This month focused almost entirely on replacing and finishing the carriage’s roof, both inside and out.
With much of the wood inside having been replaced or fixed in order to ensure that the carriage would stay upright and intact, the KSEL team decided that it would be a good idea to finally mend the roof.
When we first bought the house, the carriage’s roof was a bodged job made for the sole purpose to prevent the ‘shed’ from rotting away. One of the previous owners to the house must’ve simply placed corrugated iron onto the top of the original wooden roof of the carriage and left it like that such that the wood underneath would be preserved.
Although this did contribute to very shed-like aesthetic features, and, to the untrained eye, made the carriage look like a shed, without this simple piece of corrugated iron, the carriage would probably not be standing today. With thanks to the previous owners, the wooden roof underneath was actually not in too bad of a condition, and it meant that we were able to start work on replacing the wood underneath with something a little more hardwearing.
The team eventually got to work replacing the roof. Initially the team started by removing the corrugated iron roof and the slats that were underneath. We then were able to replace the slats with new, non-rotten ones, leaving a gap so that we are able to make room for the electricity cables to go underneath.
Once the new slats were on, we created a new dome out of MDF and then finally finished the roof with GRP (glass reinforced plastic).
Once the team were happy that the roof wasn’t going to fall down, we began to start thinking about how we were going to get light into the carriage.
Often the team have found that the carriage can become very dark during the later hours of the evening and especially in winter. So, using the original lantern light holes in the roof, the team have sent off measurements to have our own electronic remote control lanterns for the carriage! So far, the electrician has successfully fitted the wires for the lanterns and we are just waiting for them to arrive so that they can be fitted!
We can’t wait until next month when we will hopefully be able to have light fittings in the carriage!
