Mike's ext'n & renovation (solar panels)

[kirkpoore1]

Who says trefoils can only be one way up?

Yep, that's the cock-up. God knows what went wrong.

Bah! Wrong would have been pointed sideways.

BTW, I like the cream and maroon paint color. Almost exactly what I painted my shaper and my lathe.

Kirk

 

[marineboy]

Really nice work with some very clever details. I don’t know how you find the time to carry out all your projects, including your 8 sheds.

 

[mjdewet]

All the buzyness you've been up to... Does me no good at all!

And with all the lovely weather (at least in the Costwolds) I've not been able to smell your 'braai'!!!

 

[Mike G]

Hi Thys. The Cotswolds? Lovely part of the world.....

I've not had too much time for BBQs (or braais) this summer, unfortunately.

 

[mjdewet]

Mike, Visiting my son and daughter in the UK. Son lives in Doughton, near Tetbury, and daughter in Harpenden, near St Albans.

 

[chataigner]

Been while since I visited, so I've only read the last few pages, but your progress looks amazing as always Mike.
Will look at the last year or so over the next couple of days...

 

[Mike G]

Where have you been, David?

 

[chataigner]

Where have you been, David?

Here all the time, but insanely busy. President of a local leisure association, active in two photo clubs and the equestrian club, helped a neighbour's daughter pass the BAC in English and that has mushroomed into teaching two evening classes. Then there is a big garden etc etc. On top of all that, Isabelle has successfully let her investment flat in St Yrieix and has now bought a town house to renovate and let - guess who has been fitting the new kitchen and sorting the crazy electrics ?

 

[Mike G]

We weren't a million miles away from you on our bike ride this summer, from Calais to Oviedo in northern Spain. We went through Angouleme to La Roche Chalet (in god-awful thunderstorms) in late July.

 

[Mike G]

I left my wife to paint her potting shed, and then turned my attention to the benches etc. This isn't very exciting stuff, but shows that even in making a rough old bit of something out of 4x2s, some decent joinery will give you a massively strong structure.

Here is a dovetail on a rather large scale. The angle was chosen at random:



I re-made this saw a while back, and with an aggressive rip cut and largish teeth it is fine for long-grain work in pine:





Marking up the pin board is no different to marking up a box or drawer, albeit all the marks at this scale are made with a pencil, without a marking knife or gauge:





I made all three frames with a 15mm upstand of the horizontal member above the vertical, so that shrinkage would never be an issue:



I seem to have forgotten to take a photo of the M&T here, between the brace and the vertical:



Here's the other end, awaiting the fitting of the horizontal piece:



Glued up, then screwed to the wall. You'll note that the farthest on had a variation on the horizontal member, as the bench will be along 2 adjacent walls:



I cut and cleaned up a couple of scaffold boards, ran a saw blade down the joint, and fixed them in place (with relief cuts to the underside). If they shrink at all I'll simply unscrew them and squeeze them up a bit tighter:

 

[Malc2098]

Nice.

 

[tabs]

The problem is this Steve. You can't actually see if you have filled the gaps to full depth. It is perfectly straightforward to put a superficial bead along the surface, say an inch deep, which fully seals, and I would bet my bottom dollar that that is exactly what gets done on site. So, I may have done a decent job, but I can't be sure.

My alternative from now on will be spray foam insulation, sprayed in-situ. They use a 2 part foam, rather than an air-drying one, and can accurately build up the depth to the thickness of the rafters (there would need top be a backing board to keep the air gap under the roofing membrane). There would be no question at all that all of the rafters were fully filled, and no voids created. Have a look here: http://www.sprayfoaminsulation.co.uk/gallery/domestic-roofing-and-insulation.aspx

Thanks for posting the link to that site Mike.Very interesting reading. Paricularly the spray foam insulation, especially with regards to rooves. The old part of my house which has a slate roof was installed without felting. As a consequence I'm forever clearing out dust and flies. Rather than removing the slates and redoing the roof what are you thoughts on the the service they offer where they do repairs to any loose slates etc and spray foam the inside?

