I currently have 3.5 metres of laid floorboard that is inadequately covered by a sheet of black plastic.

I was aware that heavy rain was forecast for the next three days as the edge of a tropical cyclone up north touches Perth.

I realised, once I was out on site, that I had no chance of completely installing a temporary roof before the rain came so I turned my attention to fastening down some protection using the existing plastic.

First off, I had noticed on several occasions, when I arrived on site, that the sheet of plastic draped over the edge of the temporary roof had been blown back, exposing the floorboards to the elements.

I took some fine battens and nailed these along several edges - I am hoping this will hold the plastic without it ripping through.

Next I pulled a 6 m length of plastic off the roll, left it folded in half length ways for the moment, and worked on joining it to the existing installed piece.

Generally, attempting to tape one piece of sheeting to another, is a lost cause particularly if the wind in going to pick it up and give it a good shake.

So I am not sure if I will have any luck at all with this approach.

I created an overlapping lip between the two pieces and then folded it on itself several time before taping it with gaffa tape.

I then laid a heavy length of timber over the join in the hope that this will protect it.

Next I carried many pieces of timber up to the loft level and laid them out carefully with the intention to stop the wind blowing under any sheeting and lifting it up.

Following this I marked up two sheets of 1200 x 2400 x 12 mm multi ply to cover two areas - both the bathroom mentioned earlier and the communal toilet as well.

This is all temporary of course - eventually I will install graded cement floors in to all the wet areas.

It turned in to a bit of a jigsaw puzzle but I was pleased to discover that, with clever cutting, I could just cover both areas.

It was one pm by now.

Ian was working on moving soil around in the backyard and by now he was at the point of rinstalling the 40 mm pipe from the pumping tank to the drainage trenches. I sort of helped a bit with this until it was 2 pm and then retreated inside.

I kept testing the temperature outside for the next few hours but it was not until 5 pm that it was cool enough to venture out again.

Inside, I tested out the ADSL connection that had been installed several weeks ago. I also cleaned up in the kitchen and tightened up the bolt holding the mixer tap in to the sink.

When I eventually emerged I cut up the multi-ply according to the markup and screwed it down on to the steel purlins.

The last piece of temporary roof, that I installed over the Christmas / New Year break, took me four days of continuous work.

I hope I can find a quicker way this time around.