Roselea

Blog

  • Light Chamber Complete

    The full Light Chamber is now complete, all 20metres of it, going right around the three sides of the garage room, starting from the front left corner, down the left side to the middle wall then across to the right side and back towards the front right corner. It has reflectors inside the Light Chamber which will provide two functions, the primary function of reflecting as much light out to the room and the secondary function of providing an electrical Earthing point which is required for the fluorescent tubes circuits.

    Light Channels - Installed

    Light Channels – Installed

    Light Channels - Installed

    Light Channels – Installed

    Light Channels - Installed

    Light Channels – Installed

    The flange is covered with an additional layer of the Fermacell to make it blend into the whole structure of the finishing surface.

    Now the boring job of filling in the staple holes and the joints!!

  • Building the Lights

    Today and yesterday, we have been slicing up leftovers to create our light chamber around the edge of the main garage room. We bought two rolls of aluminium foil to serve as reflectors to make sure as much of the light is deflected into the garage itself shining across the ceiling.

    Light Channel foiled boards

    Light Channel foiled boards

    Light channel ceiling reflecters

    Light channel ceiling reflecters

    Light channel ceiling reflecters

    Light channel ceiling reflecters

    The “Chamber” will be 200mm (8inches) wide sticking out from the wall and 80mm (3inches) down from the ceiling. This narrow slot contains the fluorescent lighting units, a collection of T5 (5/8inches diameter) 4foot tubes controlled by high efficiency electronic ballast. We will have 3 tubes down each side and 4 tubes across. We are trying out the latest digital dimmable controllers to try them out and learn what they are like and how difficult they might be to use.

  • All Shelving Uprights are Up!

    Today we finished putting up the metal shelving uprights. The extra ones we needed came today in the post so all the four walls now have some shelves on them. We have re-cycled most of them from the refit of our old shop, thus the multi colours! We will paint over them when we paint the walls…

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    Garage Shelving Uprights Installed

    We also put on the correct bolts and washers to fix and hold the covers to the counter weight chambers inside the walls.

  • Fully Slotted!

    We have finished slicing the walls up! All the slots for all the metal upright brackets are now done and ready for them. There are in total 64 individual uprights to screw up spread all over the three main walls and two smaller sections on the front wall. A rough calculation shows that we could have well over 120metres linear distance of shelving! That hopefully will be enough!

  • Slicing the Walls Up!

    We have been slicing up the walls in the last three days! We have cut out the windows (again) to let in the daylight, trimmed around the counter weight panels coverings

    We are slicing vertical slots to recess the upright shelving brackets (this reduces that annoying gap at the back).

    The garage is the place where all sorts of things will be dumped and we are making sure we have plenty of shelves to store the “Junk”!

    Just one more day of slicing slots into the last side wall and front wall then we can mount the metalwork!

  • Framing Staples

    The staples we are using to hold the Fermacell up are heavy duty wide crown staples. The crown in just under half an inch (11.1mm) and the wire is 1.5mm square. They are available in many lengths from 25mm to 50mm. We will also be using these staples in Stainless steel for attaching the Cedar cladding and shingles.

    Framing Staples

    Framing Staples

  • Fermacell Mounted!

    We have spent the last three days putting up the Fermacell sheets on the walls of the garage. Virtually all four walls of the front half of the garage is covered now.

    Garage Fermacell on walls LF

    Garage Fermacell on walls LF

    Garage Fermacell on walls ML

    Garage Fermacell on walls ML

    Garage Fermacell on walls MR

    Garage Fermacell on walls MR

    Garage Fermacell on walls RF

    Garage Fermacell on walls RF

    We started using 38mm staples but decided to switch to the shorter 25mm staples as they seem to be holding just as well and the majority of the thickness (made of 18mm OSB and 10mm Fermacell) is only slightly deeper than 25mm! it is working very well so far.

    Next we will have to fill in the staples holes and the joints between panels, we did a small test today and we are wondering if the filler supplied by the Fermacell people is the same as Polyfilla. We are planning to do further tests to find out.

    The technique of snapping the boards at the cut line seems to be working ok as long as the “waste” piece is large enough to bend in one piece without breaking into smaller pieces. Just a quick wipe with the Surform to smooth off the slightly ragged edge and that is it. No flying dust from a circular saw! Thank goodness!

    The boards are very flat and very regular in thickness and are joining together very well. It is looking good! Can’t wait for the finished article!

  • Monster Plastic shopping Order finished!

    After all the analysis of design and everything, we come to a final list of plastic pipes, tubes and crates. It adds up to over £6500! The lion share are the AquaCell crate modules for our energy storage system. We have ordered most of what we need for phase 2 of our build and that would represent about £500 saving in the next six months and we would never get that kind of interest rate on any saving account out there!

    Phew!

    Now back to the grind and back to the garage interior work!

  • Monster Plastic Shopping Order

    We have been working on building up a shopping list of all the plastic pipework, crates and other plastic items. We were told that the prices for these will be going up by 8% on 1st March probably caused by the higher oil price. So we sat down to analyse our house design to quantify what we need in the following areas:

    . Central Vacuum system

    . Hot water

    . Cold water

    . Sewage above ground & underground

    . Rain water underground & downpipes

    . Energy storage modules and connections to and from each underground tanks

    We have done quite a bit of analysis so far but a few more days to go. We are taking a break for a change of scene and are back to working in the garage.

  • The Board Lifter

    We have bought a special lifting machine designed to raise sheets of material upto ceilings. The supporting arms can tilt in most directions allowing the board to be fitted to sloping ceilings.

    Board Lifter

    Board Lifter

    The central column is telescopic and is raised  and lowered by winding and releasing a cable round a drum. This cable passes through pulleys until it pulls the column up.

    Board Lifter

    Board Lifter