Rod
Old Oak
I always thought squeaky boards added character? [emoji3]
Rod
Rod
-
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)
- Thread starter Mike G
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Rod":1yj2psr7 said:
Only in other peoples houses Rod!
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
9fingers":mvivpilf said:
Squeaky boards in horror movies usually subtract characters...
Anon, going for the cheap joke before heading out to the shop...
Rod
Old Oak
There was a programme on TV called "Escape to the Country" last week where one couple were insisting on looking at houses with creaky floorboards "as it added character" - I too cannot stand them.
My house was built in the mid 70's when pine T&G boards and solid blockwork walls were still being used - no stud. Chipboard followed soon after.
Rod
My house was built in the mid 70's when pine T&G boards and solid blockwork walls were still being used - no stud. Chipboard followed soon after.
Rod
Frank
Seedling
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 45
- Reaction score
- 2
When I used to have dealings with chipboard floors I always found the Trend system very useful for gaining access http://www.sitebox.ltd.uk/trend-routabo ... TRE_RBT_18 very quick & efficient when compared to trimming out hand sawn holes
I'm enjoying following your build Mike, though rather you than me particularly at this time of year.
Kind regards,
Frank.
I'm enjoying following your build Mike, though rather you than me particularly at this time of year.
Kind regards,
Frank.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
A week of staggering under-achievement ended with a job that I thought would take 2 hours taking over 8.
I started with my now traditional Sunday morning site tidy up, which always makes me feel better. It helps keep the place safe, too. Once that was out of the way, the driving sleet and howling northerly meant it never crossed my mind to do an outside job, and I got on with the joists in the narrow joining section between the old and the new..mainly underneath the en suite bathroom. In cleaning up the timbers in the area, I noticed some carpenter's marks. In fact, once I started looking closely, I found them all over the place, but they are very faint, and very crude. Here is a big "X" on both a stud and a beam:
Now, those of you who are worried about the state of my timber frame, take a look at these next couple of photos. The surface of the 300 year old oak looks friable, rotten, attacked by woodworm, etc, but I set my nail gun to it's highest setting, opened the compressor fully, and this is the best it could do:
Apologies for the distorted photos. My camera is dying.
Now, when I tried to hit those nails home with a hammer, they were going nowhere. This is great news, because it means the timbers are basically sound, up at this level, anyway, and despite appearances. The reason I was doing silly little infill pieces like this was because the builder's merchants had changed supplier, and so the joist hangers were different for the previous ones, and unsuitable for hanging off a 95mm plate. I had intended to just plant a softwood plate on the wall, and hang the joists from that, but had to come up with plan B when I saw the hangers. It looks pretty agricultural, and it is, but it is also extremely strong.
Then my normal technique: put in the two extreme joists, carefully getting them horizontal, then clamp a straight edge to the underside of them, and the infill pieces just sit on that whilst you wrap the hanger around them and nail it in place:
I chucked a sheet of OSB over the joists as a temporary flooring, as this room will eventually have a proper boarded floor.
The en suite floor is on 95mm joists. The airing cupboard, though, with its 210 litre tank of water, needs something a bit more substantial, so I stepped up to 195mm for that:
I started with my now traditional Sunday morning site tidy up, which always makes me feel better. It helps keep the place safe, too. Once that was out of the way, the driving sleet and howling northerly meant it never crossed my mind to do an outside job, and I got on with the joists in the narrow joining section between the old and the new..mainly underneath the en suite bathroom. In cleaning up the timbers in the area, I noticed some carpenter's marks. In fact, once I started looking closely, I found them all over the place, but they are very faint, and very crude. Here is a big "X" on both a stud and a beam:
Now, those of you who are worried about the state of my timber frame, take a look at these next couple of photos. The surface of the 300 year old oak looks friable, rotten, attacked by woodworm, etc, but I set my nail gun to it's highest setting, opened the compressor fully, and this is the best it could do:
Apologies for the distorted photos. My camera is dying.
Now, when I tried to hit those nails home with a hammer, they were going nowhere. This is great news, because it means the timbers are basically sound, up at this level, anyway, and despite appearances. The reason I was doing silly little infill pieces like this was because the builder's merchants had changed supplier, and so the joist hangers were different for the previous ones, and unsuitable for hanging off a 95mm plate. I had intended to just plant a softwood plate on the wall, and hang the joists from that, but had to come up with plan B when I saw the hangers. It looks pretty agricultural, and it is, but it is also extremely strong.
Then my normal technique: put in the two extreme joists, carefully getting them horizontal, then clamp a straight edge to the underside of them, and the infill pieces just sit on that whilst you wrap the hanger around them and nail it in place:
I chucked a sheet of OSB over the joists as a temporary flooring, as this room will eventually have a proper boarded floor.
