• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

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

Robert":1vk0yhrc said:
I'm currently building a shed for our friends nearby and will have to make a door. think the outside will look like yours but that is where the similarity ends :)

They also want the shed to look a bit different so I'm stealing your sprockets idea to give the roof a feature on one side. These will only be made from softwood 6 x 2 material not oak.

No pictures and there will not be a thread for it as its not mine. Not to your shed design either but all the wood is clear of the ground and DPC off the concrete base so it should last.

Still in awe of your project. A shed seems a lot of work to me at the moment :)
Click to expand...

Good luck with that Robert. Take some photos, won't you.

I've just started sketching another shed here.....a garden shed this time. That will have to wait until next year though, but it is likely to be a little unorthodox.
 
Interesting door construction. How do you think it would stand up to a kicking? (Security wise).

It's difficult to gauge but I think the 6mm ply + overboard should put up a fair resistance. I suppose an improvement would be to fit 2-3 diagonals but you'd lose out on your heat retention.
 
billybuntus":1wqxnmye said:
Interesting door construction. How do you think it would stand up to a kicking? (Security wise).

It's difficult to gauge but I think the 6mm ply + overboard should put up a fair resistance. I suppose an improvement would be to fit 2-3 diagonals but you'd lose out on your heat retention.
Click to expand...
I think once the inside is covered with tongue and groove, it would be quit resistant to being kicked though, the foam insulation would absorb the force making it very hard to get the inside boards the frame.
 
I reckon you'd need at least 2 or 3 minutes with a big sledge hammer to get through this door.

This is the utility room outside door. There will be an inner door between the utility and the kitchen which will also be built as an outside door, just as well insulated but possibly made of oak, also with a 5 lever lock. The front entrance will also feature 2 external doors (porch & inner door). Bearing in mind that triple glazing is resistant to almost any effort to break, anyone who wants to get into this building will have to work pretty hard.
 
Mike G":1emvxyht said:
I reckon you'd need at least 2 or 3 minutes with a big sledge hammer to get through this door.

This is the utility room outside door. There will be an inner door between the utility and the kitchen which will also be built as an outside door, just as well insulated but possibly made of oak, also with a 5 lever lock. The front entrance will also feature 2 external doors (porch & inner door). Bearing in mind that triple glazing is resistant to almost any effort to break, anyone who wants to get into this building will have to work pretty hard.
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I was wondering why, with so much nicely worked oak on the inside, you have not gone for an oak door on the outside too?
 
There'll be a really special oak door in the oak-framed front porch, but this back door is surrounded by painted feather-edged boards, and so a painted door seems more appropriate.
 
After the second coat of Osmo Poly X had dried I made a template to locate holes in each board in the same place:

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This enabled me to go around the entire house drilling and plugging into the blockwork, knowing that the screwholes in the boards will align with the plugs, without using each individual board to locate the screw holes (which gets messy):

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Then, after fixing each board in place (sorry, no photos), using some old stock of tapered oak plugs I did my best to grain-match:

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Touching up the Osmo was simple, and I filled all around and under the boards with expanding foam.

Next job was to return to the door and board the other side. First, a simple frame around the window opening:

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Then the boards on the inner face:

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Finally I made up the double-rebated pieces (which I cut on a table saw the other day) into a picture-frame-like surround, and fitted it through the hole in the door:

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That's the outside. I forgot to take a picture of the detail on the inside. Sorry.

A day or two ago, in addition to the above, I also managed to find a way of getting 20 sheets of plasterboard upstairs. My hand is still very weak, so I was really pleased with myself. They're damn heavy and awkward, particularly by yourself. So today I reassembled the oak studs that will form the front of our wardrobe, then completed the studwork wall between the two bedrooms. This involved careful thought, because I had to have the right number of sheets of plasterboard actually inside the cupboard as I constructed it (there is no room to get them in afterwards). But of course being inside the cupboard they were perpetually in the way. Anyway, here's the result:

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Building this wall means that there is no easy route through to the main bedroom:

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I'll have to put a floor in over the next few days. I had left this section out specifically so that I could get plasterboard upstairs easily enough. I feel like I'm getting back into things properly now, but it will still be a week or three before my hand is right.
 
Right, here's the problem.

This is the existing roof set-up, with new roof to the right, temporary flat roof in the middle, and old roof to the left. Note the chimney:

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This is the chimney from the front (road) elevation. note the electric cable:

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Here's the front of the house, showing the electric cable coming from a pole across the road to the chimney:

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Now, I need to demolish the chimney, so I need the power cable re-locating. UK Power Network won't relocate it temporarily, and won't fix it to incomplete structure, so my preferred solution of running to a bracket on the old north gable is a non-starter. Until I can demolish the chimney I can't replace the existing roof, and until I replace the existing roof I can't rebuild the temporary flat roof, and until that is built properly, I can't build the bathroom in the extension. So, potentially, this electric supply situation could put our moving-in date back by weeks.

