The roof arrives as we tidy up the frame

Finally Kingspan did as they said that they would do and a Polish driver turned up with a new load of roofing panels. Clearly incorrectly briefed, he didn't call us before he arrived (maybe he didn't want to try to speak too much English) so he tried to reach us under his own steam (usual satnav issues, ending up in the wrong place) before calling his base who called Peter. Although he couldn't easily communicate, this guy knew how to drive as he threaded his way through a much more crowded road without issue or drama and proceeded to offload with some considerable skill with his Moffett forklift; moving 10m panels can't be easy when you have to get them off the back of the lorry and into a 4m gate from a road that is only 4m wide. Fortunately the only people we blocked were are good neighbours and friends who were particularly chilled and complemented Peter on being "a good boy" (he's in his mid thirties but they've known him nearly all his life).

Why Kingspan? We spent a lot of time selecting our roofing method. We wanted something cheap (who am I kidding?), with good thermal values and that would go up very quickly. Originally we had wanted a zinc roof but the cost of that was out of the equation. Then we went for standing seam aluminium left in mill finish but that again was too expensive. The aluminium would be highly recyclable, the mill finish would reflect the sunlight and the standing seam would provide the sort of effect that we were after. Finally we decided on the not-quite bottom of the line, agricultural, Kingspan LP in a very light grey finish. Hopefully it will be up within three days, will keep heat in whilst reflecting summer heat out.

Appart from this, the task for the day was to peg the joints, bolt the rafters together and fix down the purlins on the lower roof. The gap between the rafters is almost exactly a hands width apart so threading the washers and nuts in was a bit of a hassle and I have two sores on the backs of my hands where the skin was warn away. Still everything closed up nicely and it is looking very trim. Andy and Jeremy were happy with progress and, because Jason the roofer has been stuck on another roofing project (too much rain last week) and so won't be with us until Tuesday or Wednesday, opted to go home for a week-end R&R rather than slave away all week-end.