Month: October 2018

The Last Four Pallets of Slates Arrive

Sometime during the afternoon, we had the delivery of the remaining four pallets of our slates and they were unloaded alongside our Loke, following the line as we intended, but alas, one of the pallets was dumped on top of two others!

Last-of-slates-delivered

We did not want this, as we wanted to be able to take a handful of tiles out from each crate in turn so the roof would get a more random pattern, just in case, one crate would be loaded in the quarry from one spot in the slate mine and by the eleventh crate, could be using another part of the mine with slightly different colouration and texture. Hence, as recommended by experts, to take a few tiles from every crate, to mix it up a bit, and get a more balanced finished on our roof.

31 October 2018
Fixed Small Patches of Damage on Store Room Roof

This morning, under the bright hot sun, we went on the roof of our Store Room to locate the leaks we had yesterday during a day of heavy rain. We found them and applied pieces of flashing tape, by using a hot air gun to dry the roofing felt and also warmed up the flashing tape too and rolled it hard into the surface.

Store-room-roof-patching-Oct-2018-1

Store-room-roof-patching-Oct-2018-2

We did several more patches on other parts of the roof, one definite hole but several were potentials so they got patched too.
Now we wait until the next rain storm and see if we have found all the sources of our leaks!

31 October 2018
First Batch of Slates Arrive

We had a delivery of the remaining timber battens, 720 metres of 38mm by 25mm sized lengths, but actually, we only got 714 metres so they short-changed us by 6 metres (but we did get extra of the larger battens) !

The-smaller-roofing-battens-have-arrived

We now have all our wooden battens, ready for our roof.

We also had the first batch of our Slates , seven pallets, in total, containing over eleven thousand standard sized and 750 extra wide ones.

Slates-being-delivered

First-7-Pallets-of-slates

Each pallet has over 1800 slates in 3 layers. We are expecting a further four more pallets of standard size in a few days.

29 October 2018
Exterior of Filter Module Coated in Glass-Fibre and Cleaning up Other Pieces

We resumed the task of coating the filtration unit in the structural layer of glass-fibre, in doing the exterior of our large filter box.

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-3

Then the rest of the day was spent cleaning up all the other pieces, trimming excess glass-fibre sticking out and sanding down rough patches and edges. We did one small experiment to find out how we can coat the final exposed edges, by using four layers of glass-fibre tissue cut into strips and then painted onto the flat top and bending it around and down the two sides. It seemed to have worked but we will inspect tomorrow or Monday.

We are nearly finished doing this stage of work and all is left to do is to apply the top “finishing” coat to provide the smooth glossy surface inside and out. Then we just need to chuck it into the hole in the ground, connect up the pipes .. and hey presto – that is that – grin!

27 October 2018
Fibre-glassing the Filter Day 2

We continued to apply the Resin and Fibreglass layers to the Filter Parts. We completed all of the insides with their two layers as well as the two layers on the insides of the lids and side panel. The outsides of the filter will have a single layer of resin and fibre-glass as they will not be submersed permanently in water so need less protection. The outside of the swimming lane return channel was coated last thing today.

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-2-1

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-2-2

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-2-3

26 October 2018
Glass Fibre + Resin Treatment Starts

We started today with the mammoth task of applying the protective waterproof layer and to provide the high strength structural element for our rain filter module. This is achieved by using layers of glass-fibre, coated in polyester resin, on all surfaces. The inside surfaces will have two layers of 450g glass matting (per square metre) and the outside will have a single layer. The whole thing will have a final top coat finishing layer to smooth off everything.
We sorted out the workshop and placed our large cabinet on our medium flatbed trolley with two support arms (using 2inch by 6inch planks) and the main workbench (covered in tarpaulin) has all the other bits and pieces. The large side panel had two more pieces glued on to the edge (the cover to the dirty water channel and the side panel to the equipment box at the top) and we glued in the overflow chute we made yesterday, into the back of the cabinet.
Then we ripped up a roll of the glass fibre matting into smaller pieces, ready to be applied inside the filter cabinet. The other flat objects had large strips cut to cover the surface and got them ready too.
After lunch, we tackled the flat objects first so we can learn the quantity and method of applying the resin and we got the them done quite well.
Then it was the return channel next, which has a tight three sided interior surfaces to coat and finally we started inside the main cabinet.

