In the meantime

Please don't think that is all they have been doing. Other less glamorous however equally important work has been going on for example the drains from the downstairs bog, floor levelling, apertures and demolition. So sit back and guess which picture refers to which activity. Check the caption if you are confused I am sure you will really enjoy this part of the....

Aperture for an arch

The Chimney,  and a cunning lash up to channel water to the deposit, whao!!

That's is where in time it will go,  gobbled by the grey carpet snake

Another ring beam this time in the floor to prepare the level

Other side of the beam

Moonlighting

Night Finish

The usual tiles, gutter tiles and more tiles.....

 

Section 2 finished and just in time for tea

Section 2 finished. 

Pointing on new and existing stone work also its 18th November. 

Jordi an integral part of the team suffered from a swimming accident on the 17th of September and had to have an engine transplant and I believe is soon to be  back on the road ready to do battle in Catalunya's hinterland.

Yes more curved tiles

The tiles have been sealed from above with a concentrated cement wash and a steel chassis has been put in place to prepare the section to be concreted. 

Crosby, Steel ....

Two 16mm steel bars run the length of each beam and on top of that a mesh of steel of lighter gauge will distribute the load across and down to the ring beam sections for this whole of this roof section.

2 types of concrete are used to fabricate the slab.  One type is firstly placed on top of the beams essentially covering the wood and  uses ·arlita·, sintered stone light weight pellets to reduce the weight and load on the beams. 

The roof is then covered with conventional gravel based concrete which is used to cover the roof and prepare the base to receive the roof tiles.

How it all gets up there in true Egyptian fashion

 

Under the covers

 

Roof kit

Outside looking in

This shows pretty well how the roof is formed from the "kit" of curved tiles and machined beams. The roof kit people

I hope you are able to noticed that they have not been machine finished but have been finished with by axe. There is a slightly wavy look to them which gives them a more "distressed" look and they should not look too out of place compared to their original or salvaged peers. 

 

The curved tiles are slotted into the beams and sit on what is called la galza, an indent machined away from the beam on both sides to support the tile.

Inside looking out

 

Beams and Ring beams

 

That is part of a ring beam or armadura, it is a custom built concrete beam. There will be one on each wall of this section and they will be tied into the gable wall and the last secttion. 

The ring beams purpose is to support the beams and distribute the load also as a window is planned to be placed directly below one of the beams it will add support to the wall where the window aperture will be. Also a very good idea when state of the walls is not all that it should. Something often found in very old buildings.

End of part 1

Main section completed

That seems to be it apart from the top of the chimney. The roof of the main house is now completely finished and the next section is being prepared for it's face lift, more like transplant. 

This section is about 30mts square and will be constructed using new beams which have been finished with grooves on each side to receive curved ceramic ceiling tiles called revoltons. The material is more expensive than using reclaimed beams and flat ceiling tiles like those used in the roof of the house but the advantage is the interior is finished once in place and will not require plastering. 

Swings and roundabouts or tiles or revoltons.

Roof details

 

More roof getting boring

The roof is progressing nicely, those upside down channels are a "tartugas" which are guttering tiles. 

 

A series of these are joined together to make the guttering. This is very laborious as every row of tiles has to start with one of these things and the rest then follow so they can't exactly whiz along which would be the ...case where more conventional guttering employed as it would be added after the roof is finished. Anyway it looks great and is in keeping with what was traditionally used. This bit is more important than you can imagine as all the rain water will be channelled to the deposit, el aljibe, which is where the rain water is stored for future use.

Guttering, tartugas sounds better

The tartugas are new, made in a local terra cotta factory using traditional methods. Original pieces were salvaged of the roof when they took it apart and will be used in other roof sections as there are quite a few.

Gable end

 These are the original ones salvaged from the existing roof.

Original guttering tiles and a shadow shot of the photographer

Start of the new roof, yippee.

