16 November 2009
13 November 2009
09 November 2009
02 November 2009
Day 71 - starting the rest of the frames
We took a weeks holiday, well most of a week, and came back to a dry wrapped ground floor and framing.
The stack of wood in the shed is significantly smaller, but a lot of framing to do yet.
We started to build the frames for the first and second floor, and managed to get five frames finished.
The stack of wood in the shed is significantly smaller, but a lot of framing to do yet.
We started to build the frames for the first and second floor, and managed to get five frames finished.
23 October 2009
Day 70 - plastic wrapped again
We finished putting in the floor joists into the main section of the house, leaving only the area around the octagon and a lot of the blocking to be done later.
We then put up two temporary frames along the length of the houses and stretched a large sheet of polytunnel plastic over the top of the houses.
This is a fair amount of work and a considerable expense, but it will help to keep the structure dry and more importantly the insulated ground floor slab. The plastic will stay for the few weeks that it will take to build the remainder of the wall frames, and then we will take it off during a spell of dry(ish) weather, put up the next set of frames and if necessary put it up again.
Once the houses were covered, we pulled up the plastic that had been covering the ground floor slab for the past week to find that over 80% of the surface had got wet. We don't think that much or any of the water soaked into the insulation below, though it would have if we hadn't done anything.
The black builders plastic that we pulled from the floor was reused to cover the walls that the clear plastic sheet didn't reach.
It doesn't look great, but the wooden structure and floor will dry out and remain dry for the next few weeks allowing us to continue to work on the blocking and framing out of the wind and rain.
Neither of us like using so much plastic, but at least with the polytunnel plastic, it will be reused for many years in the gardens and allotments!
We then put up two temporary frames along the length of the houses and stretched a large sheet of polytunnel plastic over the top of the houses.
This is a fair amount of work and a considerable expense, but it will help to keep the structure dry and more importantly the insulated ground floor slab. The plastic will stay for the few weeks that it will take to build the remainder of the wall frames, and then we will take it off during a spell of dry(ish) weather, put up the next set of frames and if necessary put it up again.
Once the houses were covered, we pulled up the plastic that had been covering the ground floor slab for the past week to find that over 80% of the surface had got wet. We don't think that much or any of the water soaked into the insulation below, though it would have if we hadn't done anything.The black builders plastic that we pulled from the floor was reused to cover the walls that the clear plastic sheet didn't reach.
It doesn't look great, but the wooden structure and floor will dry out and remain dry for the next few weeks allowing us to continue to work on the blocking and framing out of the wind and rain.Neither of us like using so much plastic, but at least with the polytunnel plastic, it will be reused for many years in the gardens and allotments!
22 October 2009
Day 69 - more floor joists
We continued with the floor joists today in good weather, though the floor remained wet. We were able to finish a lot of the non standard areas of the joists including around the stairs, and the projecting pieces at Morag and Bruce's end of the build.
Top of Pat and Wendy's stairs.
Completed joists and header at the north end of the houses. showing the cantilevered area to the right which will support a projecting window/desk.
Opening for the straight stair in Bruce and Morag's house, as seen from the back door.
21 October 2009
Day 68 - starting the first floor
In order to help us build the first floor structure, we first used some of the timber to construct a temporary platform a bit more than half way up the ground floor walls.
These type of things take time, but when we finally started to put in the joists, this elevated platform made it much easier and safer to work.
The main part of the floor structure consist of full length joists that run from the long perimeter walls and cantilever over the interior structural walls and beams that run over the cellar walls. The joists from the front and the joists from the back will be spliced together to distribute the loading and tie the building together. Full height blocking was used over these central walls, and additional blocking will be put in later when we are not so rushed.
Even though we started late on this miserable day, we were able to get a substantial portion of the back joists in place, and took advantage of Eoin (from Wales) helping out for the day to get all of the full length joists up onto the structure.
These type of things take time, but when we finally started to put in the joists, this elevated platform made it much easier and safer to work.
The main part of the floor structure consist of full length joists that run from the long perimeter walls and cantilever over the interior structural walls and beams that run over the cellar walls. The joists from the front and the joists from the back will be spliced together to distribute the loading and tie the building together. Full height blocking was used over these central walls, and additional blocking will be put in later when we are not so rushed.
Even though we started late on this miserable day, we were able to get a substantial portion of the back joists in place, and took advantage of Eoin (from Wales) helping out for the day to get all of the full length joists up onto the structure.
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