IMO is there not going tobe a problem with ventilation/airflow?

 

[Mike G]

Absolutely do not do that! It's a nightmare, for all sorts of reasons. Slates are hard enough to repair at the best of times, but with foam stuck to the underside it turns into a catastrophe. The fundamental issue, however, is ventilation/ air-flow, so I would be really worried about the battens and the tops of the rafters, which with felt and and air gap get a chance to dry out, but encapsulated in foam they'd just sit there in a permanent puddle. If I was going to spray foam, as I suggested in that post, I'd friction fit 50mm of Celotex first below the membrane, ensuring the proper air gaps, and then spray against that.

I'd be getting prices from a local builder for re-roofing, reclaiming as many of the slates as possible, but installing a breather membrane and new battens.

 

[tabs]

I hadn't expected to be building the inner skin of the outer walls myself. I asked a number of brickies for a quote, only one turned up, and he wanted an absolute fortune........so here I am again, doing it myself. As the profiles had worked so well in building the chimney, I spent a while setting up corner posts all properly marked out with levels, so that I was just running in to string lines without having to build up any corners:



Note the plastic DPM pinned up out of the way, and the course of bricks which I always include at the bottom of blockwork to enable any adjustment to levels to happen easily. The first 3 courses of blocks are lightweight aerated insulating blocks (Celcon's):



This shows the top of the second course of blocks, with the DPC bedded in place, the insulation fully filling the 100mm cavity, and the ties bent up out of the way. They were straightened out immediately after the photo to be set in this mortar course:



That's 2 walls done to top of plinth, where the detail changes (different blocks, different ties, and different insulation):



At the junction with the house there is about an 8 or 9 inch gap to allow me to demolish & rebuild the plinth of the old cottage, and to dig out a foundation. I thought I would "tooth" the blockwork, to make it easier to join up later when the old part is finished. This half-block is on a couple of dabs of mortar and has an empty perp, so that removing it later will be easy. I'll repeat this detail at alternate course all the way up:



I made a start on another wall:



Nice light evenings mean that finishing at 7.45pm isn't a chore.

What are the rules regarding what hieght the DPC should be? I just a bit confused/don't understand as your internal wall dpc looks to be 2 blocks above floor? Is the DPM involved in some way or have I missed something? Sorry for the basic questions!

 

[tabs]

Back to blockwork.

You may remember that I had reached plinth height with the aerated, lightweight blocks, with mineral wool insulation in the cavity. That is the change-over point to dense heavyweight blocks and Celotex insulation. When I say heavy, these blocks are 1900 kg/ cubic metre, or 1.9 times as dense as water. They're heavy!!

There was quite a bit of fiddling about at the change-over. Swapping to the new timber to masonry wall ties. Here's how not to do it:



They should be bedded into the mortar, rather than the other way around, so that they are fully surrounded by mortar. This raises them up a bit so that the screw gets a proper hold into the sole plate. Unfortunately, I haven't a photo of one done properly.

The first course of Celotex has to be 450mm wide, the depth of 2 blocks, because that is how far apart the walls ties are vertically. They also have to be cut around the straps which hold the timber frame down onto the masonry, otherwise the Celotex fouled the blocks. The Celotex is cut slightly undersize and foamed all round:





Then it is just a question of laying blocks:







This shows the C.10mm gap between the window surround and the back of the blocks. This will be foamed up later:

Are the ties ,for the timber frame to masonary wall,ones that are made for the job and can be bought or are they something else you have found that can just be used for the job?

 

[Mike G]

.....What are the rules regarding what hieght the DPC should be? I just a bit confused/don't understand as your internal wall dpc looks to be 2 blocks above floor? Is the DPM involved in some way or have I missed something? Sorry for the basic questions!

The only place where there is an absolute rule is in the external skin, where it must be a minimum of 150mm above finished ground level. On the inner skin, it can be pretty much anywhere, so long as it laps with the DPM, and there isn't a path for water to get in to anything which should be protected. If you think of the wall above the DPC as protected, and the wall below as unprotected, then obviously you want as much wall as possible protected and therefore dry, so the incentive is to keep the DPC low.

