Water proofing the roof

At the end of April we were adding plywood sheeting to the roof. Now at the beginning of May we added a plastic membrane to keep the rainwater out and allow any humidity to escape.

Almost every day had some rain. When the sun comes out it is perfect weather for working in just a T-shirt. Then it rains or even hails and it gets chilly. The actual temperature was around 7C, if I recall right. However, in the sun it’s comfortable enough to be in just a T-shirt. The only thing to be careful of is the cold wind blowing in from the north. So a warm vest is a good thing to keep the upper body warm.

The rain and the energy influx from the sun made the gras grow quite tall. It’s about to consume the house. The building looks quite weathered due to all the humidity. We did treat the wood a bit to protect it. The good thing is that once the sun comes out, everything is dried very quickly. The wood is getting a good workout: cold/wet followed by warm/dry. At least it is a natural building material that can adapt.

In the back our covered porch is looking good. The rafters will stay visible as they are a good place to hang onions and garlick to dry.

The office is now a place in the shade. It has a separate door to the porch so that it is not necessary to always use the front door or disturb activities in the living room with the kitchen area when stepping out for a moment.

At the end of the day the membrane was almost completely on.

With that step completed we left for home. However, when we came back the next morning we found a few traces of standing water on the floor. That isn’t good.

When we went outside again and looked at the other side of the house we found a clue:

Up on the roof the picture was pretty clear:

So we fixed it and placed a lot of wooden sticks onto it so that the wind cannot play too much with the membrane.

The next day was rainy again and we were taking delivery of a lot of insulation material for the inside and the floor.

While we waited for the rain to stop I looked over at the house and saw a sad looking building in the pouring rain. But then I thought to myself, this time it will stay dry on the inside. And so it was from now on.

All that water coming down from the sky is good for nature. We need to find ways to harvest and store the water for the dry summer. Here in Andalusia the summer can get pretty dry as we were able to see last year when we bought the land.

After the rain stopped the truck driver unloaded. Well, he just pushed the load over. It is plastic foam (XPS) and rock wool. The packages are big but not really heavy or overly fragile as they are all pretty good wrapped up. We later took the rock wool inside the house to keep it dry.

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27 Jun 2018

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