Its now the end of September. Other stuff has been going on drainage, wall apertures and the likes which is not that interesting to look at so I will continue with the roof story.

The steel reinforced concrete slab is on. You may ask how it got up there and the answer is by hand. The concrete lorry refused to come down to the site because of the access so it was carried up by hand up the ramp. Good way to get fit. 

The Ramp

After a break in August,  they are starting to tile the roof so it wont be long now until the place is completely water proof again. I think you can see more or less all the layers here.  Concrete, insulation and finally the roof tiles. A combination of hand made roof tiles both bought it from salvage and recovered from the original roof and manufactured tiles are used in its fabrication. 

The manufactured machine tiles are used in the channels and the hand made ones are used as the lids straddling adjacent rows of channels. Channels are fixed in place with cement and the tops glued with a expanding polyurethane  adhesive foam. Getting very technical here but they are really hammering or glueing along.

The layers

 

Roof panels

 

Outside

Inside

 

That's the first layer finished. That forms the base for the steel reinforced concrete layer which will be tied into the walls forming a homogeneous slab. Upon this slab the roof tiles are laid. So there will be some weight by the time they finish, base, reinforced concrete, insulation and finally roof tiles o teja arab. 

And by the way you can see the sea from up there, tenuous but it is definitely Mare nostrum.

Beam time

Moving on, it is now July 2010 and as you can see some progress has been made, all the replacement beams are in place and have beam cut to size, the walls have been built up to receive the them and the ceiling is starting to appear in the form of straddling 60cm tongue and groove ceramic panels. 

More beams

These lateral beams didn't require Oscars help to put them in place the crane being replaced by swearing, grunting and scaffolding. Starting to look like a whale skeleton.

It really looks know like they know what they are doing. It's difficult to get good staff and beams these days.

The beam

Beam me up Scotty

Now thats a beam, that is called a jacena here and is the main load bearing beam more like a tree really but it will support the roof and transfer the load to the walls so that is a great improvement for a start. The column is gone along with Manolo's nets.

Reluctant Oscar's Lorry and load

It weighs about 500kilos and Oscar the nice man who delivered it along with the first delivery of salvage (this is where it all came from) from Artesa helpfully dropped it into place with his crane.

Absolutely roofless

Roofless Wainwright

Most of the beams have been taken out, some of them looked fine but had water damage so they had to go and the rest are too thin for the load of the new roof. They have torn the place apart in 3 days I hope Humpty Dumpty is wrong.

Starlight

They have only been here 2 days and the roof has disappeared. I can imagine the house is feeling a bit naked and nervous. It's a hell of a sight a house without its roof I just hope it doesn't rain to much before it is replaced. Those are some of the nets Manolo used to harvest his trees.

It will get slightly worse before it gets better, the column and beams will have to go as they wont be able to support the new roof.

Hidden dangers

You see that hole up there in the ceiling,  water damage caused the plaster work to be weakened that's what I mean about lack of maintenance . That is where Sebastià fell through the roof luckily he didn't hurt himself and just got up and swore violently at the state of the roof and it's mother. 

On the first day

This is going back in time to June 2010 when they started taking the roof apart. The first job to be done was to stop the rot and that will be achieved by putting a new roof on.  There are 4 sections the main section, the house and 3 adjoined outhouses where Manolo the previous owner used to store his gear for collecting and maintaining, olives, carob beans and almonds. There was evidence of post harvest bun fights the presence of which nobody ever seemed to mind. Pity that Manolo didn't attend to the basic maintenance of the building on a occasional basis still I guess he thought it was sufficient to support the odd bat and mice who have adopted it for their home.

Let me at this stage introduce you to Sebastía and Carlitos who will be principle in transforming the building into a thing of wonderment. You will see them from time to time as changes take place. They are quite shy and prefer to remain anonymous. Then there is the guy that takes the photographs call him  Pancho, strange name I thought for someone from Belfast but that is another story. He has been useful at times.