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-1-1

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-1-2

Filter-Fibreglassing-Day-1-3

All the finished articles had the excess glass-fibre (sticking out bits) trimmed using a sharp knife around all their edges, and turned over ready for the next layers of the resin plus glass fibre, this time two layers (this side is the interior surface), all this being done tomorrow and Saturday.

25 October 2018
Second Final Day of Preparation of Filtration Unit

We started the day off with the task of rubbing all the places where we had put the filler. But we discovered that we needed more wooden triangular battens in various places we missed the first time around.
But we also prepared the side panel “lid” with two more plastic pipes that got glued through the cement panel, one being the 110mm pipe connection from the garage roof and the second one is the 40mm white pipe that will connect to the underground rainwater storage tank underneath the garage.
We wanted to get on with doing the fibre-glass coatings but we kept finding other jobs to do like making the real “lids” to the top of the cabinet when it is fully installed in the ground and attached to the end of the swimming lane.
So by the time we got that done, sanded more edges and then did a major clean up operation to remove all the dust and dirt, it was already near the end of the day again!!
But we decided to overrun because we needed to make a slim wide slot, using a chunk of polystyrene foam block, to act as a mould to wrap glass-fibre around it and then put the first coat of polyester resin on it and allow to set properly overnight.
Tomorrow, we WILL get on with the marathon task of putting two layers glass-fibre all over the whole filtration unit, both inside and out, all the lids and other parts .. at long last!!

24 October 2018
Last of the Preparation Tasks On Rain Filtration Module

Today, we finished off putting wooden battens, some of them triangular shapes around in various locations, for example, the dirty water filter support rim and the support bar across the top of the module to hold the lid on.
Then after that lot, we went around with several tubs of plaster filler to fill in gaps, holes and round off corners and edges to aid the laying down of the glass fibre matting, which cannot turn sharp corners very well.
Finally, we inserted three plastic 110mm drain pipe small segments (two next to each other for the rain water coming off the main house’s roof and the third one being a connection to the soak-away downpipe.

Filter-structure-complete-1

Filter-structure-complete-2

Tomorrow, we will rub down all the surfaces and clean everything and start the process of coating everything with the polyester resin and glass fibre layers, both inside and out.

23 October 2018
Many Days of Creating and Building Various Parts of the Filtration Module

This is a report to summarise the work we have been doing for the last twelve days, in creating a filtration system for all the rain water collected off the roof, including water falling into the swimming lane and the pond too. The total amount of rain water being processed by this half buried module is going to be in the excess of 500 litres for every millimetre of fallen rain.
This large box, measuring 1800mm (6feet) high, 1200mm (4feet) deep and 400mm (16inches) wide, with most of it buried (only 800mm (just over 2½ feet)) is above ground. It has three main pipelines (110mm diameter pipes) connected to the module, 2 running from the main house roof and 1 from the garage roof. There is also a fourth connection, directly to and from the swimming lane with the wide but narrow slot that is positioned 150mm below the top of the swimming lane. This slot acts as a overflow point for the swimming lane when it collects rain water and combines with the roof water and is filtered and stored away for later use, but also the swimming lane and pond can act as a buffer to store temporary surge water during freak thunderstorm weather conditions that would normally over whelm the underground soak-away module and give it time to handle that kind of volume of rain water.

RainFilter

We are making two modules, one is the main filter unit and other is a separate channel which is used to recirculate water in the swimming lane, drawing it from the bottom of the swimming lane and pumped up to the return channel which runs down the back of the swimming lane and empties into the pond at the other end of the plot.

