Church Roof Repair Project progress report #6

Oscar and Jo braved Storm Franklin on Monday, 21 February.  Franklin followed on the heels of named storms Dudley and Eunice last week.  The chancel roof was more sheltered than the nave roof, so they carried on to complete fixing the wooden roll battens to the chancel roof.

The chancel roof with roll battens in place, viewed from the 2001 nave gable cross, ready for the fitment of its stainless steel sheeting.

Oscar withstood the continuing winds and occasional shower on Tuesday to open up the source of the whole project – the unstable gutter lining support in the south east corner of the nave roof.  He also rapidly discovered that several of the adjacent large capping stones would move easily because they had become loose on the huge parapet main stones.

The south east corner gutter of the nave roof where the rotting of the supporting timbers initiated the whole project. Some of the parapet capping stones swivelled alarmingly as the old lead lining came out.

 

Some of the rotting framework taken out of the gutter.

Alex made a start on Friday to fit the final terne-coated stainless steel cladding on the chancel roof.  Rolls of sheet steel had been cut to length and preformed into ‘trays’ with stepped edges by a special powered roller machine.  The machine was temporarily installed inside the church to make the 32 trays the previous week.  

Rolling sheet steel into roof ‘trays’.

Each of the trays fits in between the rounded timber battens fitted on Monday.  A metal capping along the battens will complete the joint between adjacent trays.

The south side of the chancel roof gleaming with most of its stainless steel cladding trays in place. Photo taken from the nave roof.

GHP

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