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 49-52 - site cleanup and prep

The plastic went on in good time and seems to be working well to protect the wood floor slab.
While Bruce was in Dublin for a long weekend, Pat kept busy on site and off site. The edge of the plastic that hung down from the floor slab was trimmed back to allow air movement under the slab and to prevent the plastic gettign in the way of future building.



Some of the corners of the plastic were ripping on the sharp edge of the OSB board and these needed to be strengthened with tape.

Pat also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up the area around the house, including removing the stones that we had raked out from under the slab and others that would otherwise get in the way.

He also transported a lot of wood from his various storage places around the country, and cut up a load of off-cut wood into laths which will be used in the exterior plaster of the houses.

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.

Day 47 - almost finished the floor slab

We almost finished the ground floor slab today.

All that is left are a few small pieces to finish around the octagon.

Holes were cut in the boards to allow for all of the waste water pipes, the heating system pipes, and the water supply pipes. What we ended up with is a wooden version of the concrete slabs with pipes sticking out of them, which a lot of the other houses have.

Day 46 - continuing with the floor

We finished more than half of the floor sheeting, and the weather continues to work in our favor.

Opening left in the floor for access to the cellars.

The floor was designed so that all of the edges of the OSB board are supported by either joists or blocking, to which the board is glued and screwed.

Day 45 - starting to put in the floor

Before the OSB boards (more eco version of the dreaded chip board) can be screwed and glued to the joists, the top surface had to be scrubbed with a wire brush, primarily to remove the lime, but it helps to roughen the wood so that the glue can form a stronger bond.



Aoife and Leontien wait patiently.

The new wood slab sitting on the perimeter piers - this one at the dividing line between the two houses. By gluing and screwing the top surface to the timber joist and beams, the entire surface will act as one ridged slab structure, capable of transfering all of the wind loads from the walls through to the central cellar. The surface of the board on the underside of the slab is not structurally necessary, but helps to form a solid insulated slab that is ventilated underneath.

We fixed about 25% of the floor today