First Frame Finished

We had a special assistant this week. Dan, a friend of Bernt's from work and also a furniture maker, offered to take a week of leave in order to help us out with the timber frame. It was such a lovely gesture and really helped get us underway with the frame making.

First we laid the timbers out over a full scale drawing on the floor of the workshop. Then we marked out and cut all of the joins. We are using traditional joinery i.e.; mortise and tenons (the tenon is like the top of a piece of Lego which fits into the mortise hole) and later some dovetails. It is slow work (especially with me at the chisel… Ill get quicker…) so it was super helpful to have an extra set of hands.

Frame pieces laid out over full size drawing.

Cutting joins.

 

Dan cutting a tenon.

Next is a lot of shifting and fitting which is pretty difficult when it comes to such heavy beams. We relied on our handy engine crane as well as tensioning straps to pull joints together (and apart). A little bit of sanding to smooth the beams a touch and then it was time to peg up (I make it sound so simple don’t I…).

Engine crane and straps helping move and pull together the timbers.

 

Elaborate strap setup to pull the rafter and collar tie beams together.

As we are doing this the traditional way we are using wooden pegs (like thick dowel with a taper on one end) rather than bolts to fix the joints together. Initially we thought that splitting and shaping a few hundred pegs was going to take us forever so I looked into having some celery top pine dowel made up for us. It was doable, through a local contact but he instead showed us how easy it would be to shape them ourselves using an angle grinder with a ‘flapper’ disk attached, kind of like a pleated skirt made from sandpaper. Making them ourselves meant that we could split the wood (with an axe) rather than cutting it which gives the pegs so much more strength so we decided to give it a go (when you split the wood it breaks along the grain rather than potentially cutting through grain thus weakening it). With the assistance of a wonderful peg making ‘machine’ than Dan built us we have found we can ‘whip’ up pegs in a reasonable amount of time.

Bernt testing out Dan’s peg making ‘machine’.

 

Birth of the first peg.

Dan proudly cradling the first peg.

 

Bernt hammering in the first peg (we have yet to make ourselves a proper wooden mallet).

 

The first frame finished.

The next problem to solve was how to stand up the frame. I looked into crane hire but there are some concerns about the 28 tonne crane sitting on top of our waffle pod slab so we are now pursuing other options. More on that when we get to that point. For now, Bernt and Dan felt confident that they could stand up part of the frame by manpower, with the assistance of the concrete walls and scaffolding. Before the beams could go up though, we had to construct steel brackets and screw them into the floor to locate and bolt the beams to. Dan set up a little welding cave in the bathroom (notice how I’m now referring to things as rooms… coz they have walls and are staring to feel like real spaces!). He pumped out some brackets for us while Bernt drilled holes and I gave them a coat of rust proof paint. Late Friday afternoon, with the brackets safely bolted into the concrete slab, we set to heaving the first posts into position. It went well, apart from a scary shudder when the concrete wall acted as a stop for the wall post.

Dan’s welding cave aka the bathroom.

 

The finished brackets getting a paint job.

 It’s a very cool sight to see some timber go up, I think the build is really going to start looking like something special when the first full frames go in. Bernt and I have just finished pouring a couple of concrete columns for the wall posts that will sit outside the floor plan (as part of the veranda) and this week hope to get frame 2 underway.

Pure manpower makes the walls shudder as the beam comes to an abrupt halt.

 

A tenon fitting into a mortise, ready for pegging.

 

First part of the frame in place!

 In other news, we had an electrician in this week to put a proper power point at the water tank for our pump. It means that the lights in the ger no longer dim when I turn on the tap…

Lucas Mill 101

The next step in the build is to construct our traditional timber frame. We have decided to cut the chunky beams ourselves from celery top pine logs (a native Tassie hardwood which is incredibly stable and suitable for this purpose).

The first load (about a third) of the celery top pine logs arrive on site.

Logs are lifted carefully off truck.

Big job!

We’ve been hard at it with the Lucas Mill for just under a week now. Had a few dramas with the transport company when one piece arrived damaged but it was all sorted eventually with the company agreeing to deliver a replacement to us free of charge (there was some disagreement about whether they were responsible for getting it from the Hobart depot to our block). But our contact at Lucas Mill was wonderful about the whole situation. Great Australian family company success story with super customer service!

