Next Project

Weather is set to be dry for some time so must start the next re-roofing project! The 6 m x 5 m shed that I built in 2004 specifically to take a large collection of black plastic 1/2" ribbed pipes that would form the solar water heating for our swimming pool. I built it back then in a great hurry all by myself & the easiest method of roofing was 2 m x 1 m waved bitumen sheets.

All went well for ages but in the last 18 months holds began to appear. I think 15 years is probably anyway the life expectancy but also noticed rooks were stealing bread & rolls we put out to dry and taking them on to the roof where they hammered at them and probably caused even more wear and tear.

So now need a new roof and as we still have loads of old concrete tiles from our house re-roof 2017, seemed like a good idea to use them. The first job though was to get the water hoses down. In the heat of summer it would probably have been easy enough to roll the 5 m x 5 m 'mat' up and somehow heave it down with the tractor front loader but in winter I was afraid of breaking the plastic.

As the pipes are only pushed onto a distribution crossbar pipe, I decided to disconnect the pipes on one length by pulling them off. What a wretched job it turned out to be! 16 summers & winters and the plastic & rubber connections are dirty but like new, taking about 5-10 minutes for each pipe. I forget how many pipes there are, I think around 120. I could only do a few a day, standing 3 m above the ground on a ladder and having to push them off away from me. Horrible work but speaks for the quality of the German manufacturer. I sent them a video which they were very happy to see!