Roselea

Category: Phase 4

Construction of External Skin of House: External Walls, Roof and Skylight. Slate tiles on roof and timber cladding on walls.

  • Day 4 of Shopping List – Roof Rafters Continues

    Today was spent going into the numbers and double checking the figures and sums for the Outer Wall and then continued with the Roof structure analysis.

    The Roof is by far the most complex aspect of this task, with half a dozen different types of material being used in the construction of each Rafter and Beams (whether it is a ridge, hip or valley) plus the amount of glue (several different kinds of those too!).

    Here is the latest summary so far:

    • 125 lengths (600metres) of 89mm CLS timber
    • 104 lengths (500metres) of 63mm CLS timber
    • 138 sheets (415 square metres) of 12mm plywood
    • 80+ litres of non-creep structual grade wood glue (sticking plywood onto flanges)
    • 40 sheets (116 square metres) of 35mm thick PU foam insulation panels (fill volume inside rafters)
    • 13 cans (350 litres) of Gun Spray PU foam (filling the small gap inside rafters)
    • 51 tubes of MS Polymer Construction Glue (only for sticking the cement boards onto rafters)

    There is another day’s work to finish off the calculations for all the roof members and support blocks and noddings.

  • Day 3 of Shopping List for Timber and Boards

    At this stage of the analysis, the roof rafters are now being quantified. There are over 200 individual pieces, ranging in length from a few hundred millimetres, all the way up and over five thousand millimetres long!

    Each rafter is a box beam, made up of a top flange using a 89mm CLS timber and a bottom flange of a 63mm CLS timber, sandwiched by two layers of 12mm thick high quality plywood boards. The hollow space inside the rafters will be filled up with insulations to avoid any “cold bridging” to stop heat from escaping.

    The current summary of numbers are:

    • 125 lengths (600metres) of 89mm CLS timber
    • 105 lengths (500metres) of 63mm CLS timber
    • 138 sheets (415square metres) of 12mm plywood

    Continuing with the roof structure, are the main ridge beams, hip and valley beams and other structural beams that helps join all the rafters together from the walls and up to the steel framework. So further analysis is being done on these items and will be added to the shopping list.

  • Day 3 – Ground floor Internal Walls and Floors Calculated and Added to Shopping List

    After our outside work was all done and dusted, the analysis of our timber requirement carried on this afternoon and evening, to add more items to our Shopping List.

    Our Procurement Officer (Stephen) worked on the ground floor’s internal walls, rails and the flooring with the following results:

    • 1.8km (just over one mile) of 63mm CLS timber for the structure of the walls
    • 1.2km (three quarters of a mile) of 63mm CLS for the horizontal rails on walls
    • 190m of oak planking for the utility rails
    • 560 m² of 25mm cement boards for the wall linings
    • 1.2km (three quarters of a mile) of 63mm CLS timber to support the flooring
    • 320 m² of 18mm OSB for the flooring itself

    This is another 4.2km (over two and a half miles) of timber to add to our Shopping List!

  • All Done, Finished and Complete!

    With a freezing wind blowing across our building site, we concluded all the work on the Steel Framework today.

    First of all, we dealt with the last remaining leg (Number Four), the heavy duty one that holds up the end of the Steel Box at the garage end. We chumped the bottom of the leg to move it until it was vertical in both direction, some 75mm to 100mm of drift to adjust for. Then we drilled down into the concrete with our SDS drill and drove the last 4 concrete bolts down to secure this final and 7th leg into place!!

    Leg-4-Bolted-down

    Leg-4-Bolted-down

    Then, we climbed the two scaffolding towers to the top and swopped around another Cross Spar that was incorrectly orientated. After that, we moved the tower along to the middle leg position (number Two and Six) on both side and tightened up the 8 bolts we had loosened a couple of days ago during our fiddly operation of getting the end I beam piece into place. While we were here, we then swopped another two Cross Spar around. Finally, we moved down towards the end of the Steel framework near Leg One and Seven, and took down the Cross Spar that was completely in the wrong location and put in its place the correct Cross Spar we had on our tower waiting for this moment. With the last Cross Spar we removed on top, we trundled the two towers back all the way to the beginning and finally mounted this 9th Cross Spar into place and bolted it down tight.

