Roselea

Category: Phase 1

  • Dirty Big Hole in Roof!

    A 110mm (4inch) dirty great big hole was cut into the rubber membrane! In the back left corner of the roof is where we have the rain water drain pipe coming up through the roof and today the major operation of cutting into the waterproof skin was made and fitted the special flappy rubber flange connected to a piece of 110mm plastic pipe which slid into the waiting pipe behind the hot water tank. The special rubber had a coating on it which very strongly binds to the rubber roof membrane (after the roof membrane was treated with a rubber primer and scrubbed!). the final seal was extremely sticky and very strong. There was only one chance to get it right! And it was ok! Phew!

    Roof drain hole

    Roof drain hole

    A stainless steel mesh was coiled up and stapled together using stainless steel staples (naturally) and carefully jammed into the hole to provide a filter to stop leaves, moss and other larger bits and pieces from floating into the drain system.

  • Rubber Membrane Glued!

    Today, in the blazing sun, we glued the rubber membrane down on the roof of the Garage. It was very hot on the roof and especially the black rubber was absorbing huge amount of heat from the Sun! we were forced into doing narrow strip before the glue dried on us!

    Roof ready for glue

    Roof ready for glue


    Roof ready for glue

    Roof ready for glue

    It was quite tricky trying to keep the rubber smooth without any ripples and unfortunately we didn’t quite make it! There were lots of things we could have done in hindsight but mostly it was so hot that we had very limited time.

    Rubber stuck down

    Rubber stuck down


    Rubber stuck down

    Rubber stuck down


    Rubber stuck down

    Rubber stuck down


    Rubber stuck down

    Rubber stuck down


    Rubber stuck down

    Rubber stuck down

    We folded the rubber over the edges to provide a complete waterproofing seal for the whole roof. Just the rain drain connection left to do in the morning.

    At least we can say that our roof is water tight not barring the wrinkles! We thought we would cover them up with a layer of small round stones! We had previously calculated the load bearing of the roof to allow for a 25mm thickness of stones!

  • Windows!

    We have measured all the windows in the Garage (11 of them) and all of them came out within 2mm! phew! We are currently asking for double glazing prices for a basic unit without all the fancy coatings. After all these windows are just in the garage!

    In the meantime, we have finished planning the Oak frames and sliced them up into each individual piece. We need to cut a small slope on the pieces that will go outside to encourage the rain to run off. We have ordered a 22degrees angle cutter.

  • Air Duct

    The air duct along the back wall is now fitted. Plus also have put up some plasterboards on the corridor wall. Have removed the lights out of the Sun Corridor so we can put up another air duct to capture the waste hot air for recycling.

  • Trimming The Edges!

    Today we took advantage of the clear weather to finally finish off the roof we put on 6 months ago! Mostly we have been waiting for the weather to get warm enough so that the glue will dry and cure properly in the required 48hours the instructions states.

    We went around the three sides (the back edge was done a couple of weeks ago) trimming the excess OSB boards off! We calculated that we needed an overhanging distance of 120mm before the Oak facia boards sticks down. This distance is made up of two layers of vertical and horizontal 25mm thick battens and 19mm of Cedar wood coverings, with a 50mm air gap around behind the facia and up and over the Cedar to allow the whole wall to breathe.

    Next we glued and screwed the sloping boundaries made of a 100mm by 50mm Pine timber sliced diagonally at 45degrees to make a chuck of solid edging with 25mm flat tops and 75mm bottoms. The corners were mitred together.

    Roof - Upstands fitted to last 3 sides

    Roof – Upstands fitted to last 3 sides


    Roof - Upstands fitted to last 3 sides

    Roof – Upstands fitted to last 3 sides


    Roof - Upstands fitted to last 3 sides

    Roof – Upstands fitted to last 3 sides


    Roof - Upstands fitted to last 3 sides

    Roof – Upstands fitted to last 3 sides

    We covered up again just before the rain started drifting in! Phew!

  • Plasterboards going Up!

    Today we started putting up the plaster boards in the temporary living quarters. We went straight along the back wall in one go with 8 sheets and then 3 sheets across the end.

    It was fairly simple.

    Just very hot indeed! The Sun Corridor heated the place up to well over 35 degrees Celsius !

