The Last Downpipe !
The roof of Balintore Castle is a complex landscape of apexes, valleys, eaves, towers, finials, viewing platforms and turrets. While this gives delight to the eye, stemming leaks is an on-going endeavour. The recent torrential summer rains have been a good opportunity to run about the interior, and spotting the remaining places where rain comes in. Despite the major and highly effective fix to a box gutter described in the last blog entry, a new leak has been spotted in another location on the east elevation. Fingers crossed there will be some time to sort this out before winter makes this impossible.
Other roof work is more deterministic, such as the replacement over the last few days of the last missing downpipe. Below is the "before" photograph showing the ferns growing in the damp gully created by the absence of a downpipe. Before, I bought the castle there were ferns growing like this all over the building.
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| gully before clearing |
Below is the "after" photograph, showing the cleared gully - just before the new downpipe and hopper head were put in place. The scaffolding was erected to provide high-level access.
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| gully after clearing |
While the ferns were very decorative, it's good to know that their absence means you can can enjoy a watertight roof over your head at the castle!
ReplyDeleteHay david. I had read somewhere that during the 60's, the previous owners had moved out because of an extreme case of dry rot in the castle. Just wondering if the proble had been solved
ReplyDeleteHey Curt, I understand dry rot was first observed in 1957, when a wardrobe fell through the floor of one of the bedrooms. And I suspect from some repairs now visible I know which room this was. I suppose that the problem has been solved in the sense that the dry rot had now done its damage (i.e. wrecked the inside) and little (if any) dry rot is still active. Of course, the decline of the building could have been stopped early on, but it simply was not maintained.
DeleteI have just noticed something in the bottom picture and was wondering to myself. What are those rusty old rungs under the window. Hoping you could help me out
ReplyDeleteWell spotted. The rungs held a wall plate i.e. a wooden beam on which the ends of the roof timbers rested. In this location there once was a single storey walk way with a lead roof - long since stripped! In fact, we have only just removed the existing wall plate - it was totally rotten and fell apart on removal,
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