Roofing Sweet Roofing.

Our long anticipated roofing arrived 2 days ago! Which has prompted me to get myself up to date with the blog, in order that I might (very soon) be able to post some pics of the roofing up and… well… being a roof. So lets begin the update.

Last time I blogged we were starting work on the 4^th frame. In order to get that up we had to build what will be window frames in the first bay of the workshop. This starts to enclose what has up to this point been a huge open concrete slab, and what will one day be a huge open workshop. I, at this point, was really feeling disillusioned with timber frame building. It is such a long, slow, heavy process which is no longer new and exciting… more of a slow slog. It also started to feel completely unachievable as Bernt had gone back to work fulltime and we were only able to work together on the weekends. After a few weeks of working like this, and another delay as we were both taken ill with a nasty stomach bug, we decided that it would be better for the build if Bernt started working part time. Arrangements are now in place, Bernt works 3 days a week for the time being and the build has once again picked up pace.

You can see the window frame beyond the dividing wall which starts to define the edges of the workshop.

Due to my sporadic distaste for timber frame building we alternated between timber frame and laying concrete blocks to build up the wall which divides apartment and workshop. Although laying concrete blocks is not a glamorous job, it is quite fulfilling. You can stand back at the end of every day and really see a change in the build. And there is something strangely satisfying about ending the day so covered in concrete that you have to take a shower as soon as you walk in the door.

So the wall grew, and the timber frame slowly came together on the ground. We filled the concrete blocks with concrete at intervals as we got higher. If we had left it all until the end, not only would we have had to lug more concrete to a greater height, we would also run the risk that it might not pour smoothly down such deep cores. Air pockets would weaken the structure.

The timber frame was eventually ready to raise. We bolted Frame 3 onto the concrete wall for added stability, but as we had only filled the blocks to a certain level we could only bolt it about half way up. Bernt attached the chain block to the collar tie (3 quarters of the way up) of Frame 3 and started the ascent. Dan was there as moral support that day, and well needed as I was very close to calling the whole thing off when the rafters of Frame 3 started bowing so badly under the pressure that I was sure something would break… Something did indeed break, one of the horizontal purlins connecting Frame 3 to Frame 2 broke its dovetail and with a loud band fell onto the mezzanine floor. It was a joint that we had already deemed insufficient and had changed for the next bay. The damage was not huge, and fairly easy to fix and Bernt convinced his worried onlookers (Dan and I) that he was safe to continue… As ever, he was right.

Frame 4 on its way up.

 

Aaargh! Look how the top of Frame 3 is bowing due to the weight of lifting Frame 4!

 

Frame 4 safely up

Oh, Ill get side tracked for a minute; a lot of people have been asking about how we make the ‘curvey bits’ (which are actually called braces… which is such an uninspired name :) We cut a straight slab of timber 300 wide then Bernt expertly uses the chainsaw to roughly cut the curve. Then we use an electric planer to get the curve all smooth and lovely… and viola! The curve looks deceptively more curvey than it actually is.

Bernt expertly chain sawing a rough curve to the ‘curvey bit’.

Laying concrete blocks and lifting buckets of concrete up to 7 metres in the air is not as simple as it sounds… haha. We had to rig a pulley up to the top of the scaffolding (god bless scaffolding… that is when I’m not cursing it for feeling so wobbly and scaring the bejeebies out of me) which we used to pull up each block and each bucket. It worked pretty well, though the pulley we bought for the job carked it within the day and we had to resort to a rusty old thing out of my ‘rusty old things’ collection. But that one went the distance.

Our pulley system greatly helped us to get blocks and buckets of concrete to that crazy height.

Stacey at the top of the scaffolding sending an empty bucket back down to Bernt.

The wall is so HUGE! Big and beautiful, though I pity the fool who has to plaster it… hang on… As it is pitched we had to build boxing along the angled edges and fill them with concrete to create a straight line. It had looked a big raggedy with unevenly stepped blocks as its edge but looks very neat since the concreting.

Stacey cleaning the mortar from some of the last blocks on the dividing wall.

 

Bernt laying the very highest block (7m).

 

Infilling the stepped blocks to create a straight edge to the wall.

 

Stacey smoothing the concrete for more infilling.

