A renovator's dream

<p>We have been renovating our lovely old home for a couple of years now, and as anyone who has done any renovation will know, it’s never as straight forward as building from scratch.</p> <p>The last big ticket item that needed to be done was the roof. The original house had a tin roof with a covered stoep. Previous owners had closed off the stoep to add more rooms to the house and added a Harvey tile roof over and on top of the tin roof. For most of the house the Harvey tiles lay directly on top of the old tin roof, but where the stoep was, a new Harvey tile roof was added, creating a large space between the two roofs. We need to demolish these added rooms, which meant that we had to take down that part of the Harvey tile roof and somehow make it look good.</p> <p>I contacted a few roofing companies: some never returned my calls and of the few we actually got on site, Andre ***ner) was by far the most knowledgeable. The details of the roof issues are difficult to describe, but he suggested that we basically cut the roof like a cake and extend the ‘old’ original exterior wall with plasterboard to meet up with the ‘new’ Harvey tile roof, adding structural reinforcements as necessary. We wanted to lower the pitch of the roof so that these Harvey tiles also lay on top of the original tin roof, but he said that he’ll only know if it is possible when they open up the roof. The other option was to completely re-roof the house, which was not in our budget at all. So we hoped for the best.</p> <p>Handre and his team arrived Tuesday morning, materials for ‘plan A’ included, and started taking down the Harvey tiles and timber covering the old stoep and later in the day, to my surprise, started cleaning up the rouble that they had removed. Removal of the rouble was included in the quote, although not specifically stated as such, and although we kept the bulk of the ‘rouble’ to re-use on other projects, they helped us to pack it away neatly. At the end of day 1 our yard was neater after they left than before they came – what a treat!</p> <p>Handre took some photos of the exposed roof, but was confident that we would be able to drop the pitch of the roof as we had hoped to do and Andre confirmed the next morning. Since it meant that is was going to be more work than the original plan, the quotation was adjusted, but they estimated that they would still be able to finish on Friday, as originally planned.</p> <p>Wednesday was pretty much the same, with removal of the remainder of the Harvey tiles and timber. Handre found some rotten roof beams that they fixed with the structural timber that they would have used in ‘plan A’ and by the end of the day the workspace was again left ‘spotless’.</p> <p>When they left Wednesday afternoon, they took the ‘plan A’ materials with them and returned Thursday morning with new brandering that would go on top of the old tin roof – the old Harvey tiles would be reuses as they are still thankfully in good condition. These guys are so professional and s****ed that by lunch time we had a new roof! Oh the joy of having our house restored to its original self. They hoped to finish by the end of the day, but returned on Friday to do the last finishing touches.</p> <p>The original quote included the removal of the roof trusses covering the old stoep, which was scheduled as a last to-do on Friday. Demolishing of the walls will be another job in the near future and removal of the trusses, without damaging the existing house, would take special care and probably a whole afternoon. I decided that, since the trusses would come out on their own in any way when the walls come down, they might as well leave the removal of trusses, although they are certainly more that capable of doing it with the care and attention that will be needed. I think everyone was happy with that decision and glad that they could finish the (bigger) job (a little) sooner than expected.</p> <p>The team worked really hard and from what I could tell they have a very good relationship with Handre and he values their (very knowledgeable) input. They are polite and friendly and I can truly not sing their praise high enough! It was such a treat to start the year off with a project that turned out better that I had expected in my wildest dreams. (As renovations of old houses go, every little change normally morphs into a mini crisis as you struggle to keep the integrity of the house intact and I had mentally prepared myself for any and all hiccups that might occur – none showed their face. There might be a change in winds afoot, but I suspect that it is Handre and his team that gave the magic touch)</p> <p>We are having a little dispute about the materials quoted for vs material used in the end, but with the scope of work changing midway through the project that is almost expected. I am sure we will resolve the issue amicably.</p> <p>The rain stayed away during the whole project (another miracle) and it hasn’t rained since, so I can’t vouch for waterproofing yet, but if the stability of the roof is anything to go by; we will have absolutely no problems with leaks. Their work is guaranteed for three years, so I’m not worried regardless.</p> <p>I cannot recommend them more! I hope you get to open your Pretoria branch soon!</p> <p> </p>