was cold and she had heard a bang in the night. When I got there the roof looked ok from the street so I went inside and upstairs. There was a view of the sky. The purlin had rotated and was lying on its side but still supported on the walls, on the floor were some broken ceiling joists and stone flags, the roof rafters to the mid-section of the roof had been pushed downwards and out over the eaves knocking the gutter off and five courses of stone walling. The gutter and falling stone had flattened the neighbours asbestos garage. Smaller stone roof flags at the ridge had slipped and slithered down the roof leaving a large opening.
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This whole cock-up was due to my failure to understand the roof situation; the ceiling was holding up the roof. A roof purlin was partially rotten and cracked, to stop it deflecting further a cowboy bodger had placed 3 inch x 2 inch struts between the purlin and ceiling joists. Although an idea verging on madness it had worked while there was plaster lath in place since this spread the load across more ceiling joists.
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My removal of the lath was the straw that broke the camels back. It resulted in those ceiling joists with attached struts being over-loaded permitting the purlin to move and rotate and then the partial collapse of the roof.
We might consider having a section for cock-ups. It allows this of us with modest skill to be humble in revealing our failures.
The good news, in 1971 (I was 23) I bought a one-up, one–down, mid terrace house in Bradford for £125. The downside was a tenant and a rent of 10p per week. It had no windows or doors to the back wall and on the other side was a neighbour’s garage. Covering the roof were 6 ton of stone flags. The absence of a bathroom and a kitchen enabled a local authority grant with the stipulation that I had to replace the first floor ceiling which had an enormous bow in it.
.
The tenant was wildly excited at the prospect of acquiring 20[SUP]th[/SUP]-Century luxury, as she saw it after 40 years of using an outside loo and was happy to put up with my part-time working.
.
Being wage slaves a joiner friend and I started one Saturday morning moving the tenants bed and stuff downstairs, by the end of the day we had bagged-off the lath and plaster, tipped it and emptied a hundred years of junk from the loft space. That evening when we left the first floor was completely clear, ready for the removal of the ceiling joists and fitting and plastering of new ceiling the following weekend. We remarked on the cowboy bodgers who had tried to keep the ceiling from deflecting further by dropping struts from a roof purlin. I noticed that the purlin seemed to have bowed due to this extra load.
.
The following Wednesday the tenant rang to say she had moved out because it was cold and she had heard a bang in the night. When I got there the roof looked ok from the street so I went inside and upstairs. There was a view of the sky. The purlin had rotated and was lying on its side but still supported on the walls, on the floor were some broken ceiling joists and stone flags, the roof rafters to the mid-section of the roof had been pushed downwards and out over the eaves knocking the gutter off and five courses of stone walling. The gutter and falling stone had flattened the neighbours asbestos garage. Smaller stone roof flags at the ridge had slipped and slithered down the roof leaving a large opening.
.
This whole cock-up was due to my failure to understand the roof situation; the ceiling was holding up the roof. A roof purlin was partially rotten and cracked, to stop it deflecting further a cowboy bodger had placed 3 inch x 2 inch struts between the purlin and ceiling joists. Although an idea verging on madness it had worked while there was plaster lath in place since this spread the load across more ceiling joists.
.
My removal of the lath was the straw that broke the camels back. It resulted in those ceiling joists with attached struts being over-loaded permitting the purlin to move and rotate and then the partial collapse of the roof.
We might consider having a section for cock-ups. It allows this of us with modest skill to be humble in revealing our failures.
