Building during a pandemic

After the bombshell on March 23rd that the UK was in lockdown it became evident that the construction industry could continue to work provided sites could comply with various operating procedures and maintain the safety of workers.

We had just 2 carpenters on site, each travelling in their own van and staying on site. They wanted to carry on working, so it was deemed safe for them to continue and get the rafters on the roof.

It then struck us that our Cabershield flooring could only stay exposed for 60 days. We had no idea how long lockdown would last, or whether we would be able to get the roof completed in lockdown and before the end of the 60 days. 

Our window order had gone in just before lockdown, but the manufacturer then closed so that was in limbo. Our order for the upstairs patio doors was also on hold. But most importantly, we needed to get membrane for the roof, and slates – but all of the merchants were closed.

Over the next few days the carpenters finished installing the rafters. On Friday the 27th March we visited the site to check the scaffolding was safe, everything that needed to be plastic-ed in was, and the area was secure. Then the site was closed.

After all the horrendous weather of the previous 3 months, the sun came out and British Summer Time began on that Sunday.

We were determined to get the house in the dry if it could be done safely, and luckily the roofer lived just a few hundred metres away. So we sourced Tyvek online and had it delivered, and in early April the fabric and battens went on the roof, the window and door openings were plastic-ed up, and to our huge relief the house was in the dry within the 60-day ‘window’ for the Cabershield flooring.

It was another couple of weeks before we could get slate delivered – it came down from Aylesbury and actually worked out cheaper than (and just as good quality as) the roof slate from the local builders merchants. The only down side was that it had to be dropped on the pavement as the restrictions meant it wasn’t possible to bring it onto the site. Then we had to physically carry every slate onto site.

We had the two carpenters back for a few days in April, to put noggins between rafters and fit the slate window sills. We’re incredibly lucky to have a local slate company, Ardosia, where we had the sills made. They were closed but we’d collected the sills just before lockdown, so they were on site ready to install.

In late April the roofer started putting the slate on the roof, but it was a long drawn-out process and it wasn’t finished until a month later. Materials were difficult to source as the merchants were closed, and everything had to be bought online – but the couriers were very quick, most of them saying the roads were quiet due to the lockdown, so their journeys were easier. The motorway services were closed too, and lorry drivers told us they had to be self-sufficient as there was nowhere to get food or drinks or to clean up en route.

We had some fantastic weather in April and the two huge mounds of earth in the back garden dried out to the extent that the ground was cracking. While the site was deserted we made best use of the time and started grading the soil and forming what will be the back garden. It made a huge difference, changing what looked like TellyTubby Land into the bones of our new garden.