The wall ties are standard (timber frame to masonry).

Funnily enough, we're decorating that wall at this very moment (by we, I mean my wife).

 

[Mike G]

Attention has turned to the lounge, which has been something of a neglected corner of the house. We chose a carpet, and that rather forced our hand about the hearth (obviously we need the hearth in place before the carpet is fitted, as it needs fitting around it). So, obviously, I needed to buy a snooker table.

Ebay came up trumps, and for £60 I got a nice slate and mahogany table, three quarter sized apparently:



It was heavy as hell. It was all I could to drag it back this far out of the van to start taking it to bits:



A batten to guide the angle grinder:



And before you knew it we'd got manageable bits, and a hearth-sized piece of premium slate. I had quotes of £500 plus just for the slate, so £60 seems like a bargain to me:



In addition, I got a whole lot of good big pieces of mahogany:



It was a bit thinner than I'd expected, at about 20mm, so I glued on (epoxy) some of the off-cuts on the visible edge to increase the thickness:



Then I cut out for the air-inlet pipe, and put it in place on a bed of mortar:



Tomorrow the carpet is fitted, and I'll fit the woodburner in place. Obviously I have since cleaned up the smeary mortar from the edges.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Very clever idea Mike.

 

[Mike G]

I can't claim credit for this. A friend of mine did his entire kitchen and utility room worktops from a couple of cheap old snooker tables. Slate isn't great for worktops, BTW, before anyone rushes out to corner the market in used snooker tables.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Yeah I wouldn’t have thought it was good for that use. Far too brittle and chippable.

 

[Mike G]

It's not so much that. It's the scratches. Drag a tea mug across the surface and you leave a whole series of scratches.

 

[TrimTheKing]

You can sand them out though! [emoji6]

 

[Mike G]

True.....but with granite you don't have to keep a drawer full of 180 grit sandpaper on hand.

 

[StevieB]

That is a clever idea. Full size snooker tables come as 3 pieces of slate, so you were lucky to get one that size as a single piece I reckon. I have a pub pool table and that weighs a fair amount so I am not surprised you struggled with that one!

 

[Mike G]

A couple of photos with the woodburner in position and the carpet fitted (albeit the air supply hasn't been connected, and the flue hasn't even been bought):

 

[TrimTheKing]

Is that pipe plastic, and is that the permanent solution or are you replacing that with metal?

I only ask because my stove gets STUPIDLY hot and I'm sure would melt that pipe...

It gets so hot that last year I had stacked some damp timbers up against the sides of the fireplace (not touching the stove) to dry. Over the course of an evening one slipped down and touched a stove leg without me seeing, and we only noticed how hot it was when we smelled smoke and saw that the log touching the leg was smouldering!!! :shock:

 

[Mike G]

This is only a 5KW fire, and the plenum (air-box) is a separate fixture on the underside, with a heatshield. The manufacturers suggest a flexible hose like a tumble drier vent.....so I am hoping we'll be OK.

 

[will1983]

Very nice Mike, I particularly like the subtle curve to the timber lintel above the fire.

Do you plan to treat the slate with anything? I believe you can use Danish oil on it to stop the inevitable ash deposits sticking.

 

[Mike G]

I had planned to oil it (WD 40 is favourite, apparently), but we quite like the natural light grey look. We'll see how long that lasts.

 

[AndyP]

We have a much larger wood burner in a slate surround fireplace sitting on a raised 2” thick slate hearth. Log storage is under the hearth.
From my own experiences I would say your hearth is not large enough especially with that light coloured carpet. We have a ceramic tiled floor so the odd ash spillage is easy to clean up.

I hope you are more careful than I when it comes to cleaning.

 

[techauthorbob]

Just caught up ( I read last time up to p111).

It's just as good a saga as I remember and those doors are fantastic! The house is going to be so rilliant when it's done.

I leek the reroofed shed, it looks a lot better than the old flatter roof.

