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 64 - part 3 - covering up

While a few of us continued to work on securing the framing that had been temporarily nailed together, Pat and the rest of the crew that continued to help out set to work laying heavy builders' plastic on the floor in anticipation of rain. Having pulled up the one large sheet of plastic earlier in the day, we needed to make sure that the wooden floor slab did not get too wet. The solution we came up with was to create shallow pans or tanks in each of the spaces of the houses, from which the excess water would drain away through the door openings. Though not an ideal or perfect solution it is the best option we have, as it will allow us to continue to work, while protecting the floor.

Once again we have been blessed with he weather! About an hour after the main sections of the floor were covered with plastic it rained!

Day 64 - part 2 - ground floor frame complete

It took us 4.5 house to put up all of the external and load bearing internal frames for the ground floor! That includes a break for lunch! 34 frames in total went together, some of them very large and heavy and a few of them quite small and light. There were a few small errors of measurement and placement, but only things that Bruce would fuss over.

Overall view of the completed framing with temporary external bracing still in place. The panels are 2.88m high (almost 10 feet), and with the thickness of the ground floor slab and the space underneath, the framing is quite high.

View of the octagon with Pat and Wendy's front door to the left.

The front of Bruce and Morag's house with kitchen window to the left, front door in the middle, and large window to the dining room to the right.

View across the front of Bruce and Morag's house towards the side wall of the kitchen. the framing is only the outside of structure of the wall. An another wall will be constructed inside the space, to create a cavity 40cm thick which will be filled with hemp/lime insulation. this will reduce the size of the rooms by 25cm at the external walls, but will also provide deep window openings.

The double thick party wall with two lines of studs and substantial cross bracing between them.

View across the front rooms of Pat and Wendy's house, looking towards the octagonal shaped sitting area (session space!) from the kitchen, with the front door to the right.

The long back wall of the two houses.

Overall view from the North-West showing Bruce and Morag's house in the foreground.

Day 64 - part 1 - Barn Raising!

The day of the frame raising finally arrived. And again we have been blessed with the weather. We have arranged for a team of about 8-10 people to help us put all of the ground floor wall panels in place. Bruce, with the help of Eoin, will be responsible for laying out the positions of the panels and for tacking them into position, while Pat will head of the larger team to move the frames into position.

We started the day by raising the plastic in the corner in order to move the plywood that was covering the hole into the cellar (the sheet would have been in the way of some of the walls). We have planned that the walls would simply be placed on top of the plastic, leaving it undisturbed.

But we found to our dismay that the the two sheets had leaked in a few places! So the plastic was pulled up, and although we will have to come up with another way to protect the floor after the frames were in place, it does make the whole day easier as we will not have to worry about damaging the plastic.

Only one section of the floor was wet, and it didn't seem to have soaked into the hemp/lime insulation below. The OSB board that we used is quite resistant to water, and the coat of varnish would have helped.

In the background of the photo above is one of the two stacks of wall frames. We built a second brace at the end of the pile so that the frames could be flipped to one side or another so that we could easily pull out the frame we needed to put in place next.

The first frame being moved from the pile. It took a while to figure out how best to move these large frames.

Everyone had the required high vis vests and safety helmets, though Pat was left with a non-standard riding helmet. Safety first!

The first frame being raised into position on the floor slab.

Bruce was about to hammer in the first nail (with a posed smile)!

The second frame goes in to form the first corner (which happens to be Bruce and Morag's kitchen) while Eoin measures out the line of the third frame. The frames were assembled in such a way that they supported each other as much as possible while the rest of them were assembled.

Bruce rushes into position, drawing his trusty hammer!

Everyone concentrates on the third frame.

The end of the house begins to take shape, as the fantastic weather dries out the floor at the other end of the house.

The heavy frames are moved with ease across the site when there are enough people. (John Burke's house in the background).

The first of the three sections of the party wall between the houses gets lifted into position. This was the largest and heaviest panel, as it was made of two frames nailed together.

