Slow and Steady

Well we are plodding along as usual. Two weeks ago we invested in a chain block and managed to get the third frame standing up by ourselves, without a crane.  I know I always say it; but it WAS a nerve-wracking task. Things really creaked and the two standing frames moved significantly (the chain block was attached to them so they were being pulled sideways by about a tonne of timber). One of the joins wasn’t strong enough so a wall plate popped out of its position. But it wasn’t fatal, so we clamped it back down and kept on going. Things should be much more stable now for future frame lifting since we have put in more purlins (the beams between the frames) and roof braces (we have curvy bits in the roof now!). And having the third frame up means that we are into the workshop now; pretty much finished the timber framing in the apartment! The veranda is going to be just gorgeous, I’m very excited that we have cut enough ‘left over’ timber from the milling to build it because it really wasn’t in the budget J

The chain block was attached to the already standing frames in order to stand up the third frame.

 

Nearly there…

And its up! Now we have to build that concrete wall (dividing the apartment and workshop) up to the top of the frame..

 

So this is the finished size of the apartment, now we will build 4 more bays for the workshop.

 

This will be our beautiful veranda. 

Bernt attaching one of the roof braces (curvey bits)

And a win on the roofing front. After about a month and a half of scouring the countryside for roofing I finally found a company who can make us the product we are looking for in a beautiful colour! We are using an insulated panel system which is essentially a sandwich with two colorbond skins glued either side of a thick layer of polystyrene (so it is the roof, insulation and ceiling all in one) . We had our hearts set on a colorbond colour called ironstone and I had been told in the design stage (back in Perth) that it was possible to have the product made in that colour for a small extra charge. So we went ahead and got our water tank in that colour and had looked into finding the perfect complimentary paint colour for the walls, and basically formed a completely one tracked view about how the build would look colour wise. So when I started ringing round for roofing quotes it was a huge shock to the system to find that all except one company was unwilling to make the product in that colour (and that company would only make it without a warranty). For a pretty good reason (if I allowed myself to think rationally, not colour-blindedly about it :). Ironstone is a dark grey blue colour, and being a dark colour will absorb more heat than lighter shades.  The concern is that the darker colorbond colours will absorb enough heat to cause delamination i.e.; the colorbond skins to peel away from the polystyrene core of the product. And one company told me that the melting point of polystyrene is 80 degrees so that was also a potential issue… So we were left with a very limited choice of colours; a pale green, an off white, cream, and a light grey; none of which were working with the little colour pallet fantasy we had created for ourselves.

After many many phone conversations and much sitting with my head in my hands I made one last call to a company that produces the product here in Tassie (the rest were going to be shipped from Sydney. Melb or Brisbane). I explained, to the very patient man, what we were trying to do and asked if there was any possible way to expand our choice of colours. I wasn’t feeling very confident because we had already poured over colorbond samples many times and there wasn’t any other colour that we were loving… And that’s when we discovered that… wait for it… colorbond has, in addition to its standard colours; a metallic colour range!!!

I know, I know, I can hear myself… I know I’ve been rambling for paragraphs about colour and that in the global scheme of things it is so infinitesimally insignificant. But here's the thing; we have made this huge leap of faith, Bernt and I, to move so far and to design and painstakingly build this dream of ours; we have spent months and months laying concrete block after concrete block; milling, chiselling and sanding timber after timber; shovelling and sweating and swearing and feeling our hearts swell with excitement every time we finish something that once seemed impossible. And if I then, picked up the phone and ordered 400 square metres of roofing in a colour which we both hated (yes, for all of you wondering what Bernt's position on the whole colour issue is; the answer is that he is far less willing than I to compromise) it would be a permanent disappointment which would really bug both of us whenever we looked up. And I would have always thought that I if had looked a little bit harder I would have found a solution that didn’t leave us feeling like we could have done better.

And the moral (and conclusion) to this long-winded self-indulgent story is; that if you keep trying you will eventually talk to just the right person who will have exactly what you need. And that’s what happened; my roofing hero got back to me and told me that they had recently done a job at a Tassie winery with a colour from the metallic range (its called Axis and is kind of a muted coppery silver) and that they had some in stock and could do our panels in that. And, we love it! And I am really excited because I think it will be really beautiful, probably 10 times prettier than our first choice even! And now I’m very aware that you all will be looking at the roof (when its up) with very scrutinising eyes, and most of you will be thinking, ‘Well I don’t see why a cream roof wouldn’t have looked just as nice’. All I can say is; if we were easy to please kinda people we would have bought ourselves a kit home and been wrapped with how simple a process it all was and how nicely it turned out. And that, my friends is the end of today’s rant… I mean blog… J

Framing Up

What an exciting and inspirational morning!! Today we had some more logs delivered (3 more loads to come later in the week) and after he had unloaded them, our favourite truck driver used his Hiab to put the trusses of frame 1 and 2 into position.  Nail biting stuff!! But let me talk through how we got to this point before I go into it…

Not long after I wrote the last blog, we decided (well Bernt decided and I reluctantly agreed with a big grimace on my face) to try and stand up the remaining wall and arcade posts of frame 1 by hand, without mechanic intervention. Bernt was confident and he obviously has a better grasp on physics than I do because his method worked perfectly without a hitch. We did enlist Dan's help (and ropes) on the day as I was content to watch on terrified from the sidelines. It was a slow process to tilt the frame up (already pegged together) but with the risk of its massive bulk falling, I wouldn’t have wanted it to go much quicker. We braced it in place so it wouldn’t fall over and got to work building the second frame.

