There is so much time spent fiddling about with "behind the scenes" jobs like removing old mastic, or cleaning out old timber to make room for the new bits, that some days just seem to achieve nothing concrete. Certainly the job of removing the mastic from the inner front edge of the roof panel took far more time than I would have expected. But it has to be done, and, if the new mastic is going to get a chance to stick properly, done well. After I did this job I had to go indoors and remove splashes of white spirit/sticky mastic from my glasses. 1. it was a nuisance, and 2. shows you that if you dont wear glasses, get a pair of safety specs..you dont want that gunk in your eyeball!

I started by carefully removing as much mastic as possible with an old knife. I am not a smurf by the way, the blue hands are courtesy of thin nylon gloves that can be bought from most DIY stores or some chemists etc. Saves you getting mastic and gunk under your nails etc

Then I got an old denture brush and a little white spirit to scrub the remaining mastic away. This is why my glasses got sprayed with gunk! If you dont have and old denture brush, go and visit an elderly relative and ask to use the bathroom...you should find what you need there. But don't tell them that I sent you!

When I had the surface as clean as I could, I gave it all a quick wipe over with pure Turpentine...mastic doesn't like white spirit so it's best to wipe it off.

Once I had that job out of the way I thought it was time to finish the floor area that I renewed. It has no real strength till it gets a sheet of plywood bonded to it to complete the job. So I cut and shaped some pieces of plywood. Then I completely covered the area with PVA glue and screwed the ply onto it. I weighted it down where I couldn't use screws.