A little persuasion to put the frame in place. "Sledge to the millimeter" was the motto of the day!

The main front wall of the house finished in time for lunch/tea break (as well as the camera battery wearing out from all of the photos that Morag took!)

The rest of the frames went in very smoothly with everyone knowing what to do. There were a few pieces of cross bracing that needed to be sawed off, but everything else went in very quickly, perhaps too quickly as Bruce and Eoin had to race to keep ahead of Pat and his crew, with the result that there were a few errors of measurement, but nothing that would cause problems, or would be noticed in the future.

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 61 - interior load bearing walls

We had to build a second stack for the frames, this time at the back of the site (on the left in the photo below), to hold all of the interior frames, and the ones for the back wall.

Today we worked on the interior load bearing walls, which are made out of 150x44mm (6"x2") - but didn't take any photos of our progress.

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 59 - double party wall

Today we finished the three sections of the party wall dividing the two houses. In fact these are 6 panels, combined in pairs by the internal cross bracing. The double wall - made out of 100x44mm framing rather than 150x44mm framing used on the exterior walls - will help with reducing sound transmission and increases the fire rating of the wall.

We decided against using a nail gun and have opted for the slower but stronger approach of hammer and nails.

Day 58 - more ground floor frames

For the last few days we have been covering the stack of wall panels with plastic, to keep them dry. The timber can deal with a certain amount of water, but we thought we would keep them as dry as possible. We also needed to tie the stack together so that none of the panels moved or fell as they are heavy and would cause considerable damage if any of them fell.



This of course requires one of us to climb up onto the stack ...

We completed the panels for the south end of Pat and Wendy's house this morning. In the photo above we are lifting the section with the big double doors that lead into the kid's room.

Day 57 - octagon walls completed

We finished the 5 panels that will make up the exterior ground floor walls of Pat and Wendy's "octagon". Except for a few adjustments in width, these wall panels are essentially identical - containing one big fixed window (large enough for Pat to stand in) with a large opening vent to the side.


There isn't a lot of wall space in these panels for cross bracing, but we wanted to make sure that the base of this three floor octagon tower was strong enough and that the frame around the large window was rigid enough. In the end we opted for one long piece on each side of the window, and we but in two smaller pieces of bracing to each side of the window.

The stack of wall panels is starting to build up into an impressive pile, and we are only just over half finished the exterior walls and we still have to finish the interior load bearing walls.

Day 56 - first frames delivered

Once the first five frames were completed - those that make up the front wall of the houses - we brought them to the site and stored them on a rack in an almost vertical position.

Although some of the frames were big and heavy (as much as 170kg) the two of us were able to manage moving them.

We spent most of the day working in the shop, finishing the ground floor panels for the north end of the Bruce and Morag's house and started the panels for the octagonal portion of the Pat and Wendy's house

Day 55 -back on the frames

After the explorations and decisions yesterday, we launched full gear into building the basic wall sections, with the help of Wendy and Beth.

Bruce and Pat working on the wall containing the big kitchen window in Pat and Wendy's house.

The frames were loaded onto a trailer as they were completed (in this case the two sections that will make up the front wall of Bruce and Morag's house). When the trailer is full - probably 5 frames - we will drive it into the site and where all the panels will eb stored until the big frame raising day.

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.

Day 48 - floor slab finished, varnished and covered

We finished all of the remaining small pieces of the flooring, and now the structural slab is complete.

We decided to varnish the surface of the OSB board in order to protect it in case some water came through the plastic. Also, there is a good chance that we will move in to the houses before they are finished, before the final hardwood flooring is in place, and the varnished OSB board will be a better floor in the interim.




We covered the entire floor slab surface with two sheets of silage cover, reusing the old one and adding a new one on top.


We hope that this plastic will last until the roof is in place and plan to place the wall panels directly on top of the plastic. So we secured the edges with batons and covered the surface with pallets and sheets of wood to prevent the plastic from billowing up too much in the wind.