Roselea

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  • The First Floor Roof Rafters All Filled With Insulations, All Covered in OSB!

    We only needed these last couple of days to finish off covering up the plastic vapour barrier membrane with our 11mm OSB boards. We completed the “J”, then the “K” and then the last two sections, “H” and “I”.

    Then, we did the strip along the bottom of the “J”, “K” and “L” with a narrow 135mm wide strips of the same 11mm OSB material, this is to protect the exposed plastic membrane against accidents where something may damage it. This is our main storage area so we need to make sure that the vapour barrier is protected.

    All covered in OSB 1

    All covered in OSB 1

    All covered in OSB 2

    All covered in OSB 2

    All covered in OSB 3

    All covered in OSB 3

    All covered in OSB 4

    All covered in OSB 4



    That means that we have done all the rafters that we can access from the First Floor and now we can start work on the Great Room portion of the roof rafters and get them filled up etc.
    But first, we have to build a working platform right across the whole Great room, extending our Gallery so we can access the rafters without having to resort to using ladders all the time. It is very much safer and much much quicker to work on a solid level platform.

  • Visit from Building Control to Inspect What We Have Done

    We had a letter in the post a couple of days ago, asking whether we had completed our build yet. It had been several years since we had an inspection so we arranged to have visit and bring Building Control up to date.
    The inspector arrived this morning and had a look around the outside and inside our house.
    They took some photos as the walked around, They only thing they wanted a confirmation of the fire suppression treatment that we had applied to our Larch timber that covers all the walls nearest our boundary. We sent the photos and blog report that shows the certificate.
    They were happy to what we have done and we only need to call them out again when we require them to “sign” off our project, for both the house and garage together.

  • C is Half Complete, and Progressing on H, I, J, K, L and M With the Glass Wool and Vapour Barrier Installed

    For the last two weeks, we have been making steady progress in inserting the horrible glass wool insulation into the roof rafters, filling them up to the brim, and then covering it up with our plastic vapour barrier too.
    This includes constructing the gable wall that sits over the Front Door that will form the end wall for the little Study room, or perhaps a spare bedroom.
    We put in a layer of glass wool vertically between the few upright CLS legs, filling it up as we normally do for all our walls, and then we cover all this up with our vapour barrier membrane.
    Then the next job was to nailed on a set of horizontal rails, again using the usual 63mm CLS timber. The bottom rail forms the Air Channel that has a 220mm high strip of 6mm thick MDF material fixed between it and the floorboards. Normally, our Air Channels are only 150mm high, but here, on our First Floor, we are having an extra multiple sandwich layers of dense “sound absorbing” plasterboards, a soft “vibration absorbing” foam and topped with another 18mm thick OSB board, all these layers adds up to 70mm thick. We saw this technique at a house building trade show 20 years ago and we thought that it was a clever idea of isolating noises generated upstairs and make it more pleasant for anyone who is trying to sleep or want peace and quiet downstairs.
    The next couple of horizontal rails is for the regular Utility Channel, with the usual backing layer of fermacell, bringing together a couple of electrical conduits that we have coming through the wall from the outside wall and eves. We then screwed two long diagonal pieces that follows the slopes of the roof and finally, a smaller one half way up to finish providing support and anchorage to hold up the wall boards later on.
    Utility channels and boards on 'C' wall

    Utility channels and boards on ‘C’ wall


    With this done, we proceeded to insert two layers of our newly arrived 150mm thick glass wool insulation, into all our remaining roof rafters that we can access here up on the First Floor. We now have all of “H”, “I”, “J”, “K”, “L” and “M” sections filled up to the brim of the rafters.
    Insulation Finished 1

    Insulation Finished 1

    Insulation Finished 2

    Insulation Finished 2

    Insulation Finished 3

    Insulation Finished 3

    Insulation Finished 4

    Insulation Finished 4



    Then, we covered it all up with more of our black plastic sheeting, only just managing to complete that task before we ran out!
    Plastic finished 1

