The front wall of the garage is now completed! All the 18mm OSB boards is up and trimmed around each of the door entrances.
Also we have cut out the seven windows on the two side walls!
We have the basic box of the garage built, all that is left to do is build the middle wall and put on the roof!
The front of the garage is getting there! The central pillar is up and bolted down!
Now the huge single piece timber called GluLam has been hoisted into place!
It is 8315mm (27feet 3inches) long, 270mm (11inches) high and 90mm (3 1/2 inches) thick, made from 6 layers of 45mm x 90mm planks of planed timber, all glued and highly pressurised together!
(close up of GluLam Timber)
Now for the cladding boards!
The structural OSB Boards are up! The left hand side of the garage was covered in seven and a half boards in just a couple of hours! It was much easier as we predicted, as we had gallons of room!
We also trimmed off the sticking out parts of the front wall’s OSB boards!
So we have 3 and a bit walls completed, just the final fixing down using the Thunderbolts after we have lined up both the right and left walls, absolutely, perfectly, dead straight!!
Today was the day for mounting the OSB 11mm boards onto the framework! We started with the right hand side of the garage and we soon discovered that none of our stepladders was small enough to fit in the gap between the garage and the temporary living quarters and store room so we had to build a slim platform out of 2 by 6 (inches) planks we had lying around! It is 8feet long and 6feet high with the platform set to 5 feet at the moment.
It was a tight squeeze down the gap but after juggling with the platform, nail gun, glue and the boards, we managed to finish the whole right hand side! In the dark again at around 6pm!
Tomorrow it should be easier on the left hand side as it is open and we can get our stepladders in! Famous Last Words!
We had a good day today! Started 10am and finished 7pm! The right hand side of our Garage is UP! The framework is erected along with part of the front wall to provide the usual stability.
It was positively warm today, no snow, no sleet, no hail, no rain (well almost none!) and no wind to speak of too! As I say, positively barmy!
Tomorrow (weather permitting) we will nail on the boards – 11mm OSB boards to provide the structural racking to stiffen up the whole building!
And also drill dozens of holes for all the tie down bolts! The self-tapping screws we are using are called Thunderbolts and they go straight into the concrete (a pilot hole of course) without any wall plugs, expanding bits or glues!
We have had loads of bad weather for the last week and outside work has been grounded! We had snow, hail, sleet and loads of rain! A very wet November! And for the last week or so very cold too!
But yesterday and today we have managed to get out there to start erecting the walls with the pieces that were cut and built (the front wall segments) inside the workshop! It is a matter of fitting the jigsaw together!
This shows the left hand side wall with just a couple of posts in place, and connected to the front wall which was bolted down to provide stability.
Then the wind got up! Today we have been battling with over 20mph winds and gusts, our ladders keep on being blown over!
The final finished framework of the left wall, quite dramatically lit up against the night sky!
I wonder what the weather will bring tomorrow!?
The Firestone EPDM Rubber Roof has arrived! The membrane measures 9m by 9.5m or at least that is what is written on the label! It is all folded up and weighs tons! We haven’t unfolded it to find out if it is correct!
The other items delivered were two drums of rubber solution to stick the membrane down onto the roof boards. Each drum is labelled 5 gallons but it is also labelled 18.9 litres, which is strange until you realise that it is American Gallons and not English! So our two drums only adds up to 37.8litres and we had “ordered” 40 litres as the result of our calculations of the glue coverage rate! The web site stated that you can buy 2.5, 5 or 10litres containers of this glue so we ordered four 10litres containers. But we got two drums! Very odd and a little bit naughty by the retailer not to explain that the drums are American sizes.
Even more strange that the labels also states the coverage of 100 square feet per gallon so one drum would cover 500 square feet which is 46.5 square metres so the two drums adds to 93 square metres. Our roof area is 85.5 square metres (9m by 9.5m). The web site stated a coverage of 2square metres per litre so the 85.5 square metres would mean 42.75 litres hence why we ordered 40litres! Most Confusing and I think it is time for the Americans to go metric! Smile!
We got an adapter to allow us to make a hole in the corner of the roof to let the rain water through and down into our rain water collection and filtration system. It is a small piece of 110mm plastic pipe with a square piece of the rubber membrane stretched and glued on to the top and inside the pipe. It has a layer of very sticky substance with a peel off paper protection.
The next item is a set of aluminium bars for fixing the edges of the rubber membrane down. The bars are 2.5mm thick with a screw hole every 100mm. we decided to rely on these for holding down the rubber for long term peace of mind instead of wooden battens.
Finally we got contact adhesive for the edges of the roof to allow an instant stick (so the wind wont lift it off before we can fix with the strips), two pieces of flashing (for
sealing pipes through the roof) and the primer to allow these and the rain water adapter to stick permanently.
Our cubic metre of English Oak has arrived today just before Lunch. There were the two old sleepers we ordered as well just to see what they are like!
The 91 oak planks are very nice in the main, with only one or two odd pieces of older looking ones and one thinner one (only 19mm thick!). we got mostly sizes between 2mtres (6 feet) and 2.5metres (8 feet) and majority more than 120mm wide going up to 300mm! we are pleased with them!
Such a nice smell too!
The old railway sleepers are very interesting and the sheer history in them is lovely to see! The old screw holes and the coupling plates outline compressed into the surface, to show the age and number of trains that has rumbled over these sleepers! We also bought a untreated and unused Oak sleeper to see what this size is like too.
The Azobe wood is very very heavy indeed! It is 2.6metres long (8.5 feet) by 250mm wide (10 inches) and 150mm thick (6 inches)!
The Jarra wood is very similar but slightly thinner at only 130mm thick! Only! This wood is very heavy as well!
We phoned today and were told that our cement boards will be delivered this Friday! Well we will see won’t we!?! Fingers crossed!
We are continuing to build up piles of timber and pieces of jigsaw pieces ready for the day (or days) after the cement boards comes! We have been working on the front wall of the garage, chopping timber for the posts and OSB sheets for the physical structural reinforcements. We will finish these pieces this afternoon.
So we have now everything ready for all four walls so it should only take a couple of days to construct and join them all together! And chuck the roof on top! Just like that!