The en suite floor is on 95mm joists. The airing cupboard, though, with its 210 litre tank of water, needs something a bit more substantial, so I stepped up to 195mm for that:
DaveL
Old Oak
Maybe the cold is getting to it, the mechanism sticking and the motor not able to move it to the correct location.Mike G":26l46xpj said:
I get seasick looking at the penultimate image. 
I'd guess it was something more serious with the lens. There will be a stack of glass elements in the lens, some of which are there to cancel the distortion. Something may have come apart so the elements are no longer correctly spaced apart and no longer cancelling. Has it been dropped?
Would drilling and screwing be less strong than nailing or is it a question of speed and hardness testing with the nailing? just thinking a screw in a pilot hole will go all the way in.
Would drilling and screwing be less strong than nailing or is it a question of speed and hardness testing with the nailing? just thinking a screw in a pilot hole will go all the way in.
Rod
Old Oak
What sort of camera are you using - has it got exchangeable lenses?
Rod
Rod
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It's a little Canon point-and-shoot. It seems to be OK in my workshop today, so I guess the temperature caused it problems yesterday. Nonetheless, it is nearing the end. I have a proper SLR, but even if it weren't locked away in storage, I wouldn't be using that on a building site. When this little snappy camera dies, it will get replaced with something similar.
Rod
Old Oak
Apart from my DSLR I've a Canon Ixus 750 and a Panasonic LUMIX tz40 which I bought as it takes good video too.
The LUMIX range are incredible.
Rod
The LUMIX range are incredible.
Rod
RogerS":1mwopbyh said:
Me too, and tbh would be happy to shift one on for a nominal fee if you just want a quick replacement as I've since upgraded.
Cheers
Mark
Mike G
Petrified Pine
What the hell is this thing?
No wind, no snow, but still only 2 Celcius maximum. I wimped out and spent an hour or three in my warm workshop, making all the bits for a temporary stair which we will be using for probably the next 6 or 9 months. There is lots of dull repetition with stairs.....
Anyway, when I had made all the bits, I noticed that it was relatively pleasant outside for the first time in a week, and so jumped at the opportunity of getting the felt and battens finished on the roof:
At last.
I then turned my attention back to the stairs, and realised that if the stairs were in place then I wouldn't easily be able to strip the render off that section of wall. So this is the before:
During the demolition, I found another couple of big lumps of lime mortar, which had obviously been pushed through the gaps between the laths when it was being first plastered, and had dropped into the void:
I also discovered that the sole plate was every bit as bad as further along:
.......and that it had previously been used in another building: (see the unused mortices?). I'm not surprised that some of the posts are re-used from elsewhere, but I wouldn't have expected to see such an important timber as the sole plate having come from somewhere else.
This lot is bearing the weight of the entire rear wall of the house, and half the roof:
At least there is some timber underneath this principle post:
What do we have here?
It's that same principle post:
Have a close look...........
Yep, there are TWO scarf joints!
They were both made before the post had laths nailed on, and so my best guess is that this timber was brought from somewhere else where it had already been repaired, and was found to be a few inches short, so a further scarf was added. The joints are so tight that you can barely see them from the front, but because of a secondary timber planted on each side, it isn't possible to see what sort of scarf this is. Because the end has rooted away, I will probably end up taking the lower scarf apart and cutting in a new piece using half of someone else's joint from 300 years ago, which is a nice thought.
Anyway, after tidying up from the demolition, it was back to stair making. Did I mention that there is a lot of repetition involved?
I'll finish this off tomorrow, make the trimmers and the temporary landing, and then curious visitors won't be turning a whiter shade of pale from clinging onto a ladder.
It will be non-compliant with the regs, but the Inspector will just have to grin and bear it. There is no other option for a temporary stair.
No wind, no snow, but still only 2 Celcius maximum. I wimped out and spent an hour or three in my warm workshop, making all the bits for a temporary stair which we will be using for probably the next 6 or 9 months. There is lots of dull repetition with stairs.....
Anyway, when I had made all the bits, I noticed that it was relatively pleasant outside for the first time in a week, and so jumped at the opportunity of getting the felt and battens finished on the roof:
At last.
I then turned my attention back to the stairs, and realised that if the stairs were in place then I wouldn't easily be able to strip the render off that section of wall. So this is the before:
During the demolition, I found another couple of big lumps of lime mortar, which had obviously been pushed through the gaps between the laths when it was being first plastered, and had dropped into the void:
I also discovered that the sole plate was every bit as bad as further along:
.......and that it had previously been used in another building: (see the unused mortices?). I'm not surprised that some of the posts are re-used from elsewhere, but I wouldn't have expected to see such an important timber as the sole plate having come from somewhere else.