    Plastic finished 1

    Plastic finished 2

    Plastic finished 2

    Plastic finished 3

    Plastic finished 3

    Plastic finished 4

    Plastic finished 4



    And the last few afternoons this week (we had quite a lot of interruption in the mornings), we started the job of cutting and screwing sheets of our protective 11mm thick OSB material. We started backwards and got half the “M” section done, gone around the corner and completed the “L” and got the first row done over on the opposite side on the “J” section.
    Starting boards on second half

    Starting boards on second half


    One of the little side jobs we had to do, was to install a second air duct for the other half of the toilet come shower suite of rooms. We had originally had just one room to provide the shower cubicle and toilet plus basin for the upstairs rooms, but we realised that we could reposition our entrance doorway into the Storage area and split the shower and toilet apart. This meant that we needed another exhaust air vent for the toilet room.
    We thought that these two rooms will be more used by our guests so when the shower is in use, the toilet is still available, or vice versa.
    So when we resume our next building session, We will finish off putting up the OSB boards and then start working in the Great Room, installing a temporary flooring all over which will allow us have a much easier time to access the roof rafters and get them all filled and covered up. This will also enable us to survey our Skylight windows and calculate exactly what we need to order from our glazing manufacturers, to finish putting up all of the triple glazed windows up in our Skylight and complete the super-insulated shell for the whole building.

  • Annual Empty and Cleanup of Septic Tank

    We had our Septic Tank emptied and cleaned up today. It was slightly longer than the usual 12 months since the previous service because we had stopped putting down vegetable matter down through our disposal unit in the kitchen.
    We have been monitoring the state of the discharge fluid and we decided that it ought to be done especially since we also had a servicing episode with our air pump a couple of weeks ago where the rubber bellows had split after 7 years of constant operation. See Servicing Sewage Air pump
    The man with his smelly lorry came and this year, he had brought along his narrow 2inch extension tube so we didn’t have to “duct” tape a length of our 68mm plastic pipe and was able to reach down to the very bottom of the tank to suck up the content.
    We then washed around the upper rim to make sure there were no rubbish lingering around.
    All done for another year!

  • Shaun Falls Down The Stairs!

    After lunch, we were putting a sheet of plastic on the gable wall, the “C” section, to cover up the glass wool we had just installed in that morning and Shaun was crouched down taking the shallow triangle point right down into the right hand side corner, right under the slope of the roof.
    Shaun moves towards the gable

    Shaun moves towards the gable


    Unfortunately, Shaun made a rare mistake in not fully realising to where he was located and he was bending down, to fit under the slope of the roof and stepped over the wooden footplate that was screwed to the floorboards that defines the edge of the stair case. We had put up a hand rail barrier along most of the stair hole, only leaving a small 18inch gap unbarricaded because it was very low down the slope of the roof!!
    Stairs are protected by rails

    Stairs are protected by rails


    Shaun managed to find that small gap, while bent over into a crouching position and stepped out into thin air.
    Puts his foot out thinking he has reached the end of the stairs

    Puts his foot out thinking he has reached the end of the stairs

    He said that nothing special occurred, like “everything slowed down” or “my life flashed before my eyes”
    He said, “it was a normal sensations and I remember falling through the air, then crashing into the last couple of steps of the stairs and sliding down the rest of the way to the floor.”(the photo below may look bad but it is not, Shaun is just recovering his breath)

    and tumbles down to land at the bottom of the stairs

    and tumbles down to land at the bottom of the stairs

    (Another point to make about the photo, We went back a week later to take that picture and Shaun laid back down in approximate position, in an artistic pose, for this blog report!!)