The filtration module comes in three sections, the first being the ‘dirty’ water collection chamber, the second section is the filter to provide the ‘clean’ water and finally the third part is a set of external vertical channels to provide paths for processing different types of water.
One channel runs from the bottom to the top and is where the dirty water is extracted from the bottom of the filter module and pumped up to either the same return channel stream or distributed on the flower bed running along the fence behind the return channel, we haven’t decided which yet. The second channel of water, is the emergency ‘highest’ overflow point (sandwiched between the other two channels) for the whole system. This channel is connected to the main module by a slot positioned at 50mm from the top and all this water will flow down through more 110mm drain pipes, going into the soak-away module (buried under the driveway 10m away). We had to extend the existing underground pipeline to bring it into the correct position, when we install the whole module.

Soak-Away-pipe-run-from-under-garage

then-Turn-towards-Fence-and-then-up-to-the-overflow-level-

The filter is constructed from fibre-glass and resin coated on 10mm thick cement boards, with wooden battens cut at 45degrees angles to help reinforce the corners and various internal shelves and baffles.
We have so far created over a dozen pieces of various shapes, with the battens glued and screwed along various edges.

Filter-Parts-Internal-bits

Filter-Parts-Overflow-section

Filter-Parts-Left-Side

We have started assembling it all together, only stopping at the point of putting on the ‘lid’ which actually is a side wall of the cabinet. We need to have access to all the internal surfaces to paint on the layers of fibre-glass and polyester resin.

Filter-Nearly-assembled

We had quite a few interruptions to our work plus being a complicated piece of work, has accumulated to the twelve days so far spent on this task, but we should see it finish by another week. We are still waiting for our slates to arrive so we are not losing time on that job, and had to have this filtration module built and installed, so we can connect each section of the roof guttering system to the downpipe channels and all rain water would be immediately handled and taken away.

22 October 2018
Slates on Section D and E Completed and Preparing the Guttering on Last Section At Last

In these two weeks, there was a big disruption and stoppage to our work. The first week had only one successful day of work and that when we got the “D” section of the roof completed and got started on the “E” roof. The rest of that first week was spent recovering from the flooding we suffered during a very heavy rain storm, see Rain, Rain, Rain. for more details!
The second week was more successful thank goodness .. ..
First day, Monday, was spent in the workshop processing five more oak planks to make the remaining guttering pieces. We were short by three base pieces and two front ones. We had some of each type left over so we used those ones as our template to duplicate the extras. It was a 4 stage process to cut the various tongue & groove edges, bevelled angled edge and making the tongue to fit the fascia slot. We finished this task with a morning session on Wednesday.
Fortunately, we had some dry days remaining so we got on with putting up slates up on the “E” section of the roof and got most of it covered by Thursday. We couldn’t go any further as we don’t have any access (safe access) from the other roof surfaces to finish off the section.

E-mostly-slated

The-ABDE-Junction

Friday was an alternative day of work doing a hand rail for a family member and fitting it to their stairs. We made it using a 3metre plank of 27mm thick oak timber and planed it down to about 80mm wide with a gentle horizontally curving profile. Also we made a 45mm square post with another oak piece we had left-over from a previous job (the window sill).
And finally, on Saturday, we rearranged two platform modules to extend our walkway and working platform to reach the remaining “H” section of the roof and a bit of the original “I” section where we started this whole job.
We had to move some empty slate crates and also coiled up two plastic conduit pipes that had been buried underground along the back of the house for various old functions in the past.
The afternoon saw the base pieces of the guttering cut and test fitted (but not glued) to section “G” and “H”, to rejoin back to where we started all those months ago!
What was quite odd and amusing is that this last section along “H” saw the most wobbliest stretch of our fascia we have had in the whole of the roof and we had to make some minor adaptions to our base boards to make them fit in a straight line. Nothing complicated.
(no picture as it got dark!)
So next week, we will get the gutters finished, fibre-glass and black resin the final three corners, put in the rubber liners and then put up the breathable membrane and wooden battens up the roof.

19 October 2018