18a. ‘The Shed’ Fights Back!
Why, I hear you ask, is the sun-room just as chaotic
as it was six weeks ago, if not more so? Well: (a) The exercise machine belongs
to my son Julian, and we are still trying to figure out a way to get rid of it.
He can’t use it in his flat, as it makes a noise, and the old lady who lives in
the flat below knocks on the roof of her flat with a ten-foot long pole she
evidently keeps for the purpose, if there is even the slightest noise from
above; (b) The washing machine, microwave & fan belong to my daughter
Georgina who is keeping them here while she is in the process of buying a
house. But above all: (c) The Shed is not quite ready yet for my stuff to go in
it. Some small & fairly indestructible stuff can, such as the fork, the
spade, the hoe, the broom. But not the electric things like the grass-mower,
the strimmer, the electric drill and screwdriver, the
bench grinder & so on. Why? There are two reasons. First, there isn’t very
much room in the shed, even though it’s empty now. Oh yes, it measures 6 foot
by 8 foot (~1.8m x 2.4m), but the previous owner built inside it many shelves,
racks &c., which makes the floor area quite small. Accordingly, we began to
remove these in order to increase the floor area.
Here are some of them. They were very well-constructed
and took a lot of knocking down. But eventually these shelves, along with many
other pieces of wood which we had left inside in case they might come in handy,
were taken to the local Recycling Centre. Surely now, all would be well? No:
the second reason – the crucial one – was only too apparent, and indeed, had
been present all along. The roof leaks. So we can’t put electrical stuff in
there, as a damp environment is not good for them.
Here is the roof of the shed. Though I am greatly
interested in Archaeology and love reading books on all periods of History, I
seldom get a chance to practise Archaeology. But here was a good simple
beginner’s exercise. Going down through the layers of this roof, we arrived at
the following:
Phase
I: Date unknown; probably circa
1970s.
The Shed was erected. It is constructed of ‘tongue
& groove’ boarding, and as is quite apparent in these photos., the front,
side & rear walls of The Shed still remain in tolerably good condition. The
roof, too, is constructed of ‘tongue and groove’ boarding, but this roof was of
course overlaid with Roofing Felt, folded over & nailed down round the
edges. It was a good shed, and this was a promising start.
Phase II: Date unknown; probably circa 1980s.
The Roofing Felt deteriorated. Under the prolonged
annual cyclic onslaught of sunlight, rain, heat, cold, frost, snow, the Felt
became de-natured. It cracked, split, broke up. Rain could get in past it, & wet & start to rot the roofing boards. But
repairs were carried out. The old, cracked Roofing Felt was totally overlaid by
a new layer, folded over & nailed down. All was well again.
Phase III: Date unknown; probably circa 1990s.
This second layer of Roofing Felt eventually
deteriorated, for the same reasons as given in Phase II above. Repairs were
again carried out. However, in this case, the method employed was different.
The two old layers of Felt were again overlaid, but this time by chipboard.
This was nailed to the roof of the shed, hence accounting for the now-rusty
nails sticking through the ceiling into the interior of the shed. A single run
of Roofing Felt was nailed over the central portion, this being the
worst-affected by the ingress of rainwater. It must be recorded here, that
though this repair doubtless enjoyed initial success, it was not a satisfactory
long-term solution.
Phase IV: The present day: 2008.
Besides the nailed-down chipboard, as you can see in
the photo. above,
some sections of wood have been laid across the roof. These are not secured in place,
and their function is not clear. The obvious explanation is that they are meant
to hold the roof down in case high winds tore off the chipboard: but some of
them are so small in cross-section that they can never have effectively
fulfilled that purpose. And equally, however useful chipboard is as a cheap
material for more-or-less ephemeral indoor structures (e.g. shelves in the
garage), it is certainly not an appropriate material for unprotected outdoor
use. This may imply that the Phase III repair was meant merely as a temporary
expedient, and never made good? At any rate, the condition of the roof is now
parlous in the extreme. We moved one of the larger timber sections, and a very
large number of centipedes, beetles, woodlice and worms were revealed living in
the damp & decaying chipboard. Still, the answer is simple: during a
prolonged period of fine weather, the entire roof-covering must be dismantled
& got rid of. After patching up the very small decayed section of
roof-boarding (a single bucket is capable of catching the rainwater that drips
into The Shed), a new layer of Roofing Felt can be applied in the normal way.
What could be simpler? Well; there is just one snag…
It is evident that, for a long period of time, the
space behind The Shed has been used
as a dumping ground for undesired things. Such as old fencing, inexplicable
blocks of brick & concrete &c. As it were, ‘Out of Sight, Out Of Mind’.
But in order to work safely on the roof of The Shed, it will be necessary to
clear this area, as if one were to stand on it (as I did to take the shot of
the roof), it can suddenly give way & be dangerous, which it
actually started to do while I was taking the photos!
Things are never as simple as we would like. And in
the meantime, my little sun-room remains cluttered…
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