Roselea

Category: Phase 1

  • Doors!

    Today we built a double door unit to fill in the second of the garage main doors. All this is temporary to make the garage secure and keep the wind out!

    Garage Doors - Outside

    Garage Doors – Outside

    (outside view)

    We used the old traditional horizontal locking bars to secure the doors.

    Garage Doors - Inside

    Garage Doors – Inside

    (view from inside)

    We filled in the other doorway as well with a fixed panel.

    Blocked doorway

    Blocked doorway

    We didn’t get to do the roof today as the rafters were too wet because our plastic sheeting didn’t survive the strong winds we had yesterday! There is rain forecasted for tomorrow but the weekend might be dry and sunny (fingers crossed) and we will get the roof on then!

  • Noggings and Roof Boards Preparations

    Today we sawn 22 more noggins made from our stock of “spare” 63mm by 38mm CLS timber , to brace the middle part of the iBeams over the front portion of the garage. These were diagonally fitted to create a triangle structure to stop the roof sheering sideways. The whole roof now has four separate points of structural bracing to support the roof; front, middle, middle and back.

    Next we prepared 32 sheets of the 18mm OSB boards by cutting a finger joint in all edges except the outer most edge where the roof overhangs the walls. We generated at least 30litres (one large tub) of sawdust!

    It was quite difficult to get the finger joint to be exactly in the correct position as we discovered that the OSB boards vary in thickness! We have managed to keep the “offset” down to approximately 1mm!

  • Trimmed the Tops!

    And we also trimmed the excess material off the tops of the walls. The OSB boards were nailed to the very tops of the iBeams and noggins (on the front) to finally finish off the walls.

    Garage Lights Finished

    Garage Lights Finished

    There isn’t any more jagged steps in the sky line of the walls! All nice and smooth ready for the 18mm OSB boards! At last!

    Next is to man handle almost 30sheets of 18mm OSB boards each weighing about 35kg (77lbs) each! We are going to get hot so roll on the freezing weather! No sweat!!

  • All Metal ties are in place

    Today we resumed our work on our Garage after a 3 day break for Christmas! We finished putting on the metal bracket pies holding down the iBeams(the rafters) across the middle wall.

    We also put a couple extra brackets at the bottom of the door posts (the big front doors) to ensure full structural tie down around each of the large openings. There would be quite a considerable uplift force during strong winds especially if someone opens both doors at the same time!

    We are almost ready to put up the OSB boards but first the last row of noggins across the middle of the front portion of the garage. This is to connect and stiffen up all 22 rafters into a single structural unit. We have already done this for the front, middle and back positions over the walls, so this is the last row to do.

  • Begin the Metal tie downs!

    We started installing the metal brackets on the iBeam rafters. We have done the back and front walls. We are using hardened nails, 38mm long ring shank for extra grip and zinc plated! The nail gun has a special nozzle to allow Stephen to place the nails accurately into the tiny holes in the metal brackets! But even then a couple of times, the nail missed the hole and bounced off! But one actually punched a new hole through the metal and hammered the nail into the wood!

    We then nailed up small pieces of 18mm OSB fillers on the webbing part of the iBeams over where the middle wall is. This is because the metal brackets needs something to fix on to. Very fiddly work, going up and down ladders etc!

  • Remaining Roofs iBeams Are Up!

    The Snow and ICE have finally let up! We had a little bit of rain and that helped to melt the ice on the garage floor so we managed to scrape and brush out all the snow and ice out of the doors!

    The remaining 11 iBeam rafters have gone up!

    All I-Beams up

    All I-Beams up

    All I-Beams up

    All I-Beams up

  • Building Inspector Approves!

    Our building control inspector came today to take a look at our Garage. He was checking the structural and quality of work! His words were “I am very happy with your work!” “Very happy indeed!”

    That is good to know that we are going in the right direction!

    Phew!

  • Half a Roof!

    We got half the iBeams up! That is 11 of them. They are nailed into place. They are fitting very nicely!

    We are still having to walk each iBeam out of the garage, turning it around and then propping it up on the middle wall, climb the ladders and hauling it up to the top of the world! Fortunately each iBeam only weighs 20kg each but still it is hot work!

    Hopefully the weather will not be too bad tomorrow! Then we can finish the other 11 iBeams!

  • iBeams trimmed!

    The morning was spent trimming all 22 iBeams to exact lengths! We got out our chop saw on the bench and along with two extension benches proceeded to very carefully get the angle of the cut just right, at 1.3degrees which is the slope of the roof! Once the saw was set up and tested with samples, we carried each beam to the saw for one end and then spin it around to cut the other end! Well it wasn’t that easy, walking the whole iBeam out of the garage, turning it around and then walking it back in again! And remember each beam is 9metres (29feet) long!! We walked miles today!

    We also glued and stapled strips of fluffy geo-textile over the holes drilled yesterday in the first i-beam to act as a filter for the incoming air.


  • iBeams are involved at last!

    The iBeams have been brought out of storage today! The first job was to nail on a whole load of small OSB pieces at both ends of the beams in order to provide a solid fixing surface for the metal brackets to tie down the rafters onto the walls!

    The other job was to drill 21 holes in the webbing (as they call it, the thin material in between the top and bottom flanges) to let the fresh air in for our air conditioning system. It turned out that we have 22 holes!

    Now to get critical and cut them to exact lengths! Tomorrow’s job!