This lot is bearing the weight of the entire rear wall of the house, and half the roof:
At least there is some timber underneath this principle post:
What do we have here?
It's that same principle post:
Have a close look...........
Yep, there are TWO scarf joints!
They were both made before the post had laths nailed on, and so my best guess is that this timber was brought from somewhere else where it had already been repaired, and was found to be a few inches short, so a further scarf was added. The joints are so tight that you can barely see them from the front, but because of a secondary timber planted on each side, it isn't possible to see what sort of scarf this is. Because the end has rooted away, I will probably end up taking the lower scarf apart and cutting in a new piece using half of someone else's joint from 300 years ago, which is a nice thought.
Anyway, after tidying up from the demolition, it was back to stair making. Did I mention that there is a lot of repetition involved?
I'll finish this off tomorrow, make the trimmers and the temporary landing, and then curious visitors won't be turning a whiter shade of pale from clinging onto a ladder.
It will be non-compliant with the regs, but the Inspector will just have to grin and bear it. There is no other option for a temporary stair.
Wizard9999
Old Oak
Mike G":2p27ako8 said:
Very interesting Mike, but I can't help noticing the top one looks like a naughty school boy's (porno)graphic artwork! :lol:
Terry.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Not much to report today. I spent most of the day designing a lodge in Zambia, so only got an hour or two done on site. I finished making up the temporary stair, and put in a temporary trimmer to hold it. This stair will be in use until I have finished the renovation of the old part of the house and done the break-through, so it could be 9 months or more. So, it has to be semi-reasonable.
The stair is only 640 across the strings, and that only leaves a landing 440 wide around the stair well. Therefore I am going to leave the rest of the floor of the connecting strip out until I have got all the plasterboarding done, otherwise there will be no way of getting anything of any size upstairs.
The stair is only 640 across the strings, and that only leaves a landing 440 wide around the stair well. Therefore I am going to leave the rest of the floor of the connecting strip out until I have got all the plasterboarding done, otherwise there will be no way of getting anything of any size upstairs.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I finished the stair , the landing and the handrails.
I was putting a girding beam in place to hold the (later) permanent floor, when I found this:
That is either the head or the cill of an ancient mullion window. This timber has certainly come from a building which is either mediaeval, or at the latest, pre-revival (ie at the latest about 1600. Much more likely to be 1200 to 1450). How on earth did I miss this until now? It has been sitting there in plain view for about 3 days now. I'd love to get some dendochronology done on it......there is a local data-base of tree rings which dates back almost unbroken for over 10,000 years, and that would give a very food guide to the age of the building from which these re-used timbers originated.
Anyway, I am really just filling in time until my green oak turns up. I have just been told that it wont be tomorrow, so I am hopping mad.
I set up my peg-making jig, and made a peg or two:
But then my roofing membrane turned up, and the weather was fair, so I finished the last of the felt and battens. The whole of the roof is now done:
You can see the difference in the battening between slate (this roof) and plain tiles (all the other rooves).
Here's the girding beam in place (since fastened with some 6" coach screws):
One of its jobs is to hold the end of the inner skin studwork for this external wall (which can't be of blockwork because it is sitting on timber:
I also made up a strong (3:1) mortar and bedded a nice lump of RSJ (£5 from a scrap bin at a local fabricator's yard). This is to act as a load spreader to take the weight of the flitch and the roof above down onto the foundations via a bit of green oak work, without damaging the damp membrane:
I'm running out of jobs to do until I can get hold of the oak. I'll have to do some thinking to see what I can squeeze in out of order.
I was putting a girding beam in place to hold the (later) permanent floor, when I found this:
That is either the head or the cill of an ancient mullion window. This timber has certainly come from a building which is either mediaeval, or at the latest, pre-revival (ie at the latest about 1600. Much more likely to be 1200 to 1450). How on earth did I miss this until now? It has been sitting there in plain view for about 3 days now. I'd love to get some dendochronology done on it......there is a local data-base of tree rings which dates back almost unbroken for over 10,000 years, and that would give a very food guide to the age of the building from which these re-used timbers originated.
Anyway, I am really just filling in time until my green oak turns up. I have just been told that it wont be tomorrow, so I am hopping mad.
I set up my peg-making jig, and made a peg or two:
But then my roofing membrane turned up, and the weather was fair, so I finished the last of the felt and battens. The whole of the roof is now done:
You can see the difference in the battening between slate (this roof) and plain tiles (all the other rooves).
