Wall Plates

As promised, here are a couple more pictures from the work done last Friday. The first shows the "wall plates" at one of the gable corners. The lower one is for the main roof and the higher for the gable end to the front of the house :

The wall plate is basically a wooden beam that sits on top of the inner skin of the wall, and spreads the weight of the roof timbers which will be notched onto it. Although it sits on a mortar bed you can also see that heavy duty strapping down the inside of the wall is used to make sure it stays where it is put. If the wall plate was to move off of the top of the wall, the loadings would be all wrong and the roof would be in severe danger.

The second picture adds a little more detail at the boundary of the old and the new. This again shows the doorway that will be from our existing house, into the new bedroom (where I am standing to take the photo) :

Apart from the new blockwork to the left, this picture also perfectly illustrates why the roofline has to be lifted. Without it the corridor leading up to this doorway simply won't be high enough to stand up.