I think I've got a solution, but it's bizarre. Let's see if anyone can come up with a scheme to enable me to do the work I need to do, without touching the electric supply cable, and without waiting for the supply to be moved.

In the mean time, I have been tacking:

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Looking how long the screws have to be on the skillings (sloped ceiling) because of the 50mm of insulation across the underside of the rafters:

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This is me practising for tacking the skillings. With heavy and awkward sheets to hold in a very precise location up above your head, you need a vary careful process for doing the work. I worked out the scheme using some lightweight insulation instead of plasterboard:

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I'm really pleased with how it shows off the king post roof structure:

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Just move the cable to a convenient temporary location even if it is an improvised pole on your land.
The ideal is to get the total cable run length the same.
When I did my extension Southern Electricity wanted stupid money so I did it myself.
Your cable is a modern one that is fully insulated and so is quite safe to handle and the voltage is no higher that manipulating a standard extension cable.

Bob
 
The two guys from UKPW who have been out so far have both told me that the insulation is likely to be brittle and corroded, and that moving it could cause a short and an explosion. I'm so tempted to just stick it on my own temporary pole, but I daren't risk UKPW turning up in 6 weeks time and refusing to do the work because of some perceived danger or other, or because of some bylaw or other.
 
Most power cable is coaxial now. If yours is round (rather than twisted or a figure of 8 section) then under the outer insulation ( which just "might" have hardened) will a complete jacket of neutral conductors which are at nominal earth potential, under that will be more insulation (totally protected from the elements) and inside that is the live conductor.
The risk is absolutely minimal.
I've just been watching "watchdog" about dodgy selling techniques based on a training script.
I wouldn't mind betting your UKPW guys are working from scripts designed to put the fear of God into punters.

Bob
 
Mike,

This is nothing to do with you electricity problem but there is something that I noticed when the windows were installed and was highlighted with your plasterboard installation. A number of the 1st floor windows seem to be very small and aesthetically (to me) out of proportion with both the exterior and interior facades. Were the size choices to do with thermal/insulation calculations or is it something you designed because you liked it (we are allowed to disagree on aesthetics!).

Otherwise, for a guy with a healing hand you have made some amazing progress over the last week!

Good luck with the electrics!

H.
 
Halo Jones":1d9p3ntc said:
Mike,

This is nothing to do with you electricity problem but there is something that I noticed when the windows were installed and was highlighted with your plasterboard installation. A number of the 1st floor windows seem to be very small and aesthetically (to me) out of proportion with both the exterior and interior facades. Were the size choices to do with thermal/insulation calculations or is it something you designed because you liked it (we are allowed to disagree on aesthetics!)..........
H.
Click to expand...

Well spotted H, and a good question.

They are that size because we are planning a conservatory on the rear elevation, and the roof would foul windows of an orthodox height. We will have to apply for permission for that separately, but it seemed sensible to allow for it now rather than have to make changes to the windows later. I think they'll look better when the reason for them being that shape is actually in place.
 
9fingers":2f0qeuok said:
Most power cable is coaxial now. If yours is round (rather than twisted or a figure of 8 section) then under the outer insulation ( which just "might" have hardened) will a complete jacket of neutral conductors which are at nominal earth potential, under that will be more insulation (totally protected from the elements) and inside that is the live conductor.
The risk is absolutely minimal.
I've just been watching "watchdog" about dodgy selling techniques based on a training script.
I wouldn't mind betting your UKPW guys are working from scripts designed to put the fear of God into punters.

Bob
Click to expand...

OK, just been chewing this over in the bath, and I'll get up there tomorrow and have a closer look. I could be going back to Plan A rather than my rather exotic Plan X.
 
I've not been able to put the normal amount of time in over the last few days, with a few different things happening, but I've managed to do a bit. I did a massive 4 hour tidy up, which has rather transformed the place, but makes for a dull forum post. I borrowed this from a friend:

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So that I could bolt the glulams together as required by the engineer. The overall depth is 300mm (c. a foot), and there were three pairs of bolts (well, threaded rods):

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Next, I coach-bolted a temporary girding beam to the old house frame to take a temporary landing floor (there'll be a mainly oak floor in this area once I have renovated the old place and am knocking through to join old & new):

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We can now enter our bedroom through the bedroom door, rather than stepping through a wall.

I hung the back door I made last week. This is the only really good use for a B&D Workmate:

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This shows how the outside of the door finishes flush with the outside of the frame, which is very unorthodox, but looks OK to me. It also shows some filler that needs sanding back:

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Today I made a jig:

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...........and cut some bricks:

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All the cut bricks got air-blasted to clean the dust off (it discolours the mortar otherwise):

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I missed a bit, though (but in the process prove that I wore goggles):

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Without going for the full battery-pack turner's kit, I can't get the two to work together. The goggles always fog up with a mask on.
 