Here's the girding beam in place (since fastened with some 6" coach screws):
One of its jobs is to hold the end of the inner skin studwork for this external wall (which can't be of blockwork because it is sitting on timber:
I also made up a strong (3:1) mortar and bedded a nice lump of RSJ (£5 from a scrap bin at a local fabricator's yard). This is to act as a load spreader to take the weight of the flitch and the roof above down onto the foundations via a bit of green oak work, without damaging the damp membrane:
I'm running out of jobs to do until I can get hold of the oak. I'll have to do some thinking to see what I can squeeze in out of order.
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
I think dendochronology is very cool. Can you get a bit to take core samples without removing the wood, or will you have to cut a piece out?
Kirk
Kirk
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It's a hollow-core cutter, Kirk, which removes a hole roughly 20mm in diameter. When I watched someone take the core on a project I was involved with (turned out to be dated to 1432), they turned the auger by hand with a massive long bar, and in the end, it took two people to turn it. Oak, as you know, gets seriously hard.
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
My thicknesser sits on a base made from pieces of a door a friend took out of a house built in about 1900. When I cut it up I noticed the growth rings were very tight, so I counted them. In about 4" of wood, there were over 120 rings. So the tree, probably an old growth fir from Oregon or Washington, started growing at least as early as 1780.
Those big beams of yours should give a really great date.
Kirk
Those big beams of yours should give a really great date.
Kirk
How do you get the taper on the pegs with that jig Mike?
DaveL
Old Oak
If the drill end of the peg is 1/8" further out from the edge of the board compared withe the other end, the pegs will have a taper cut on them.Andyp":3ix9x3lb said:
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Deejay":2y61dz9f said:Morning Mike
I set up my peg-making jig
It has a bed,tailstock and headstock. Reversible too.
Doesn't that make it a lathe?
Cheers
Dave
Wash out your mouth.......
:eusa-whistle:
DaveL":mm6mx84u said:
I see now.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I've got a meeting with a Listed Buildings Officer in a couple of weeks. I'll ask him what he knows about dendo, and about organising it privately. I am sure it must be possible, as they'll be "agencies" or contractors, rather than public servants.
Rod
Old Oak
Wessex Archeology who feature a lot in Time Team are a private Co. I think, based in Salisbury - maybe worth a try?
Rod
Rod
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Having been let down in the delivery of my oak, and with the weather getting a bit milder, I thought I would take the chance of doing a little brickwork. The inglenook is a major part of the load bearing structure of the building. I also thought that I would set up the corners using timber, rather than by building brickwork corners using a spirit level. I am so unbelievably slow at building corners like that that the inglenook might take weeks to build. So, I made up some bits of 4x2, and located them carefully:
You might just notice the ceiling members in the background of the photo. The ones that run at right angles to those in the rest of the room. Well, I made those as well. I also spent half a day looking at window quotes, and visiting woodburner showrooms. But I digress......
On each of the bits of wood I drew the gauge, worked out such that the brickwork arrives at the ceiling joists at a whole brick. This entailed starting off with a couple of cut courses (using Flettons) below finished floor level:
Then it was just a case of "running in" to string lines:
Then pointing:
I'll get up to the bressumer tomorrow, and then will have to stop to await the arrival of the oak.
You might just notice the ceiling members in the background of the photo. The ones that run at right angles to those in the rest of the room. Well, I made those as well. I also spent half a day looking at window quotes, and visiting woodburner showrooms. But I digress......
On each of the bits of wood I drew the gauge, worked out such that the brickwork arrives at the ceiling joists at a whole brick. This entailed starting off with a couple of cut courses (using Flettons) below finished floor level:
Then it was just a case of "running in" to string lines:
Then pointing:
I'll get up to the bressumer tomorrow, and then will have to stop to await the arrival of the oak.
Wizard9999
Old Oak
So what's the revised delivery date for the oak Mike? Hopefully you won't get stuck for something to do until it arrives.
Terry.
Terry.
Phil
Old Oak
Mike G":1atksv52 said:
Nice idea. I also hated building corners and 9" pillars in walls.
Cheers
Phil
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It grew:
One more course to bressumer level.
These are some of the reasons why I am impatient to get this building finished:
Our front door.
The kitchen window.
Bathroom window. If a southerly blows when it is raining, you get sprayed whilst lying in the bath.
One more course to bressumer level.
These are some of the reasons why I am impatient to get this building finished:
Our front door.
The kitchen window.
Bathroom window. If a southerly blows when it is raining, you get sprayed whilst lying in the bath.
billybuntus
New Shoots
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2014
- Messages
- 83
- Reaction score
- 5
Harsh times. I thought my bathroom was bad! Last room to be done in the house and we are 4 years in.
Just think how great it will be to pull that lot out.
Just think how great it will be to pull that lot out.