I got an hour or two this afternoon to stick the roof cover down.

I am using a roofing material made from EPDM which is a synthetic rubber. It can be bought in large sheets and is glued down – there are two main manufacturers selling in the UK, Classic Bond and Firestone. Firestone seems to be the most well known brand of the two and that is what I went with (a decision based entirely on cost – I have no idea if one is better than the other, but I did note the standard CB membrane was slightly thicker than the Firestone equivalent).

Typically within about 5 minutes of my getting out there the wind got up, and predictably comical results ensued as I tried to grapple with a 4.5m2 rubber sail in high wind.

Anyhow, I eventually got it done – it is a straightforward process: lay out the membrane and let it settle in place for a half an hour, roll back half of it and paint on the supplied water based adhesive (I used a paint roller). Once you’ve pushed the first half back over the glue you do the same with the other half.

After the membrane is laid on the glue, you just need to go over the roof with a soft broom to push out any air bubbles.

step1: fold back membrane
2.apply adhesive
3 smooth out any air bubbles with a brush and done!

To finish the job I will nail timber battens at the front and side edges of the roof and use a contact adhesive to glue the edges of the membrane over it. The contact adhesive is also supplied by the roof membrane manufacturer and is presumably stronger than the other water based glue to stop the wind lifting the membrane at the edges. The battens are to create a kerb to prevent rain from overspilling the sides.

Since I (still) haven’t placed my timber order I can’t proceed any further at the moment.

In other thrilling news I received my delivery for fascias, barge boards and guttering. I looked at aluminium fascias for a while and, much to my surprise, these can be bought for not much more than the upvc versions. In the end though, given the doors and windows are upvc, I decided to embrace the world of plastic full-on and got the pvc stuff .

miscellaneous guttering bits – try and contain your excitement.

I will try and sort out the timber order next week so I can arrange the delivery for end of the 1st week of Feb, and – weather permitting- I aim to get going on the exterior on the weekend starting 8th of Feb.