Quality wins out in the end

[Tricky Dicky]

I have just removed the cement/asbestos roof off our concrete garage. I opt ed out of clambering over the old leaky roof and extracting the fixing nail s from above due to the poor shape the roof was in. Instead I went for cutt ing the nails from below. Initially I intended to use a reciprocating saw b ut could not get the guard against the beams resulting in excess vibration and teeth on the blade being worn. So went to Plan B using my 3yr old Lidl multi tool and despite having been subject to dogs abuse and inappropriate use over the last 3yrs it did the job without complaint. However, I did exp ect to go through several blades as there were approx. 50 galvanised 6mm di am. nails to cut. I bought a few DeWalt long life metal cutting blades @ £17.99 ea from Screwfix in the end I only used two and reckoned I prob ably could have managed with one as neither blade looks like it has suffere d in any way. So a thumbs up for the DeWalt blades they may be expensive bu t they do last.

BTW I was glad I opted for cutting the nails from below even though it mean t a number of hours work because when sliding the panels off quite a number split apart due to hairline cracks running longitudenly.

Richard

[Iggy]

replying to Tricky Dicky, Iggy wrote: I concur! When I started out I thought the cheap blades were a bargain. Then, I found myself out of blades with only quality being left on the shelves. I bit the bullet and was truly amazed at the difference. I never bought cheap again and happily "overpay", especially whenever carbide's an option.

[T i m]

Dad had such a roof on a brick built workshop that was built off the side of a single garage (tiled pitched roof).

The stupid bloke next door put his *lit* BBQ away in his shed that backed onto Dads workshop, burnt his own shed down but damaged Dads workshop.

They paid to have the roof replaced but the replacement corrugated cement fibre was of poor quality, sagging and flexing, something the original panels hadn't done in probably ~60 years? ;-(

So, do you know if there are (now) different grades of such stuff and if so, what should I look out for if we offer to replace it for Mum?

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff]

Yes as asbestos seems not to bend well, it does tend to crack, and has very little resistance to the crack running thereafter. Brian

[Tim Lamb]

In message , T i m writes

The *big 6* stuff used since the late 90's has labelling/specification down the top of the ribs. It is still vulnerable to embrittlement by heat but appears as rigid as the original with asbestos fibre.

[Tricky Dicky]

The garage was put up when the house was built in 1975 according to the pre vious owner. The problem was that the base was laid initially as a hard sta nding area with a slope for drainage. The garage was simply stood on top an d as a result of the sloping base the flat roof was err - flat! So vary lit tle drained, I guess years of water sitting there and freezing in winter to ok its toll. The previous owner had vainly tried to stem the leaks by silic one sealant internally and flashband over external joins but water still go t in mainly from what I can see through the hairline cracks.

Starting Monday the old base is coming up and a new 40m2 mancave will event ually grace the site this time with a pitched roof!

Richard