Well, I am by no means old, but I was reminded that I am not so young anymore when I decided to tackle an issue at home that has been bothering me for a few weeks.
Here’s a photo of the roof over our house’s terrace, it may not seem obvious but theres a serious sag in the supporting beam.
Here it is from another angle. It seems the precious owner was bothered by it too as you can see the rather thin looking wooden pole that has been jammed in for more support. The main bean has actually twisted a bit too, as the parts resting on the concrete pillars seems to have gone soft from moisture and maybe even termites?
On getting older…
In my youth I would quite easily climb on top of a roof, replacing tiles or doing whatever else needed doing. There was always an element of self preservation, so I was never reckless.
In this instance though I was over aware of my mortality and actually had a few moments where I froze up for a few seconds, before willing myself to finish the job.
All I wanted to do was to take a portion of the tiles off of the roof, my reasoning being that the tiles are quite heavy. With a good portion gone the wood would be less likely to break completely. My fear here was that it could break while my family was on the terrace, to be honest it bothered me to the point of losing sleep.
One of the beams at the end is so rotten it also has a pole to support it, some tiles have already made their escape.
I removed one a few of the tiles in the centre of the rood, so that I could climb up through the hole, far away from the edge. This is on a terrace, remember, ladders on the edges of a drop make me super nervous.
I removed tiles, one by one, handing them down to my wife, who stacked them out of the way. I progressed to the edge, then systematically took column after column off. Eventually stopping for a bit of a rest.
Here you can see how rotten that beam is. The beam closest in the photo felt like it was moving as I put my weight on it, very disturbing! It and the furtherest beam are coming down soon!
As I rested I took in the view, it really is amazing.
I do love being surrounded, almost, by trees. We have gone for a few walks on the dirt roads that snake their way through the trees. This is miles better than living in a city or in the centre of a village. I think so anyway.
The end result, we now have a portion of the terrace exposed to the elements, but as it is summer there should be much less rain. Hopefully we can get this roof redone and safe before next winter.
I was truly surprised by how long it took me to get going once on the roof. When I did finally act I was ultra deliberate with every movement, much to the amusement of my wife, who also remembers me being way more comfortable with heights.
Maybe the real issue is that it has been so long? It has been years since I have tackled any kind of DIY on the outside of a house so I am going to go with that.
The house still needs quite a bit of work, so I guess we will see!