    Stephen tried to warn Shaun but he wasn’t quite looking in the right direction, was sorting out his own end of that black plastic piece and his shout came too late. He immediately came thundering across the First Floor and thumped very very quickly down the stairs. Shaun remembers all that and “he wanted to know whether I was hurt anywhere. I was breathing in lots of short sharp breaths, waiting for the shock to wear off.”
    Stephen took off Shaun’s dust mask and carefully took off his helmet too. Shaun was able to talk more or less normally, to report that he hadn’t broken anything and just banged up. No sharp or stabbing pain anywhere, just a couple of broad islands of aches. Mostly on the upper shoulder blade and upper left arm. Second one located just above his waistline on the left side, and a final minor ache on his leg, upper left thigh. No cut or abrasions anywhere!
    After about 5 minutes, he was able to stand up and walk back home, while holding Stephen’s arm.
    As you can imagine, that somewhat put an end to our work for this day.
    Actually, it stopped our work for the entire week!!
    We switched over to doing electronic and database design work instead.
    It has been five days now, it is Saturday, as this report was written, and Shaun reports that he has greatly improved and almost all the aches has gone. There was very little bruising on the surface, but there is still deeper aches still at the moment.
    This is one episode that we DO NOT wish to repeat !!

  • Roof Sections D and E plus Alcove F and G Are All Complete

    This week, we resumed our work of inserting glass wool insulation into the roof rafters for the next main sections of the upstairs roof rafters, namely the “D” and “E” section.
    Glasswool in D & E

    Glasswool in D & E


    But, before we put up the black vapour barrier plastic sheeting, we went into the Alcove portion in the corner of the roof, where we have a small gable wall extending up from the Side Door and Porch. This is the F section and a tiny sloping piece, the G section, coming back to the levels of the main rafters. We had already inserted the hard PU foam boards into these three areas and they needed to be covered up with a protective OSB sheets next. For the vertical gable part, which also had an air ventilation port, ready for the fume cupboard for our workroom. We cut triangular pieces using 18mm thick OSB boards and managed to slide them into place, but only after we had to slice them into smaller pieces!
    We then did the same for the two sloping sides, but using the thinner 11mm OSB boards instead. these pieces were fairly complex, especially the left hand side (the “G” section) because the pieces needed to come all the way out to the front of the rafters so that it protects the vapour barrier plastic. But we made it! Finally, we cut and shaped several more pieces of the 11mm OSB, to fit and cover the “shelf” that ran along at the floorboard level, at the back of the Alcove.
    We now could proceed by filling the last few rafters and the aforementioned shelf with more glass wool and then covered everything up in lots of the DPM plastic, our two main roof sections, “D” and “E”, all the surfaces in the Alcove, the “F” and “G” sections
    Plastic on D & E

    Plastic on D & E

    Then covered all that lot up with more 11mm OSB boards, including all the ready-made pieces we previously created.
    We now have completed this rather complicated corner of the roof and we can carry on in filling the rest of the rafters with a little bit more ease. We go back and finish off the “C” section, the large gable wall above the Entertainment and Front door wall.
    D & E Covered in OSB

    D & E Covered in OSB

    Side Porch area completed

    Side Porch area completed


  • Mobile Storage for Nails and Staples with Compressed Air Tank Affixed on Top

    Yesterday and today, we created a much needed piece of equipment. It is a set of open shelves that will hold a collection of nails and staples in their boxes and on the top shelf, is our 10bar Compressed Air Tank which is clamped down. The whole unit will have castor wheels so it can roll in any directions.
    The reason that we got on with this task now, is because we had an accident where the old air tank was knocked over (it sits on two large wheels and a third front positioned foot) and unfortunately, it managed to roll over and fall off the First Floor and down the stairs, to land on the ground floor with a loud thump!! The air hose was still attached and that caused it to mostly turn back upright again and land on its wheels. But, the poor wheels are now rather bent at very odd angles!
    Old tank with bent wheels 1

