Day 67 - finishing the ground floor structure

We had a fair amount of rain overnight, and we have found that our strategy for keeping water off of the wood floor slab is not working. We lifted the plastic in a few places and found some water sitting on the surface of the OSB board. At the moment it does not seem to be doing any damage, but it will eventually leak down into the hemp/lime insulation. We can't wait until the rest of the frames are up and the roof on before doing something, so we have decided to finish putting in the first floor joists and structure and then to cover the entire frame with a big sheet of polytunnel plastic.
We spent the day finishing putting the top plate into position and preparing for the joists.

Day 66 - cross bracing and beams

It was a cold, windy and rainy day but we spent the day making sure that the walls were plumb, putting in cross bracing to keep them that way and finishing putting the top plate into position.

We were also able to put the 4 beams into position. These two beams over the main space of Bruce and Morag's house are composed of 3 lengths of 225x44mm (9"x2") which will be drilled and bolted together. A similar beam runs over the back of Pat's workshop. these three beams continue the load bearing over the long cellar walls.

A longer beam was put in place over the Octagonal space in Pat and Wendy's house. Because the span is so big in this area, this beam is composed of 4 lengths of 225x44mm timber which will be bolted together. this was a heavy beam but the two of us (with the support of Aaron) were able to lift it into position by constructing ladder of supports up each of the posts for the beam to rest on.

This beam will also be braced at each end to further reduce the span to the 4m that our engineer recommended, so we left a notch out of the bottom of the beam so that the brace could be inserted later. Pat has a few lengths of ash poles which will be used as bracing 'in the round'.

Day 65 - finishing the framing and covering

We didn't spend a lot of time on site today, but while Pat continued to cover the gaps in the plastic sheeting on the floor, Bruce, Eoin, Morag and Leontien worked to continue to nail the framing together and to the floor slab and adding cross bracing to the external walls. We also cut out the pieces for the beams and started to assemble them.

The first sections of the top plate were nailed in place to tie all of the wall sections together and to strengthen the structure.

Day 62 - finished the interior frames

We finished the interior wall panels today, and looking set for the big frame raising on Saturday once we get a few small exterior frames built tomorrow.

The interior frames are different from the exterior frames, as the cross bracing needs to be flush with the studs. We though notching each stud would be difficult to do, but it ended up being quite straight forward with the use of a skill saw set to the right depth, a hammer to knock out the wood, and a chisel to clean up the base of the notch.

There were a few other unusual cases of cross bracing, such as the one in the photo above to strengthen the area over two interior doors.

In some of the panels that will be placed over the cellar walls, we turned the 100x44 blocking so that it was flat positioned it so that it was in the centre of the stud (bottom centre of photo above). This will allow us to add cob (clay, sand and straw) into the space between the stud as thermal mass, into which we will embed the wall heating coils connected to the district heating system.

Day 60 - the long back wall

Today we worked finished the panels that compose the long back wall of the two houses. As this wall faces North-East, and away from the views, it is composed of much smaller windows, most of which will slot in between the studs - which are spaced at 600mm centers (2 foot centers) - as seen above

Because the studs run uninterrupted beside the window, there is no need for a standard lintel. Instead we added two horizontal pieces to the back face of the frame to strengthen the top and bottom of the window and provide support for the sill and frame. We plan to make our own opening windows which will be fixed directly to the stud frame.

Day 53 - starting the wall frames

Now that the floor slab is finished, we are moving on to the next phase of the build - this time indoors. We will be building sections of the house walls in a farm shed about 2km from the house site.

Most of the wood for the walls has been stored out here for the past month, 4.8m lengths of 100x44mm (4"x2") on the left, 150x44mm (6"x2") on the right and a few 225x44mm (9"x2" or 10"x2' depending on who you are talking to) to the far right.

We also brought in a load of wood that Pat had milled a few years ago. A lot of this was in 1" boards and in a larger selection of sizes. Most of this wood is cypress, which will last a long time outside, and will be used for the window surrounds and frames.

We also brought in a lot of tools and equipment, set up a bench for cutting timber with a chop saw, and built a flat platform, with a secure 90 degree edge as a jig for constructing the wall frames.

This is our first frame - the section of wall at the north end of the west facing walls of the house, containing the main window into Bruce and Morag's kitchen. these frames will be framed out of 150x44 studs, lintels and top/base plates.

The panels were constructed with the inside of the wall facing up to allow for cross bracing and support pieces at the top and bottom of the windows to be added. Many of the panels have permanent cross bracing of 100x44. We will not be using sheeting on the outside or inside of the house, which normally provides the lateral racking strength. In our case, this cross bracing of the panels (and some between panels that we will be adding on site) will provide all of this structural stability. It also makes each panel rigid during transport and assembly.


In order to speed up the construction, and to make sure that we build each panel correctly, Bruce produced a drawing showing all of the key dimensions and a cut list for each frame.