Usually I write a blog when we’ve finished a job (to kind of celebrate its finish) but I can see that this will take a while so Ill take it in some smaller bites. Thought Id do a quick step by step of how we are milling up our timber;

STEP 1; ROLL LOG OFF PILE.

Aaargh, this is the scariest step! We had two truckloads of logs delivered in order to get a start. It should get us about a third done, depending on the quality of the logs. Bernt had them placed on a bit of a slope so gravity could assist us when we needed to roll them under the mill. Because of the number of logs they are stacked 3 logs high in places, which means that gravity is not only helpful but also a bit scary. They are so super heavy that moving them involves a huge iron crow bar, and much grimacing from the sidelines from me.

 

STEP 2; GET LOG ONTO BEARERS. 

Again much use of the crow bar to slide or roll the log up onto the bearer (which keeps it off the ground for ease of cutting).

 

STEP 3; ADJUST LOG TO BE PARALLEL AND LEVEL WITH MILL. 

A bit more tweaking with the crowbar to get the heart (centre) of the log running parallel with the rails of the mill and then the mill is adjusted so it will run level with the top of the log.

 

STEP 3; START CUTTING. 

 

This requires a bit of puzzling. We know roughly which piece should come from which log, dependant on the length and width of the log, but we are also trying to get as much as we can from each log. This means working around the chunky beam we are cutting and deciding if we can also cut some boards or posts (to use for the veranda later) or some stickers (little sticks of wood that you use when stacking green timber boards to keep airflow for even drying). Of course these decisions rely not only on the size of the log but also on what defects we find in it while cutting. It is a slow process and each log needs to be re-evaluated after nearly every horizontal cut.

 

STEP 4; PULL OUT TIMBER BEAM. 

While Bernt is cutting I work behind him pulling out waste and boards for stacking (to use later to build our veranda) but when we cut one of the timber frame components they are not moveable by hand. Yesterday we cut a rafter, which Bernt worked out to be about 250kg. So we use a roller system to get them from the mill onto the slab. It works pretty well and although not our favourite job, it is doable.

 

STEP 5; STACK TIMBER.

Boards for the veranda

Green timber will generally move (twist, bend or warp etc) if not stacked properly. So we are paying special attention to the stacking. Our chunky frame beams will be used green so they are just layed together in frame order for easy access. Timber that we are cutting for use as verandah boards and posts has been stacked properly with stickers between each layer to allow air to flow through and dry the timber evenly.

Chunky beams for the frame, labelled and ready to go.

I worked out a typically anal Stacey system of labelling which has come in quite handy. I laminated labels for all of the pieces we need for the frame and we attached those labels to the logs (as before mentioned; based on the length and width of the logs). We can now reassess what we can get out of the logs when we open them up and see what’s inside and the labels can be swapped around easily without losing track of what we have and haven’t cut.

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.

Wed 9th Sep 2009

Finally some pics of our fully liveable ger!

Bernt working on the floor joists.

Stacey putting a finish on the floor (green tongue boards).

The structure of the ger in its permanent home. We had to construct it around the bed because it wouldnt have fit through the door.

Bernt working on the bathroom, we poured a concrete slab with a drain for the shower.

The ger set up with the attached bathroom taking shape. The exterior cladding of the bathroom is made of poles; by-products of the veneering process which a guy was selling for firewood.

The bathroom as seen from inside the ger, before the interior lining has been put in. The poles were so beautiful, pity we couldnt leave it like this.

The finished bathroom, fully lined and water tight. Complete with self contained composting toilet and hot shower. Very comfortable.

The fully set up ger. With the great firewood shelter Bernt constructed from colourbond left over from the watertank construction.

INTERIOR OF THE GER, CLOCKWISE FROM THE FRONT DOOR

Our little office nook. Computer doubles as TV.

Our bed, with all of my restored and handpainted tip shop finds, as well as a really handy set of bookshelves we built from left over flooring material.

The laundry/ kitchen sink/ bathroom basin and the door to the bathroom.

A guest bed we set up for mums visit, our plan was to bring it in or take it our depending whether we had visitors... havent got around to taking it down yet.

The lounge room/ Charlies prefered sleeping spot... with the little wood stove in the foreground which heats up the ger really nicely and which we cook dinner on.

The kitchen, with another tip shop find which I restored and painted then attached to an old book shelf to make a kitchenette.