With the concrete wall finished and filled we bolted the top of Frame 3 to it. This now means that all of the timber framework in the apartment is locked into place, level and square. What a good feeling! We then worked to mill, cut and fit the purlins which connect Frame 3 to Frame 4. This went fairly smoothly as we have got the hang of hoisting them up the scaffolding with our trusty chain block. I have my moments of panic on the scaffold (some worthy) but I feel like I’m getting better.

Bernt hoisting a purlin up the scaffolding with the chain block

 

Nearly there.

Bernt hammers it’s tight dovetail joint into place.

With all of that work finished we were ready for the roofing. And after a little bit longer wait than expected it arrived!! O wow! I know how I banged on about it… well it really does live up to expectations EXCLAMATION MARK. It is a beautiful silver colour and the profile (suggested by Roofing Salesman of the CenturyJ) is spectacular! It has a very fine angular corrugation which gives the impression of a kind of two-toned silver pinstripe. I can’t wait to get it up!.... Except for the fact that we have no idea how we are going to do that (each panel weighs around 100kg). But when have we ever had an idea how to do any of what we have done… last minute of course!

What a beautiful panel!

So let me just brag for a minute about this ripper bargain buy I recently had. We went to an auction of an apple orchard that had gone out of business. We were there all day (got the sunburn to prove it) and I spent a grand total of $6 on random bits of rusty old metal… too add to my ‘rusty old things’ collection of courseJ. I love an auction! One of the things I bought was this ancient looking metal trolley. It was spur of the moment, Bernt said he was kind of interested in it and the auctioneer sped through auctioning it. When I realised no one had bid and he had worked his way down to $1.00 I said ‘YES’ at (what seemed to be) the split second that the auctioneer (with his back to me) called sold. So I assumed someone else had got it until he turned to get my number. I said something like ‘Oh me?’ which seemed a source of amusement and meant the auctioneer tried to find me in the crowd next time there was a piece of old ‘treasure’ that no one else was interested in. We lugged it home (why is it that the word lug is often associated with me spending money…), put it in a corner and I looked at it a few times and wondered what the hell I was going to do with it…

Fast-forward a month to the arrival of a semi trailer load of roofing. I got our local truck driver to help get the roofing off the semi with a forklift, up our driveway on a smaller truck then onto the slab. Semi’s are the only truck so far that we haven’t been able to get up the drive. I hadn’t figured my way through the logistics of stacking the roofing on the slab, mainly as I had no idea how it would be packed. We encountered problems as there was not enough room to get the truck onto the slab as the stacks of roofing expanded. Andrew (the fork driver) spied my humble hunk of metal trolley sitting in the corner and suggested we use it to assist the fork to push a couple of packs through the opening in the dividing wall and into the apartment. I suspected that he was overestimating the capacity of my $1 bargain but we gave it a go and it worked like a charm! I might bill the cost of it to the build budget and put that $1 back in my pocket money purseJ

The semi parked down on the road while the panels were loaded onto a smaller truck by forklift.

 

The forklift loads two packs of panels onto my trusty trolley.

 

I steered the trolley at the front while the forklift did the moving from the rear.

With the roofing safely on the slab we had guys who work for the company come out and cut the angle for the apex of the roof and the overhang for the guttering. They usually do this in the factory but there was some confusion about the angle so they decided to do it on site to be safe. They too seemed unsure of how we would get it up and in place… and they do put this stuff up professionally… Well, that’s our task for tomorrow. I will update you all on how it goes.

The guys customising our panels on site.

 

Once the steel is ‘beaten’ (cut but left with a rounded not sharp edge), the polystyrene is cut using a steel wire.

 

The polystyrene is then smoothed with a homemade tool; a rasp with handle welded on. It leaves a smooth even finish.

PS. These are the views we have to look forward to when we move in  All the more exciting since we’ve been living without windows for a while now.

Blockwork finished!... For now...

It took us just over 2 months but we have done it! We are finished laying blocks for now; poured our last bucket of concrete yesterday to fill our exterior walls. Yay! We have been remembering the day that Bernt put up the first hurdle (to run string lines off for the block walls). It was 3 metres high and we both looked up with mouths gaping, looked at each other and wondered what we had signed ourselves up for! And that wasn’t even the full height of the walls! We decided that we would do what we could, and if we got to a point where we couldn’t handle it then we would pay someone to finish it off… Well, we did it! 