I agree with the comments about the slate, it gouges really easily but certainly looks good, I was planning to use some on a job but changed my mind for similar reasons. It is very useful to use as a flat surface for sharpening chisels etc, just glue on wet and dry or sandpaper.

I found the best glue for that was from the local pound shop, it is not he best for sticking but scrapes of easily and a can lasts ages.

 

[the bear]

Hi Mike
Great idea with the snooker table, thought for a minute you had some leisure time on your hands
With regard the direct air supply to the stove, I also fitted a stove with a direct air kit last year. I would definitely change that plastic pipe for metal. Search for flexible or semi rigid metal ducting. I'm amazed the manufacturer would be recommending tumble drier hose, is it a British/european model? If your project still has a building inspector involved, you're presumably going to need a hetas certificate, have you checked with them that the plastic is OK?
Mark

 

[Mike G]

Thanks Mark. Co-incidentally, I ordered some flexible metal ducting 3 or 4 days ago after thinking about the other Mark's comments.

 

[RogerS]

An air supply for 'live' fires is often overlooked. At our last place there were enough gaps between the floorboards (over a suspended floor) that I didn't need anything special. Our current place has solid floors so my plan is to put a couple of Hit'N'Miss vents into the (very tall) skirting board thence via a cutout in the Kingspan insulation to the void between Kingspan and outer masonry skin. Whether or not they will be large enough or sound like a tornado has yet to be discovered.

At least it will keep some air circulation within that void which must be a good thing. Plus it means we're not sucking warm air from the rest of the house up the chimney.

 

[chataigner]

A source for combustion air - yes, very important for the efficiency of the system. The wood pellet stove that was already installed in the living room in this house when I bought it had provision for a ducted intake but was simply drawing air from the room. Last season I fitted a duct to draw combustion air from the cellar below and the change has been dramatic. The end of the room where the stove is fitted feels much as before, it is after all thermostatically regulated, but the far end of the room is much warmer because there is no cold air being drawn in.

Difficult to quote consumption figures because the weather is different each season but subjectively the room is much more comfortable.

 

[kirkpoore1]

A couple of photos with the woodburner in position and the carpet fitted (albeit the air supply hasn't been connected, and the flue hasn't even been bought):

Mike, are you sure you've got enough room between the stove door and the carpet? When I put in my wood stove I put a 30 inch radius tiled semicircle in front of it to take any escaping embers. I've been glad had it--much less and I'd have had a few burn marks in the carpet.

Kirk

 

[TrimTheKing]

There's a glass door on it Kirk, there really shouldn't be any escaping embers...

 

[Mike G]

Well, you're both right. After 3 or 4 fires I can say that I am a little nervous of the distance to the carpet on the grounds of any sparks that fly when the fire is "poked". Obviously there is no issue when the door is shut. We are going to have an off cut of the carpet edged and placed in front of the hearth during the winter just in case. I would add that the distance from face of fire to edge of hearth exceeds the Building Regs minimum, and that it would have been hard to make it more than another inch or two wider without impeding the main path into the room.

 

[AndyP]

I see your door is hinged on the left which means if you are right handed the tendancy is to open the door fully (allowing sparks to fly) and use the poker with the right hand. Hinged on the right allows poking to be done through a partialy opened door, if you are right handed.

Since moving into a house with a large inset log burner already installed I have cmopiled a mental list of the the must haves if ever I was to replace.
Door hinged on left.
Ability to riddle the ashes down into the ashpan wihout opening the door.

 

[TrimTheKing]

I see your door is hinged on the left which means if you are right handed the tendancy is to open the door fully (allowing sparks to fly) and use the poker with the right hand. Hinged on the right allows poking to be done through a partialy opened door, if you are right handed.

Since moving into a house with a large inset log burner already installed I have cmopiled a mental list of the the must haves if ever I was to replace.
Door hinged on left.
Ability to riddle the ashes down into the ashpan wihout opening the door.

Andy, it's hinged on the right with that big silver thing being the door handle...(I think...).

Mark