We were asked to reroof a 1760s house on the banks of the Thames at Twickenham. It adjoined a similar smaller cottage whose roof had been regularly maintained and whose dead straight ridge line spoke volumes.
Ours on the other hand had suffered from centuries of neglect, so much so that the rafters and bracings had rotted causing the structure to sag and the flanks and ridge to drop down and curve like a breaking wave.
When we came to expose the rafters, some of them were of 5” x 5” solid oak. The remaining timbers were so hard we could barely drive in screws using an impact driver. But here is the rub – the bottom 4 ft of 6 of the rafters was missing, eaten away by wet rot. The failure of the roof tiles to keep the house watertight had caused the gradual collapse of the structure giving it that wonderfully unique appearance.
