With a slightly shortened work day, we started assembly, adjusting and building the External Wall of our house at last!
The first job was to adjust each and every Leg so that it is vertical as possible. We did this by shortening the inner post (the 63mm CLS going down to the concrete) using our little circular saw and a super sharp guillotine to chop and slice little bits off the end.
The basic operation was to put the Leg in place, then use our accurate digital spirit level to find out how much deviation there was off vertical using the measurement mode of millimetres off vertical per metre of height. We took this figure and divided this by 3 which tells us how much wood we needed to slice off the bottom of the inner post. It is a simple mathematical calculation of angles and height. We verified this was true with our first Leg!! So repeating this process between measuring the angle and slicing little bits off, including using a piece of timber with sandpaper stuck on it to rub the slots down a bit too, we arrived with a Leg which is vertical and solidly sitting on both the outer concrete wall and the inner concrete floor.
So we decided to begin on wall “H”, the one nearest the Garage that has the “back” door in the Utility room and going pass Bedroom 3. This had 12 Legs to adjust for this wall and then we turned the corner onto wall “I” at the back of the house near the start of the swimming lane. This wall has 7 legs in it and we did 3 of them before we stopped for the day early.
We had to remember that the two windows and one door in wall “H” needed left-handed Legs (the plywood webbing is on the other side of the two posts) and on wall “I” had one left-handed Leg as well. Also, wall “H” is the major support for holding the First Floor Joists as they runs side to side down the length of our building. Wall “I” has ordinary Legs that only needs to provide support for the upper floor boards themselves.
Tomorrow, we will do the other 4 Legs of wall “I” and then go back to the beginning and actually glue and nail each Leg into place and install the top-plates (the front horizontal rail, made of the 89mm CLS pieces and the inner rail made of the 63mm pieces). This will anchor and bind all the Legs together along wall “H” and wall “I” around the corner. Having this right angled turn will provide a very strong bracing force to keep the section of the walls solid and unmoving. We are Getting There at Last!