Category: Walls

Yesterday and today we bolted down the two side walls, there are over twenty thunderbolts in each wall! We pulled out a string to make sure the walls are straight and Stephen went along with the SDS drill to cut the holes and I came after screwing down the bolts!

Today we drilled air holes for both the roof ventilation and the air conditioning “source”.

The side wall has 21 114mm holes to allow fresh air to enter which will be drawn down into our earth tubes for cooling before entering into the house. Well this will be what will happen when we have built the house! Each hole will have a covering of stainless steel mesh to protect against insects and larger creatures and another layer of fluffy geotextile to filter larger dust particles and stop those sub millimetre bugs and creepy crawlies! The 21 holes adds up to over 210000 square millimetres which is double what we need but with the extra barriers of the two filters (mesh and geotextile) we need to make sure the pressure and speed of the air supply is not too badly affected.

We also drilled another 21 holes along the front of the garage to allow air to circulate in under the roof boards to make sure it never gets damp and rot. This is all in the building regs! These holes will just have the stainless steel mesh covering them.

You will not be able to to see these holes in the long run as there will be another cladding layer using the pretty Cedar wood!

Finally we have started building the middle internal wall that divides the garage from the garden room. We reinforced the sole plates and to improve the tie down structural strength by inserting 170mm high 18mm thick OSB strips in between the two halves of the wall. This is needed as there could be a potentially large “up” force in high winds blowing across the roof or blowing into an open garage door or doors causing a significant upward force inside the garage! This is why all the roof rafter themselves needs to be tied down using metal angled brackets. Our structural engineers had calculated all the numbers and this is what we have to do!

We have bolted the sole plate down and it is now all very solid and ready for the rest of the wall to be constructed tomorrow!

(close up of reinforcements of sole plates)

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!?

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!

We spend the afternoon cutting up most of the timber for the left side and the right side of the garage. We are still awaiting the cement boards to come and we got on with other jobs like cutting the CLS 89mm by 38mm timber into all the different lengths. It is nice to see the quality of the timber, they are fresh, clean and in good nick! Only one or two had “bad” spots like the point where the suppliers had crunched the edge with their straps holding the whole bundle together!

We have produced over 74 pieces! And more to come!