Bernt’s ingenious tilting method.

Frame one just waiting for its truss.

It was slow going. Especially as we had to mill all of the timber, and we had some hot days in there during which we both gave up and productivity slipped a bit. But we milled and drilled and chiseled and sanded our way through frame 2. Bernt and I stood the wall and arcade posts of this one up ourselves. This time we did them one timber at a time (not all pegged together) but I still found the task scary because of the sheer weight of the timbers. The ones in the bedroom were fairly straight forward as we had concrete walls to help as stops. The veranda side was a little more scary but we managed it somehow, with the aide of scaffolding and engine crane. Then we worked on the door and window frames in the first bay, which tied frames 1 and 2 together and made them rigid. This meant we could take out some of the bracing. It was really exciting to see the character of the veranda emerging.

The wall and arcade post of frame 2 in the bedroom.                   

The wall posts extend out from the slab and will support the veranda.

To completely tie the frames together we put the ‘wall plates’ in. They are the timbers which stretch between the frames where the truss (the top triangle) meets the wall posts (the outer vertical timbers). On the veranda side this meant fitting in more ‘curvey’ bits, the rounded braces which give the whole timber frame its character (in my opinion) Putting the wall plates up was, again, daunting. They weigh maybe 150kg and we had to lift them about 3m in the air. We did it with the assistance of our trusty engine crane but that only lifts to less than 2m so it was a process of levering and ‘walking’ the timber up to different heights before we got it to where it needed to be.

The wall plate (the horizontal beam extending out towards the river) makes this part of the frame rigid so we can see it for the first time without bracing.

 

The intersection of two braces, or ‘curvey bits’ as I like to call them.

With all of those components in, the two frames were fairly self-supporting so we were ready to have the help of a crane to get the trusses up. As I mentioned in the last blog, there were some concerns with using a 28 tonne slew crane (namely, having the weight of it on our waffle pod slab). I rang Steve, who had delivered our Lucas Mill as well as all of our concrete blocks and logs on his Hiab truck (a truck with a crane attached to its back), and he seemed confident that his truck would manage the job. So we decided to do it in conjunction with our next log delivery. That meant we had to finish milling all of the remaining logs and clean up the milling area for truck access (two whole days of cutting all of the off cuts into firewood size and moving it). We also constructed two purlins (the timbers which join the trusses and will eventually hold up the roofing material) ready to be put in place on the day.

And today was that day!! Steve was here bright and early to deliver the logs. I thought Id really had enough of milling but when I saw them arrive I felt a little bit excited to get going on them again, Phew… because we have nearly 70 logs left to mill so I cant afford to have had enough yet!! And when he had unloaded them all, the fun began!

Stacey’s sculptural woodpile made from all of the off cuts from the milling, inspired by one a neighbour was building.

 

Steve drove the truck up onto the slab, he and Bernt talked through the logistics of what went where and how best to attach straps for lifting etc. Some of our concrete blocks had to be moved, but that was light work for the crane, and luckily the truck fit through the gap in the concrete block wall, with only 10cm to spare would you believe!! Then came time for the lifting which went really smoothly and then… the nail biting moment of truth, would everything fit together?...  Of course J Its almost like we had measured it or something! Haha… It was a moment of self-doubt though. And then the second frame truss went up and then a purlin on each side to hold them together. And everything fit!! So so exciting. And the end result is just breathtaking. It is sooo tall, the huge timbers we have been struggling with at ground level are so high up in the stratosphere that they look like matchsticks…J Well… exaggeration alert… but they do look much less bulky. It really will be an amazing space. But as I was talking to Steve’s wife about the benefits of owning such a crane, she mentioned that the forklift is much handier, to clean their 2^nd storey windows with and I suddenly thought; ‘How are we ever going to clean our windows??’… 

Truss being lifted by the Hiab.

 

Truss 1 fits perfectly!

 

Truss 2 being lifted into position. Note the truck squeezed through the gap in the concrete wall.

 

The mortises and tenons fitting snuggly together.

 

The purlins took a little more persuading to fit.

The view from the driveway, no wonder people keep stopping on the road! ;)

This shows that we have a huge amount of work ahead of us! 5 more frames to go.

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.