    Old tank with bent wheels 1

    Old tank with bent wheels 2

    Old tank with bent wheels 2



    Since we had to do some repair work on it anyway, we decided that it was time to implement one of our long-awaited ideas of building a cabinet on wheels to take a air tank and have room for nails and staples. In our original grand idea, we had drawers on runners, doors on cupboards and hooks for the guns themselves! We went for a much more basic and simpler design .. four open shelves, a platform for the tank and one upright tall end plate to hook one or two guns.
    We examined our boxes of staples and nails, and decided that the dimensions of a shelf would be 350mm deep and 600mm wide, using 12mm thick plywood material. This was large enough to have the fifth “shelf” to act as the platform for the air tank to be clamped on to.
    The tall end would be 1200mm tall by 350mm wide and the other end only being 900mm tall. We had several left-over pieces and used those to put on the longer side at the top, to act as both a shelf barrier for the tank, but also, to help stiffen up the cabinet as a whole. The second piece went down near the bottom to repeat this stiffening function.
    We used another piece of left-over 45degree sliced CLS timber, cut into 340mm lengths, to provide shelf brackets, which were glued and screwed into place, to form the five layers.

    One of the other upgrades we have gone for, is to use our alternative spare air tank which is rated for 10bars of pressure instead of the more standard 8bars. This will give a better performance of being able to quickly recharge our nail guns to full power and we can drive the nails, especially the longer 90mm ones, deeper and more quickly. In addition, we are going to buy replacement pressure gauges, so we can monitor the tank’s pressure, the regulated output and perhaps one for the input air feed too.
    Finally, four castor wheels were screwed to the bottom shelf and this gives the whole thing a nice easy moveability, at least on our internal flooring, which is all smooth and level. This is the majority of our work from now on. We feel much happier now, the silly tank won’t keep falling over, which kept on breaking the delicate pressure gauges. The whole thing will be weighed down by the staples and nails, but also the tall ends will give some protection if and ever it does get knocked over again!!

    New Air tool trolley with tank (1)

    New Air tool trolley with tank (1)

    New Air tool trolley with tank (2)

    New Air tool trolley with tank (2)


  • Completed Section A and B of Roof Rafters

    Today saw the conclusion of filling and covering up the rafters in section A and B of our roof. These last few weeks had loads of glass wool being inserted into the rafters, in front of the hard PU foam, to finish filling it right up to the front. We used our 50mm air-powered staples to secure the wool in place.
    Glasswool insulation in the A & B roofs

    Glasswool insulation in the A & B roofs


    This section of the roof, is right over our staircase so we had to be careful, employing a temporary platform to support us and our ladders etc.
    One of the tasks we did at this point was to take half dozen of our 63mm CLS planks and proceeded to run the circular saw along the entire length of each planks at different angles. Some were sliced at 32degrees and the remainders were cut at 45degrees. Why these angles? We wanted to provide a solid turning point at the bottom of the rafters, for the plastic coming down the roof, to neatly turn downwards in a more or less vertical direction, to the floorboards which is then sealed using butyl-glue strips.
    The angles corresponded to the particular angle of the roof for that section. The A and B section are both have 32degrees and 33degrees respectively so they both had these modified planks nailed upwards into each rafter. We went around all the sections right around the first floor, putting in the appropriate angled plank, to have them ready later on.
    Interdentally, we had a moment with our trusty old nail air gun, it seemed to have blown a seal around the trigger section so we had to switch over to our other air gun and use different strips of 90mm nails we had on hand, luckily!! The main gun is being serviced and we are awaiting spare parts to come from China.
    So after this interruption, we continued to covered up all the glass wool with DPM plastic to provide a vapour proof barrier to stop the human moisture and other sources of water vapour, from penetrating into the wood-work of our roof structure and forming condensation, which in turn allows the fungi and other biological pathogens to grow and eat our timber!!
    First two sections covered on plastic

    First two sections covered on plastic


    The next step was to cover and protect the plastic from being punctured by putting up 11mm thick OSB sheets we had already a stockpile of. We bought them many many months ago before all the massive price increases.
    We started down on the bottom of the rafters, with a whole sheet and screwed it up using the 50mm screws that offers very good performance and secures the board very tight upwards against the rafters. We put in five screws in each rafter, to make sure that it is well fixed because it is going to have to hold the much heavier Fermacell “plaster” boards later on when we get to that stage.
    Then we got another sheet and laid it next to the previous one and that allowed us to finish the row, meeting the valley hip joint between the A and B roof sections. It is a long angled slope.

