Morphex's blogologue (Life, technology, music, politics, business, mental health and more)

Reworking the balcony

So, I'm staying at my dad's cabin, going to fix it up as I go along.

Some rot in the balcony caught my eye, and eventually I found that parts here and there in the lower section of the balcony was rotten and had cracks.

So I'm going to keep the roof, for now, and remove whats underneath. Today's project was to prepare the roof for a new mainstay at the outer edge.

So I had to remove some bits of plank that were added to support the fixture where the water drain that runs along the roof is attached.



I, rather romantically, started thinking I could drill some holes in the place I wanted to break the planks at the right place, or use an iron tap, but those bits of plank there were solid, and they've been there for many decades - good wood and/or they're in a well ventilated place.



I've made it a point to make the process as safe as possible for me and for anyone else, so nails that are left, are bent and/or hammered into the wood so it doesn't become for example a tetanus trap.



Eventually though, the romantic, soft approach turned into a brutal and time-saving process, where I just hammered on the plank to make it break.



That worked rather well actually, the wood broke at the right place to still keep things in place, and clearing the supporting struts so that a mainstay can be put in place.

Some good wood here, getting chucked:



Making sure removed nails etc. are put in the "jewelry box":



I guess the only disappointing part today was that one of the supporting struts beneath the roof had rot:



But it's not very surprising, it was on the corner with rot that first got me started with this. Is it the weather exposure and/or bad ventilation?

I don't know.

Anyway, final result!



The balcony roof is now ready for a new mainstay a bit below the old one, some concrete can be poured, and the roof will have some new support columns, and the lower part of the balcony can be removed.

[Permalink] [By morphex] [Building a home (Atom feed)] [07 Jun 16:47 Europe/Oslo]