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In article ,
(Andrew Gabriel) writes:
Anyway, I did one side of the gully. You know that nice feeling you
get when you're doing something and it's going perfectly? Well, I
just wasn't getting that. Mortaring in tiles further up was causing
the ones lower down to move and come unstuck. I had visions of this
last part of the job still leaving me with a leaking roof, screwing
up all the re-felting, replacement of battons and tiles I had done.

In the morning when it had set, the mortar did look better, and the
tiles did all look stuck, but I wasn't going to try tugging on one
to see. I decided to call a roofer to mortar the other side and
redo the side I had done. Roofer came to have a look and said my
side was fine and didn't need redoing. He's going to do the other
side for me though.

Roofer came a did the other side. It was very useful to watch him
working and I picked up a number of tips. However, I didn't like
some aspects of what he'd done (no effort to bond the mortar well
to the valley sand strip or to the tiles, amongst other things).
When he'd gone, I pulled out all his mortar and did it all again,
using what I regarded as the best parts of his technique, and the
best parts of mine. All still seems waterproof following another
rain storm.

I didn't regard his visit as a waste of time though -- the chat
with him and watching him work were worth the rather small fee
he charged, and effectively went towards improving my technique.

--
Andrew Gabriel