    We then did the same around on the B section, which needed just one board to complete that bottom row. It was very tight working conditions but making use of a couple of 140mm thick concrete blocks which happened to be exactly the correct size to help support the bottom edge of the sheet while we screwed it up!
    The next two rows were, as you can imagine, a lot easier, especially when we created three little “hooks” to screw to the previous lower board and that also helped to hold up the large sheet while we also screwed it up too.
    The last row is up to the skylight itself and that was a half width piece to finish it off and a 350mm wide strip to finish off the B section.

    First OSB covering finished

    First OSB covering finished


    We now have a much better looking roof, ready for a future stage of work in a few months when we start building the internal framework of all the upstairs rooms. The rest of the A section will be completed when we have populated the roof rafters over in the Great Room because we wanted the OSB boards to flow neatly across into that space in contiguous rows.
    We now resume by proceeding in filling the D and E section next ..

  • Air Pump for Septic Tank was Serviced

    We noticed that our Septic Tank was not “bubbling” away as usual and discovered the Air Pump had stopped operating. It usually is emits a steady hum that slightly rattles the shelf it is sitting on but it was silent!
    Upon opening up the pump, we found that the rubber bellows had fallen apart due to old age. We looked up to when we had previously replaced the bellows and it was about 7 years. It was another 6 years before that when we first bought the air pump.
    So perhaps we should have been conscious of this regular maintenance cycle last year and proactive in dealing with it.
    Anyway, we ordered a replacement kit which comes with new magnets as well and did the necessary repair work.

    Its now humming away again , hopefully for another 5 years or more…

  • Shredded the First Load of Foam Rubbish!

    This week, we used our new shredder machine to tackle the mountain of rubbish we have been collecting over the last couple of weeks !!
    We started this task but we soon discovered that we were filling up our ordinary black bin bags so quickly that we were spending more time in changing over the bags than the actual shredding process. So, we went out to buy those super large wheelie bin liners but none were available in our local shops so we had to order it overnight.

    The only problem was they are made with a very very thin plastic and when we put one bag on the dust extractor, the pressure from the air coming in was strong enough to start stretching the plastic and blow a hole !! We started slapping tape over the holes but more would start elsewhere…
    Oh boy!
    But we had a light bulb moment and put on two bags at once, one inside another. That solved the problem. We even had to put on an extra cable tie on the bottom seam because it would sometimes blow that joint as well!!
    In the photo below, you can see to how fine the shredded material is. This is great because when we pour it all under our Great Room floorboards, we will achieve even better insulation affect and help to keep the large Energy Module from heating up the Great Room.

    Here is a short video of us using the machine. We put on ear muffs, eye shields and most importantly, good quality dust masks as well. (Warning it will be a bit loud…)

    We would blast ourselves clean with compressed air at the end of each session (lunch time and end of day) so we didn’t bring the mess into our living quarters!!

    The original roll of wheelie bags had only 20 on it and so we quickly filled up nine “containers” so we had to resort back to the ordinary bin bags again. We eventually got it all done!


    We then moved all the collected shredded material in their bags and took them downstairs to our Entertainment Room, to keep them out of the way and keep them safe from accidental damage and spilling very fine material all over the place.


    We now can carry on filling up the next section of rafters, doing J, K, L and M in our next week of work starting in May. Next week, we resume our work on the electronic side of things where we can collect data from our batteries, the solar panels and the weather prediction, to provide a more intelligent charging of our batteries during the night.