Self Build BlogBurning rubber with the roofing details
It's great to see so many trades on-site at the same time.
In parallel with having the carpenter, the plumbers and the electricians on-site this week, we've also had the roofers here on some days.
Although the roof is done as a complete covering and everything seems to be watertight so far, there are still lots of details that need working on. This consists of all the Velux roof windows and the waste water venting pipe.
It's quite nerve-racking for me seeing holes cut into the nicely adhered rubber membrane and having big holes cut through the roof timbers and insulation to create the roof windows. In the design stage, we tried to minimise the number of items coming through the roof, to reduce the chance of leak opportunities in the future. For example, there was talk of having the boiler flue coming through the roof, but we swiftly managed to change that, so it will come through the wall instead.
The great thing about using the Firestone EPDM rubber membrane for the final roofing finish, is that it's so flexible. Having discussed with the roofers how it all works, they have given me great confidence in the ability of the adhesive to keep all the layers stuck together properly in all weathers and also in the simplicity of making repairs should it be necessary.
You can see they have done a cracking job of the getting the rubber all shaped and stuck down, around where the waste water vent pipe comes up. It looks great!
It's nice too that the roofing membrane is actually made from the rubber from recycled car tyres too (eco bonus points!) - although the smell of it does remind me of the days of repaiting the punctures on my bicycle inner tubes!
The Velux windows themselves will sit on top of a timber upstand - basically a picture-frame-like construction - which will bring the windows up off the roofline. This is to allow the sedum roofing trays to sit around the windows and so that the plants wont end up blocking any light coming to the rooms.
The rubber will come up the side of these upstands and then overlap with the window edges to create a waterproof seal.
From the inside of the house, it nice to see some light coming into the bedroom (the one window which has been opened up so far). Once the walls have all been painted white, this should help bounce some natural light around the place.