    All-cross-ties-fixed-correctly

    All-cross-ties-fixed-correctly

    This concludes all the work of assembling the whole Steel Framework, Seven Legs, Six I beams pieces, Five U channel Struts mid way down the legs and Two strut between the pairs of legs, plus also Six Rafter Joist Brackets bolted into place (one in each corner for the Hip Ridge beams and Two middle ones where the front and back extension are!).

    It is back to the Shopping List and build up the next order of timber and cement boards!!

    The-finished-frame

    The-finished-frame

     

  • Day 2 of Building Up Shopping List for Walls and Rafters as well as All the Internal Walls

    Today, with only having one bloke on duty and the other one away at external meetings, the analysis of the design of the house and tallying up all the required timber pieces and cement boards plus plywood sheets carries on.

    The outer wall needs over  a mile of timber plus a load of cement boards and a heap of OSB webbing pieces (about 18 full sheets)

    • 165 X 89mm CLS Timber (standard 4.8metres lengths)
    • 211 X 63mm CLS timber pieces
    • 17 x treated 100mm by 50mm Timber
    • 24 x treated 63mm CLS timber pieces
    • 65 sheets 10 mm thick by 2400 mm by 1200 mm Cement boards
    • 15 sheets 11 mm thick by 2440 mm by 1220 mm OSB boards

     

    and this is just for the outer wall – grin!

  • The Two I Beam Ends Are On!

    After waiting about 45 minutes for the rain to blow over this morning, we started at 10:45 by hauling up the first of the smaller I Beam at the Great Room end of the steel framework structure. Using the tower and our wooden crane leg, we hoisted up the 2480mm long I Beam up and slotted it into place against the heavy duty angle iron that we had already bolted in place, ready to receive this section. All fitted nicely and all bolted up good and tight.

    Beam-6-in-place

    Beam-6-in-place

    Then, we moved the scaffolding towers down each side and loosened the bolts to the two long I beams (Number Two and Four) to see if we can lift the other end up in order to get clear of the big leg (Number Four) down at the Garage end of the steel structure. We positioned each tower diagonally across the end of the I beam, and moved the crane leg around so that we could use the winch to try and lift the ends of the I beams up, just a little bit so we will have room to slide in the final shorter I beam into place.

    It Worked!

    We got the last of the big I Beams (number Three) up and fitted into place. All is bolted together now, including the metal brackets  to receive the big valley rafters sloping down to the corners of the roof. Phew!

    Beam-3-in-place

    Beam-3-in-place

    It was a complex operation in coordinating all the different elements like adjusting the leg, loosening bolts and other tricks to achieve the end goal of completing the full circle of our Steel Framework! But we made it!

    It was dark by now, but we thought we would put up the final Cross Spars, the last two to do at this end of the structure and we got one up and bolted into place and just about to do the last one when we realised that it was the wrong one for that location! We further discovered that some of our Cross Spars were the wrong way round so we decided that enough was enough and correct that lot on Thursday when we resume work!! Grin!

    Cross-ties (some-are-wrong-way-round)

    Cross-ties (some-are-wrong-way-round)

  • Seven Cross Spars Installed

    This afternoon, we resumed the assembling of the steel framework, by examining the problem of the ends of the two I Beams (Number Two and Four – nearer the garage end) being a little lower than expected, or perhaps the Number Four Leg is slightly too high for when we tried on Saturday to put on the short I beam Number Three, it would not interlock into the ends of I Beams Two and Four. This could mean that the concrete slab level is not quite at the same level as the Legs. We will analyse this further.

    But today, we wanted to see and were trying to lift the ends up to “bend” the I beam back up again, even if it is only temporary so we can get the last short I beam in, but when we tried to do this using a racket winch tied onto our wooden crane leg, we could only make it move up 5mm or so before the rope was giving alarming creaking noises!! Oops! That’s Plan A out of the window!