No, they're for building a simple wall. Stay tuned........
 
I used to have that steaming up problem until I got a decent mask (make beginning with a V?)

Bricks cut ready for Herringbone pattern?

Rod
 
Great to see so much progress, and with a duff hand too Mike! :D

Some more interesting issues to deal with too. Loving this journey, thanks for sharing it all.

Cheers
Mark
 
First job after a long shopping trip to various builder's merchants was to get a mist coat and 4 hours later a first proper coat of Bedec Multi-Surface Paint on the new back door. Bedec products are utterly wonderful. Time will tell if we've chosen the right colour, though:

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Rod and Ian had it right:

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That's only a couple of hours work, after I spent an hour getting the wheel off the wheelbarrow to repair a puncture. It was one of those days.

Those paying full attention ( ;) ) will remember that I had cut some very rough rebates in the sides of the oak posts that made up the screen between the lounge and the kitchen. This is how that works with the brickwork:

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Some interesting things to note in this photo:

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You'll note that I have left virtually no vertical joint showing between the timber and the bricks, and this is for two reasons. Firstly, I want to run a mini-angle grinder up that whole junction once finished, to regularise the joint. Secondly, given that the oak will shrink probably 5 or even 6mm a side, I want to have a normal joint when I point-up in a year or so (post shrinkage), rather than a dirty great wide thing.

Finally, look what the mortar has done to the colour of the oak. This colour change is instantaneous and permanent. It is going to mean some laborious work with a chisel (as a scraper) in a few days or so. I knew it would happen (it is a chemical reaction between something in the mortar and the tannins in the oak), but couldn't see any good practical way of avoiding it.

These are my way of checking that I have the angle roughly right:

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But frankly, with these curvy bricks it is as much a question of eye-ing everything up as it is of measuring and checking.
 
9fingers":26gctqv5 said:
Mike,

would Frog tape help mask off the oak from the mortar?

Bob
Click to expand...

Andyp":26gctqv5 said:
IIRC you wrapped something up in cling film to prevent that staining. Why did you not do the same here?
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The problem is, Bob, Andy, as the oak shrinks away there are always little bits of tape or clingfilm revealed which are really tricky to completely remove. This is what I did last time, and decided it just wasn't worth the hassle.
 
Have you tried shifting the cling film with a hot air gun? A quick flash will melt the cling film into thin air but not have time to mark the wood.
 
would a chemical solution work...something like (but probably not) clear cuprinol? If you could seal the oak locally to avoid the staining with a surface layer that had zero sheen...a sanding sealer maybe...something that imparts no colour.

When we renovated a 400 year old cottage some years ago we used clear cuprinol on all the oak work (it wasn't green mind) because it gave it protection, a quality that mad the oak look "less desiccated" if that makes any sense but absolutely no sheen at all, completely flat.

I'm wondering if another product exists that might do that job. I have a mate who runs a decorators merchants and he knows his stuff re the chemical arsenal, I'll ask him.
 
I plodded on with the bricklaying. The tiny little triangles right at the top were an absolute pain. I ended up wedging them, then spraying a little foam around them to lock them in place, and then going back later to point them up. All of the bricklaying is done with a little pointing trowel, as there is no room to wield a normal trowel:

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I took delivery of my next roof today:

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In your penultimate photo you have the rear of your fireplace tapering in as it rises up the chimney and that describes a triangular air gap between the oak tri-panel you've just been herringbone bricking. Is that space going to remain so there is connection between the two sides of the room or do you plan to fill that in?
 
That will be a plaster panel, Rob. I didn't want an entire wall made of brick.
 
Rob has already asked my next question, but for my second.....in the photo from the fireplace side the lefthand upright appears to have a mortice slot about 18 inches from the floor?

After all the work to avoid shrinkage, has the beam over the fire place (bressemer?) shown any signs of shrinkage yet?
 
The hole in the face of the post is connected to a deep mortice in the side of the post, and is for electric TV and phone cables. There will be a built-in cabinet in front of the lower half of the wall (on the lounge side), housing all the TV and hi-fi stuff, so the cabling will run on the surface of the wall within it.

All of the beams are showing signs of drying. There is more cracking than obvious shrinkage at the moment, although there is a bit of shrinkage on the King post in the centre of our bedroom. It's all good, and as expected.
 
The care and vision that is going in to this it breathtaking.

Sorry if that'a touch 'gushy' but it's great to see someone designing something aesthetically pleasing but also building quality and longevity into the process.

Cheers

:text-bravo:
 
Thanks Stephen. I just wish things would move a bit faster.........but I guess you can't have it both ways.
 
I finished the brickwork by early afternoon. View from the lounge side:

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View from the kitchen side:

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Then the drains blocked again, and a scaffolder turned up, and before you know it my plan to cut the rafters today had turned to dust. I managed to make the jig, but my camera batteries went flat at the wrong moment. Sorry.
 
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