ASBESTOS DRAMA ENDS

Four hundred and fifty pounds later, my bank balance is considerably slimmer from following the asbestos diet and I now have no guttering or UPVC soffits so if there’s a sudden unexpected downpour (wishful thinking) then things could suddenly get very interesting.

Let's hope we don't get a downpour

The asbestos boards under the UPVC soffits turned out to be something called ‘Chrisotile’ fortunately the less hazardous of the various types of asbestos out there.

Back in the day, asbestos was hailed a wonder product and used extensively in the construction of houses. It was often used as insulation, for roofing sheets or pipes such as outside soil pipes like ours.

Asbestos soil pipe

Since 1985, the importation of blue and brown asbestos has been banned in the UK due to the health risks following inhalation exposure to the stuff. White asbestos was then added to the banned list later on around 1999.

You should never attempt to remove asbestos yourself – we can’t even touch our flaking soil pipe to repaint it which means that at some point in the future, the asbestos diet will slim even more pounds off my lardy bank balance.

Do not scrape, peel or sand flaky asbestos pipes

Meanwhile now that the asbestos drama has ended, its time to crack on with the rest of the build which is to get the walls to what is known as ‘plate height’ ready for roof timbers.

Almost at Stage IV 'plate height'

Walls steadily rising upwards

We’re almost there on the door wall which looks like a poor version of the Brandenburg Gate from inside the extension but with this extremely hot weather, progress on the remaining walls is perhaps a little slower than expected.

The BrandenChi Gate

To prepare for the setting of the roof timbers, a section of existing roof tiles has been carefully removed exposing the concrete lintel above the kitchen window which from here appears undamaged.

Carefully removing the roof tiles

The extension's flat roof will join to this section of existing roof

Keeping the old tiles for future roof repairs

If the lintels had been damaged, we might have been facing another unexpected bill as this was not factored into the original quote. These things only come to light at the point of exposure. Fingers crossed we’re OK on this one.

Lintels above kitchen window look undamaged

As daft as it may sound, I was also a bit concerned about bats. These warm summer nights have brought out the neighbourhood’s winged population who regularly swoop around the back garden in a nightly display of aerial acrobatics. Bats in the loft space or nesting under roof timbers would be the ultimate nightmare as being a protected species their presence would have put an immediate end to our project. Let’s hope they don’t take a fancy to the exposed nooks and crannies under the roof.