    Instead, while we ponder on that problem, we decided to haul up seven of the Cross Spars that go on top of the I beams, going from one side to the other side. These Spars do three jobs

    1. They grip the edges of the I Beams stopping them twisting along it’s length,
    2. The upwards piece holds up the ridge beam of the skylight and
    3. The lower part holds up part of the ceiling.

    We started at the end where the legs were (number Three and Five) and got the two towers moved and align so we could install two Cross Spars each time between moving the towers. We hauled up the said two Cross Spars and laid them on our platform and after throwing over the rope with a carabiner attached on the end, we clipped it into a bolt hole and gently pulled it across from one tower to the other, spanning across between the two side of the I beams. This Spar was then bolted down with two 12mm bolts in each end and all was fine.

    In fact, we continued to successfully install a further 6 of our Cross Spars, moving the tower along a bit to do two more each time, going towards the Great Room end.

    7-Tie-Bars-in-place

    7-Tie-Bars-in-place

    We have two more left to do on the garage end but only after we have solved the problem of putting on the short I Beam in place after we have lifted up the droop. We will tackle that problem tomorrow.

  • Generating Shopping List for Timber

    This morning, the task was started to analyse all the pieces of timber we need for the construction of the house, whether it is for the outer walls, rafters for the roof, and all the internal walls, adding each length of timber and making sure we order enough contiguous pieces to go around all the required locations.

    It is quite a lengthy process where each timber is crossed off the drawing and how many single pieces can be obtained from the stock length supplied by the merchant, which is usually 4.8metres long.

    We are getting to the point where we are ready to start building the wooden framework of the outer wall and then the roof rafters after that.

    There will be other items on our shopping list, for example, the 10mm thick cement boards for the outer skin of the walls, and 15mm thick cement boards for the roof. Then we will need lots of 12mm structural plywood boards too as part of making our own roof rafters (they are box beams).

    So this is a large job!

  • I Beams Number 4 and 5 Are Up!

    It was a lovely day with virtually no wind out there and very nice sunshine! We continued with our task of getting up our Steel I beams up on top of the legs, this time, it was I Beam’s Four and Five to go on Leg’s Five, Six and Seven.

    But first, we had to drill new holes to correct the position error we discovered yesterday (both I Beams Two and Four have the same error!), this is for fixing it down on Leg 5. We also drilled 4 extra holes on the other side of the I beam (number Four again) to provide a mounting point for our fake chimney to be attached to the roof, located about half way along the section of the sky light going towards the extension , on the back slope of the roof.

    We got everything ready (moving the crane legs, towers and getting the winch machinery all sorted) and stopped for lunch.

    After lunch, we went back and just simply hoisted up the big and heavy I beam (number 5) for Leg 7 and Leg 6 and plonked it on and all holes lined up so we bolted it down – job done!

    Then, we unhooked and moved everything over to the next I beam, number 4, the lighter one, and set up everything ready for winching. It is a multipart job setting up the crane and scaffolding towers with the machinery in place and it takes quite a while to do this, making sure it is all correct and safe to go. Then the actual lifting process only takes minutes – smile!!

    The second I beam of the day, went up smoothly and got it up on Leg 6 and Leg 5 and all the holes .. again .. lined up!! Hurray!!! So we quickly bolted everything together before it decides to change shape or something! Grin!

    Beams-4-5-Up-and-Fixed

    Beams-4-5-Up-and-Fixed

    This means that we have all the big heavy and long I beams up now!! Yippee!

    The final task of the day was to try to get up the shorter  I beam, number 3, which is only 2480mm long, going across the end of I beam’s Two and  Four to close off the framework box. We lifted it up with just one winch as it is only 60 kg in weight and move it up to the top of Leg 4 but we discovered that the two side I beams (numbers 2 and 4) were drooping down under their own weight by about 20mm so we couldn’t fit it into place. So we lowered the I beam back to the ground and closed the day off by undoing all the electrics, taking the winches indoors and tidying up. It was dark by now!!

    We will think on the problem of getting the two side I beams to be “lifted” up so we can slot everything together and land on top of the final leg, all in one go!! Phew!

  • I Beams 1 and 2 Are Up and Bolted down!

