26 June 2013

Enfin le couvreur vint

The weather widget on my Windows desktop says 5ºC this morning for Saint-Aignan. That's 40ºF. On June 26! At least it's not raining.

We had a decent day yesterday, and as my title says, the roofer (le couvreur) finally came back. (The original expression is a very famous one in literature and the history of the French language.) He came in and looked at our kitchen ceiling. He said he could fix that for us too, but later, after we see if the roof has finished leaking.


Then he climbed up on his ladder and worked on the valley (la noue) between the main roof and the lucarne or dormer for three or four hours. He removed a good number of tiles, cut them with a saw to make more space between the two sections of roof, and put them back. When he'd finished, I told him it was hard to see any difference.


Then he stuck his hand down in the space between tiles, with sheet-metal flashing or zinc at the bottom, to show me — from a distance, of course, because I didn't climb up the ladder — how wide and deep the gap is now. In theory, water will flow down faster and carry with it any debris that might be tempted to try to accumulate in there and cause a backup.


Bertie came out and did a "slink-by" inspection of the job for us. Callie, as always, barked like a mad dog when Monsieur Aubert climbed up the ladder. We had warned him that she would do that, because we didn't want him to be too startled.


So now I wish it would rain. I'm never satisfied, you must be thinking. In fact, I don't want any more rain with one exception: it would be nice to have an extremely intense fifteen-minute downpour. Then we'd start to see whether Aubert's repair, which he said he can't guarantee à 100 %, has solved the problem. Aubert also said that if he needed to do more extensive work on that section of roof, he'd give us a credit for the 300 euros this job cost us. He seems to be pretty honest.

16 comments:

  1. You wanting rain made me laugh :-) Could we possibly wait until I've picked the next cherry tree and some more strawberries please :-))

    Good luck with the roof. He's certainly talking the talk and my experience with these guys is that they just don't take on the job unless they can fix the problem.

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  2. Enfin Harry Covert vint. Is that what you meant?

    Are you some sort of a masochist to want rain when, for a change, we're begining to have some decent weather?

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  3. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your roof, but as for more rain........would it be ok if you tested it properly in say November? Or maybe October at the earliest?
    And I hear thr best month for ceiling repairs is January........

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  4. Thank you for wishing for rain to test the gutter...
    the application of Sod's Law now means that we are in for a long, fine and reasonable Summer!!

    Jean, don't worry, Ken has applied Sod's Law... this will only be negated by the insertion of unplanned barbies... with no indoor gathering space available... so, unless Ken and Walt start a major decoration project... then decide on a large outdoor cooking event... we should be dry for a while.

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  5. According to the Nouvelle Republique all the couvreurs in the region have been drafted into the Vouvrillon to undertake emergency repairs on hail-damaged roofs. Time to count our blessings! P.

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  6. This is great news. I'm sure you're feeling some relief. Hope the repairs hold out.
    I usually take the hose up on the roof after a repair and literally douse the area to check. I am a bit impatient to wait on the next rainfall.

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  7. Virginia, our roof is so high and so steep that I don't think it's safe to go up there.

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  8. If you had a very long hose, you could run it up to the roof through your velux sky light;-)

    I hope your roofer has the right idea this time and the problem will be solved now.

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  9. I don't think I'd wish for rain.
    "Les fureurs de la terre ne sont que paille et que verre à la colère des cieux." (François de Malherbe)

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  10. Oh, my! 40° F!! That's NUTS!
    Fingers crossed for the repair :)

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  11. Bonjour Dean, "Enfin Malherbe vint..." dans les commentaires !

    J'ai tellement souhaité pendant ces six derniers mois que la pluie cesse de tomber. Maintenant je voudrais qu'elle continue. Si mon second vœu est aussi efficace que mon premier, nous n'avons pas grand-chose à craindre. Ne parlons pas de bonheur, on pourrait dire.

    Evelyn, I might well try that, but I think I might wait a couple of months in the hope that Nature will intervene. Path of least resistance.

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  12. Ken

    You will need both rain and a good wind to get the test trial going. You will need to ensure that no leaves or junk blown by the wing get caught in between the tiles.

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  13. Just in:
    DOMA struck down as unconstitutional

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  14. In Wisconsin, the roofer took the hose up on our roof after a repair to confirm all was well. One advantage to doing that is now the weather is good, and should there still be a leak, the roofer can have a second go at it. There wouldn't be any wind, though, so the faucet would have to be turned on all the way.

    Yes, there was a big discussion on the news when I woke up about the 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. Congratulations once again.

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  15. Saw that, N. Encore une bonne nouvelle !

    Thanks, Mary.

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  16. I hope you can get the result you want with the lesser job!!

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