The upstairs project 2016 (Page 7)

Day four

Well, yesterday things didnt go to plan - it was one of them days. We were expecting to have the first window installed but it didnt happen due to complications. Fortunately today the weather remained dry although it did look rather poor once. So the first thing to do was to remove the temporary coverage. When made the upstairs very dark - so its unimaginable how bright 4 windows will be later on;



Anyway, with the opening back it was time to carry on with the roof. We needed to repair the roof and get the tiles into the correct place. For this we need to remove more tiles to put new under-felt - as some of it had been damaged in the past. As you can see some of the felt had seen better days;



Later on we found out some of the batons were in the wrong place - which caused either window not to sit properly or get in the way of the tiles. I must admit the instructions aren't very clear, as there is no text on them, just diagrams with smiley faces. There were even a few diagrams which were not relevant either (which didnt help matters). Fitting the window frame wasnt too complex, as its a matter of attaching 4 brackets to hold the window in place, however the flashing kit was another story.

The flashing kit gives you all the bits to seal the window externally (on the roof). This is important to install, as it makes the window water-poof (when it rains). This kit creates a little water-channel between the tiles and the window for the water to run-down, and has bits of metal which go under each tile. It took a few tries to it installed, as we had a few problems understanding how it fit into our roof, including some batons in the way. However after a couple of hours we had it figured out. From the outside the window looks a heck-of-alot better, as you can see in the picture below (left is the old window in area 1, whilst the right is the new window in area 2);



From the inside it looks better, and was a bit of a morale booster - with yesterday things kind-of going wrong. The window isnt complete, as their are a few more tiles to sort-out above the window - we simply ran out of time. These tiles will need cutting down, to correct the top layer of tiles (which you maybe able to see in the above picture). However the main thing is the window is water-poof now;



So, there we go - the first window more or less installed. Tomorrow we have to take the window back out - which isnt fun (its heavy.. so glad we didnt go for the three bigger windows now), then finish off the tiles properly. After that im not too sure what will happen next - it depends on the weather. It would be nice to start the next window, but it rains we move onto the lighting. Hopefully it will be dry for the next couple of days - and maybe we can get the windows in faster too - the first one is always the worse. The weather report suggest it may rain later in the week - so might be able to get another window in before it does.