The scaffolding is finally down!

You are probably thinking to yourself "well, we didn't even know there was any scaffolding up in the first place!".  Oooops, sorry about that 😉

St Abbs has been encased in a steel corset for the last eight weeks or so whilst Chris and George have been working from the top down to make her watertight.

The house is only classed as 1 1/2 storey, but I'm glad that I didn't have to be up on the top of the scaffolding!

The paths around St Abbs are not overly wide..... 

.....so it was a tight squeeze to get the scaffolding in place.

 

All the slates had to be removed ~ underneath them was a layer of horsehair!  Chris was surprised to find that the roof didn't appear to have had any work done to it for the 100 years or so that it has been there.  He told us that the horsehair insulation is an indication that the house is at least 100 years old, which tallies with us being told that St Abbs was built sometime in the early 1900s.  The horsehair was horrible stuff ~ the guys looked like they had been down mines when they had taken it all off the roof!

Luckily, there were only a couple of sarking boards which needed to be replaced ~ not bad for a house of St Abbs' age, eh.  Chris and George put down a damp proof membrane, then rehung the slates that were still in good condition, along with new ones, using copper nails.

The repair and renovation seemed to take for ever, but there was a lot of work to be done.

This is the chimney stack which was letting in so much water.  The old render had to be completely removed as the wet had got beneath it.

Both stacks had to have new concrete tops made, and all the pots have been replaced.  They now all have vented tops, too.

The other chimney stack wasn't in such bad repair, but did still have to have some of the render replaced.  The pot with the stainless steel cage is the one for the sitting room.  

The concrete skews now have lead flashings, and the flashings around both the chimneys has been replaced.

The kitchen roof is due to be replaced in a couple of weeks.  The "slates" currently on it are made from some kind of composite material, and are in a terrible condition.  They will be replaced with a fibreglass roof, along with a Velux window to let more light into the kitchen.

The guys have fitted air vents along the front and back of the house, so the roof space will now have plenty of air circulation.

As you can see, there is still painting to be finished, and guttering, etc, to be put up, but at least the steel corset has now been removed!

Bye, bye scaffolding!  Thanks for your help but we are very pleased to finally see you on your way to another house in need 😉