Saturday 1 March 2014

Ducks in the woods and a new shelter roof

See, I told you the woods were flooded... we have Mallards swimming around now...

Mallards in the woods! IMG_20140301_144708

Here's a pic of the River Rother from a couple of weeks ago, which gives you an idea of how waterlogged the area around Rye is!
River Rother in flood, Feb 2014

At least one good sign though - bluebell shoots!
Bluebell shoots appearing! DSC_7983

The wet and windy winter had also accelerated the decay of parts of our shelter roof in the woods, so we spent some time over the last couple of weekends getting it sorted...
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First we fixed some wooden beams across the existing roof:
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Then wedged a few bits of wood underneath to stiffen them up - the roof bows a bit, hence the gap in the middle.
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To go on top of them we had some sterling board (OSB - Oriented Strand Board), which we'd treated with a preservative, and corrugated panels to go on top of them:
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And of course the solar PV to recharge the drill...
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Once the sterling boards were on top, it was pretty easy to move around and screw them down:
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Then the corrugated panels and the ridge pieces went on top:
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They were supplied with some special caps and nails, but we opted to use screws instead of nails. The screw went through the cap:
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Was then tightened until it was holding the panel firmly:
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Then finally you flip the centre of the cap over and press it down to create a watertight seal:
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We spent a good chunk of one day making half of the roof:
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Then came back the following weekend with more power tools and got the second half done much quicker!
Woodland shelter DSC_7986

We went today as well to do some track repair, but no pics of that - not much to see, just mud!

Mike

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