The most important part of the Farmhouse renovation is well underway. The new roof will guarantee the life of the property for manly years to come and will ensure the costs of running the house are reduced.
We decided to us old tiles on the roof, which meant sourcing and recycling hand made traditional Santa Caterina roof tiles. The advice we received was that we should put new tiles under the old tiles, this allows the new tiles to do most of the work (catching the rain) and facing with the old tiles..
After getting the insulation (blue fireproof foam) on we added the tiles, but then after 5 months of no rain we had a thunderstorm so the builder quickly added a waterproof coating using tarp sheeting. Apart from waterproofing beneath the tiles this adds significantly to the insulation of the roof.
Each of the 3000 recycled Santa Catertina tiles had to be hand cleaned before begin hand up to the roof.
While adding the roof the builder will complete the wood stove and chimney. Once the roof is wind and water tight the work on spraying and paining the ceilings, plastering the inside walls, levelling the floors, adding the underfloor heating and then tiling the floors. The electricians will do final fix ( plugs, light switches and fittings), the carpenter will fits door frames and doors and the windows can be refitted.
After 5 weeks ( which felt like 10) the roof was finally completed, just ahead of the rain. A couple of thousand hand cleaned recycled handmade wood fired tiles will get a second shot at life and we get an authentic portugese roof that will keep the weather out. The builder has said to us a couple of times it would be easier to build a new build than renovate and I'm sure that's true, but buildings have history memory and souls and the Farmhouse is full of personality which the renovation will re invigorate, exaggerate and bring back to life.
Covering the garage roof and reroofing the farm buildings will complete the renovation and restoration of the roofs at the farm and will be complete in early 2022.
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