Bungalow construction - Framework & roof

The scaffolding began to go up around the bungalow to allow for erection of the timber frame and roof trusses. It needed some careful planning to get the scaffolding sufficiently close to the bungalow without impeding the assembly of the frame. And of course we had to remember to leave a gap so that we could get the frame sections into the bungalow!! Later on in the build the scaffolding had to be pulled back to provide enough of a gap to be able to do the bricklaying.

We hired a side-loading fork lift truck to get the timber frame sections from the road onto the site. This vehicle turned out to be a nightmare. It weighed 6 tons unloaded and wouldn't run over the rough parts of the access drive - so it only really helped get the frame halfway. It was so heavy it made depressions in the tarmac just standing still, and it cracked our neighbour's manhole cover! It also proved reluctant to start one very cold morning when we were trying to move it off the shared drive so that our neighbour could get to work. Monday 29th November - the timber frame arrived at 11:00 am and by the end of the afternoon, and 10 journeys with the fork lift truck, we managed to get all the frame sections and timbers onto the site.

When we say that access was tight, we mean it! This "moffat" bringing tiles on site just made it with about 1" to spare each side. Notice the neighbour's tap on the brick wall which had been wrenched round to provide clearance. Other "moffats" failed to make it, depending on the size of their tyres! Steve eventually put a valve in-line with the tap so that the tap could easily be removed Monday thru Friday, and replaced for the neighbour to wash his car at the weekend. This driver took a similar photo to explain to his boss why unloading had taken him twice as long as expected! Once the timber frame began to go up things moved really quickly and we began to get a sense of what the bungalow would look like.

Amazingly the roofers took just one and a half days to tile the roof, and by Thursday 16th December we were "watertight".