We have, to this point, laid around 2000 concrete blocks and now intimately know the difference between lintel blocks and knock out blocks, as well as having developed favourites. Bernt; the 200mm wide blocks because they are the easiest to level, Stacey; the 150mm wide blocks because they had a smaller surface to mortar. We took on roles; Bernt commandeered the concrete mixer, mixing mortar and getting a real feel for achieving just the right consistency. I was in charge of mortaring, getting very handy with the trowel (and giving my wrists a hell of a work out) and Bernt placed and levelled the blocks. It was hard to decide which was more enjoyable; watching the walls get higher or watching the pallets of blocks disappear.

The exciting courses to lay were the ones which stared to show where windows were going to be, and then most exciting were the courses which finished off the windows, lintel blocks running over the top of temporary framework which we then filled with steel reinforcing and concrete. It was so strange to see the long back wall emerging looking very much like a drawing we once drew… seems like years ago now!

 

Bernt and Charlie inspecting the workshop windows.

The finished bedroom window.

 

The back wall with windows all taking shape. Charlie will be very disappointed when we put glass in his favourite look out (aka the bathroom window).

Then we got to finish height of our interior walls (on top of which will sit the mezzanine floor) and filled those walls with concrete. It felt super good to have them finished and solid. We had a bit of a scare just a week or so earlier when, on a very stormy day, we had a big tree come down with the top of its branches landing about 3 metres from the build. We were very lucky; the neighbour lost around 20 huge trees, looked like a cyclone tore through and around the corner a massive tree fell on a house, completely crushing half of it. Luckily it was a holiday home so no one was in it. Our little ger survived unscathed and we thanked our lucky stars!

The interior walls in the apartment after being filled with concrete.

As we started to get higher and higher, we worked on top of a little trolley for a while, adding blocks to stand on to get ourselves up higher until it got to a not so safe looking pyramid. That’s when we invested in scaffolding. We considered renting it but found a really good deal from the mainland and when we weighed up how long we’d need it for and the gaps between each job we decided to buy it. It arrived within a week or so of ordering and it has been great! The deal was for two 3.5 metre high platforms and a free mini fold up scaffold. We can put the two towers on top of each other to get to the apex of the roof (7metres) and we bought extra bracing to make that a safe option.

Bernt standing on our dodgy, pre scaffolding arrangement.

 

Stacey on one of our new scaffolding towers. Much safer!

We have had quite a few days of nasty weather, either too wet to mortar or too windy to trust the string line. On one of those days we headed into Hobart to talk to a lighting designer. Still waiting to hear back from her with a definitive plan but we have a much better idea of what’s happening now.

We also spent a day visiting all of the local timber mills to work out where to get the timber for our traditional green timber frame. Apparently there is a bit of a shortage in Celery Top Pine, because it’s been the wettest winter in years so the trucks cant get to the forests. So one company had a bit of a monopoly on the logs. After much conversation and negotiation Bernt has decided to jump in headfirst and cut the timber himself. He bought a Lucas Mill (which arrived yesterday).  It is a portable saw mill, basically a circular saw which runs the length of a log on tracks and which you can adjust to cut both horizontally and vertically. It was a huge investment but if all goes well it should pay itself off in this one job and then it will be invaluable when we start making furniture. The price of buying logs is $140 per cubic metre compared to buying cut timber at $1800 per cube. Obviously the waste needs to taken into consideration but it is still potentially a saving, plus we get to keep all of the off cuts and can potentially use them for things down the track like building our veranda.

So the Lucas Mill arrived yesterday just an hour or so before we poured our last bucket of concrete into our finished walls. The first truck of logs is due to be delivered on Thursday so it all happened in good time. We haven’t actually finished laying every block, we still have about 5 pallets left (about 700 blocks) but those can’t be laid until the frame is in place. And it sure will be nice to have a break from concrete, I’m happy to exchange sawdust for concrete dust any day!

The long back wall before reinforcing steel is put in and then filled with concrete.

Blockwork complete! For now…

 

What a HUGE workshop!

 

The Lucas Mill arriving.

 

Bernt opening the Lucas Mill.

Wed 9th Sep 2009

Wall Construction.

20 pallets of concrete blocks delivered to site.

Stacey laying the first block.

The first course of blocks.

Stacey mortaring (we like to call it buttering).

Bernt laying a block.

Finished the 6th course (window sill height), about to start filling the blocks with concrete.