    In a very nice bath of warm sunshine, we started this morning with the task of lifting up the first of our huge steel I beams. We got our two towers in place around Leg 1 and Leg 2 and then hauled and wiggled the tall crane wooden legs into position at the outer ends of the I beam. Then installed the two hoist machine up on top of the cranes and lowered the wire and hook down.

    The I beam weigh 420kg so each hoist is lifting 210kg which is well within its advertised limit of 250kg! This steel I beam is 300mm high by 140mm wide (the flanges are 8mm thick) and the webbing is 6mm thick and the length is 7535 mm long!!

    We also attached pieces of soft geotextile material, folded up several times over and put it on the edge of the flange where it would run up against the legs during the lifting stage, thus avoid scratching off the protective paint. Secondly, we attached some split plastic pipes (4 inches long of standard water 22mm pipe) and put them on the edge of the bottom flange where the thick rope is tied around to make sure the sharp edge of the flange won’t cut into the rope when the rope is under the maximum strain.

    So after all this preparation work, we finally got to start lifting the I beam, stopping almost immediately to double check everything looks good, the wires are not twisted and are going into the winch drum correctly and everything else is correct. We continued with the lifting operation, and finally arrived near the top of the legs. The suspended I beam was quite easy to move on the wires so we could move it out a few inches to clear the heads of the clamps that are holding the wooden temporary struts and got the I beam the rest of the way to above the plates on top of the legs. We could swing the I beam over and lower down to plonk it, with a clang, on the legs!!

    Then it was the moment to find out whether all the bolts holes lined up or not!!

    And they did!!

    Grin!

    That was I beam number 1 in place!!

    Beam-1-in-place-and-being-bolted-down

    Beam-1-in-place-and-being-bolted-down

    We moved the tower from Leg 1 to Leg 3 position and rearranged the crane poles and wooden leg ready for Beam number 2 and stopped for lunch.

    After lunch, we repeated the whole process for Beam number 2 (which is a lighter and smaller at only 100m wide flanges (these being 6mm thick and the webbing only 5mm thick) and the same height of 300mm but actually a bit longer at 8192mm long. We lifted it up and got it up on top of the legs but this time, we had a 10mm thick plate which joins the two I beams together already loosely attached to this second I beam so we can bring together the two ends of the I beams and line up the holes.

    We could line up the bolt holes on Leg 2 and also the webbing plate joining the beams together .. but .. we discovered that the holes drilled in the bottom flange of the I beam didn’t line up with the holes drilled in the plate welded on top of Leg 3!! Oh dear (and a few more choice words or five!) eeekk!

    After checking that we had the correct I beam for this section of the framework, and measuring everything again and checking the drawings, it was a simple case of the original holes were not drilled in the correct place by some mischance of reading the tape measure or something.

    So we had to lower the I Beam back to the ground, but we hadn’t unhooked anything at this stage as we hadn’t bolted anything and we don’t release the hooks off the rope until we have ALL the bolts in their holes and fully tightened up – just in case!!

    After careful measuring, it turned out that we needed to drill 4 more new holes 31mm further along the I beams so after careful marking and punching the steel, we drilled the initial 5mm pilot holes and then drilled out the holes to the required 13mm but at least we tried too! The 5mm pilot holes were fine and cut through the steel fine but when we tried doing the 13mm holes, it only did so far and just stopped boring through. It just blunted the drill bits!! We did manage to use a 10mm drill bit to cut the holes wider but still wouldn’t drill the final 13mm holes. We did manage to do 2 of them but the last 2 just wouldn’t go so we ended up filing the last holes by hand! What a Palava! It was dark by this time and we were working under our floodlights!! Grin!

    We put everything back together again and this time, we lifted the I beam up and plonked with another nice clang and the bolt holes all lined up! Hurray!!

    We did all the bolts (6 on the webbing plate, 2 on Leg 2 and 4 on Leg 3), all is tightened up and locked down!

    Beam-2-in-place-and-fixed

    Beam-2-in-place-and-fixed

    We finished off by undoing our hoist machinery and brought them indoors just in case it rains overnight. And that concluded our day of lifting 2 I beams into place!! Phew!