Sheds and Chimneys

Had some friends over yesterday to try again to put up the shed. We've got the sides on which is a feat in of itself - especially the side with the glass windows which was incredibly heavy. And all this with the wind starting to pick up! Now all I've got to do is put the roof on which is going to be problematic. It's incredibly heavy as each part of the pitched roof is ship lapped planking screwed to the support beams. Some of the planks need replacing because they are rotten - though fortunately they are the end planks so shouldn't be too difficult. I am however, contemplating replacing the roof with some kind of fibre boards, sealed then with roofing felt.



We've also had a bit of a blow with the chimney. We had the sweep round to look at the chimney to try and workout why the smoke is back flowing. Oh dear. To start with there was a huge birds nest in the chimney. Melody had a bin bag full of twigs come down as soon as they started. Apparently the company have been out to the house a number of times in the past, and even recall putting a bird cage on the chimney before! Then as he was sweeping, a brick fell down the chimney which gave them both more than a bit of a fright. This might turn out to be a more serious issue, and we've been advised not to light a fire in the grate. Lucky we've got the central heating working. Unfortunately when the sweep checked the chimney with a smoke flare, we were still getting back flush, which implies a more serious problem. So they are going to come back and have a look down the chimney from the top, and perhaps at the same time fit a bird cage to stop more nests being built.

And finally, apparently we will need to line the chimney before we can use the woodburning stove. Although it's apparently a relatively quick procedure but will cost over £1000, and then we'll need to adapt the stove to suit the chimney. So I guess we won't be getting the wood burning stove up and running any time soon!