    Build the air duct on the back wall and then the partition walls next.

  • Final clean up of old Storage Shed

    we sorted out the electrics to allow us to nail up the plaster boards. Currently the electric cable comes in from under the floor into the old storage shed and soon this will be replaced but not right now! We levelled out the floor with 11mm sheet of OSB down the sides and it is now ready for the 50mm thick Polystyrene foam boards.

    We had a little fire in the incinerator to get rid of odds and ends which were accumulating in a corner of the storage shed!

    Shed empty ready for bedrooms

    Shed empty ready for bedrooms


    Shed empty ready for bedrooms

    Shed empty ready for bedrooms

    Now we can start putting up the plaster boards and building the air conduits and finally the partition walls!

  • Garden Room Trap Doors

    Yesterday and today we revealed our trap doors in the garden room. The laminated flooring covered everything up, all glued down, including the two trap doors!

    These doors allow us access to the underground 15000 litre rain tank and the Earth Tubes (12 150mm (6inches) air pipes) coming up out of the floor concrete slab.

    We carefully measured exactly the position of the edges of the two doors and drawing the marks on masking tape stuck down on the floor, got our cut line sorted out. We then got the straightest timber plank we could find and using double sided sticky carpet tape, stuck down the plank as a guide for the battery circular saw. The blade thickness is only 1.6mm so it would be a nice not so obvious groove.

    One trick we did here, is to run the saw backwards! I mean pull the machine backwards along the guide so that the teeth were spinning towards and cutting downwards into the surface of the lamination thus avoiding chipping the nice finish. Normally the blade cuts from below and rips its way upwards and explodes out of the surface causing little jagged breaks in the cut edge. Well normally you would saw from the reverse side but we couldn’t do this as the floor was all stuck down!

    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor

    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor


    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor

    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor


    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor

    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor


    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor

    GR Access hatches in Laminate floor

    It came off very well indeed! We then put into the trap doors little brass ring pulls to aid in lifting the doors. We did another trick where we drilled a hole in the bottom of the brass fitting to allow us to screw down the trap doors to stop them bouncing up or warping.

    A good result!

  • Garden Room Floor Finished!

    We have finished laying the laminated flooring!

    Day 3 – Monday 20th June

    The last 30% of the room took as long as the previous day’s work of covering 70%!

    This part of the room had three doorways, little boxes and a toilet connector sticking out of the floor! The WC area needed the tiles to go backwards to match up the pattern but could not be clipped together until the whole area is calculated and cut! Fortunately it was only a small 1m by 0.6m (3feet by 2feet) area!

    GR Laminate laid

    GR Laminate laid


    GR Laminate laid

    GR Laminate laid


    GR Laminate laid

    GR Laminate laid

    We are pleased in how it came out without any head scratching moments! We were lucky that the tiles kept quite straight and square to the whole building, with only a slight drift into the middle wall caused by the middle wall not being absolutely laser straight. It wobbled by 20mm in the worse spot around the doorway into the garage!

    Now the step into the garage needs an Oak edging to protect the new tiles, and finally run a bead of sealant all around the edges.

  • Garden Room Floor Laminated!

    We have started the job of laying down engineered laminated floor tiles in our Garden room.

    Day 1 – Saturday 18th June

    We prepared the tiles, slicing up 9 of them into halves as instructed. We laid out a test run to see how they fit into the room and how square it is. We measured all the various corners and edges to make sure we have the tiles form a solid pattern without leaving horrible thin strips on some edge!

    Day 2 – Sunday 19th June

    We got going with the gluing today for real! Starting at the far end of the Garden Room, we cut the first row of tiles narrow so that the 14th row would line up just next to the WC wall. We made sure that this 14th row would be slightly inside the WC wall to ensure we don’t end up with that horrible thin strip. We got the first five rows done before lunch, making sure they were square against the middle wall. And then the remaining 9 rows after lunch. We didn’t finished until well after 8pm! Phew!

    But it is looking very nice! So far!

    Where the pipes come through the floor we managed to get the joins almost invisible! (All that work for something hidden in a cupboard!).

    GR Laminate laid

    GR Laminate laid

    This represents 70% of the floor completed. It is just the WC, doorways and the little corridor to finish tomorrow! No sweat!