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

[Wizard9999]

Fingers crossed your oak arrives this morning Mike. Pretty cIear you are having to fill in, whilst being left unable to tackle the jobs you really want to be doing.

Terry.

 

[Mike G]

.......Just think how great it will be to pull that lot out.

That's just about my entire thought process every time I lie in the bath.

 

[Mike G]

The inglenook grew little more:





Stretcher bond really is very boring, isn't it? Even with interesting bricks. Chimneys and fireplaces were almost always built with stretcher bond, though, because large parts of them were only half a brick thick (ie 4 inches)

What's going on here?



And finally, at last, some big lumps of oak:

 

[9fingers]

Is the gap for some decorative ironwork around the fireplace perhaps?

Bob

 

[Pinch]

I've got to hand it to you Mike - you're quite a fella! Great work you're doing there and such passion too! Wonderful to see.

 

[Mike G]

Is the gap for some decorative ironwork around the fireplace perhaps?

Bob

No, not that Bob.

 

[Mike G]

I've got to hand it to you Mike - you're quite a fella! Great work you're doing there and such passion too! Wonderful to see.

Thanks Paul. bscene-drinkingcheers:

 

[AndyP]

if it were anyone else I would say you cut the brick to short, but I know that can't be the case. Stumped I'm afraid;

 

[kostello]

I think it's either short because you are going to have a corbelled brick detail or that it's a pocket to allow a large mantle to be supported without visible fixings

 

[kostello]

Or a place to put the dead cat??!!

 

[Rod]

Corbelling the brickwork to give it more character rather than a full height straight wall which could look boring?

Rod

 

[9fingers]

I'd have expected to see a mirror image feature on the other end if that were the case?

Bob

 

[Rod]

Crooked corbeling - even more character? [emoji3]

Rod

 

[Mike G]

I think it's either short because you are going to have a corbelled brick detail.......

Bingo! We have a winner..... :eusa-clap:

 

[Mike G]

I spent a couple of hours moving the oak inside, then another hour taking a delivery, but, more importantly, getting the delivery driver to thread 3 whopping great pieces of oak though the upstairs window with his hiab. That was a helluva task, but an awful lot easier than trying some sort of manual manouevre. Green oak is unbelievably heavy.

I noticed that this beam (for the kitchen ceiling) isn't straight:



Great! One of the things I often find unconvincing about new oak work is that all the pieces of wood are straight, so here is one I don't have to worry about. The whole batch of oak is really impressive. There is hardly any significant sap-wood, and just these two inclusions (pretty big bit of bookmatching here!):





Finally, I got cracking on the bressumer. I noticed a small amount of sap wood, which made my decision about which way up very easy:



Setting out a bow (yeah, I don't want this straight), using a spline, which in this case is a bit of quadrant, simply because it is the first long springy bit of timber I laid my hands on:



I'm not precious about handtools vs power tools even when doing traditional work with green oak. I hacked the bulk off with straight cuts (in from both sides: the timber is 5" deep) with a circular saw, and gave some of the cuts a bit of help with some wedges:



I cleaned up the curves with a draw-knife, a spokeshave, and my jack plane:



Every single new bressumer I have ever seen has ended up so loose in the brickwork as it shrinks that you could pull it out by hand. My brother-in-law's bressumer has shrunk about 18mm, from 225. That's easily enough to stick your finger right in the gap. I've learnt over the years that when you have a shrinkage problem with a detail in green oak, the first choice of solution is a rebate:



The mortar will sit in there, and maintain a grip even when the oak has shrunk right away from the brickwork. I guess the danger is that the oak twists, and breaks the mortar or bricks, but I'll take that risk.

Next, a stop chamfer to the lower front edge of the bressumer. Having sat looking at a machined chamfer for the last 18 years, I knew that I wanted a hand-made on. I didn't even mark out the width, just ploughed the timber off by eye with a draw knife then a spokeshave. I don't want it perfect:



And the stop:



So much better than a burnt half-round from a router cutter!

The back of a traditional bressumer has a massive and steep chamfer. This is to help the smoke from an open fire go up the chimney without sitting under a flat surface. Now, this fire won't be open (it just can't be), but I wanted to do a traditional detail:





Note the scraper. All of the surfaces were cleaned up by hand with a "Philly" scraper blade, ground to 45 degrees. If a belt sander did it better or quicker, I would have used that, but it doesn't. The scraper is the only tool for the job. It brought the front up like this, after planing out the big bandsaw marks:



Note also the rebates to the under-edge, where it will be sitting in mortar.

That's it then, finished.


Well, no. I thought I would sign the first piece of oak into the new part of the house:







Yeah, so it went horribly wrong. Good job it is on the back, where no-one will see it until they demolish the fireplace. It's only fair that I share my disasters as well as the stuff that goes OK.

Sitting in situ:



Unfortunately, this happened too late in the day to knock up a batch of mortar, so i spent the rest of the day tidying up (I love being up to my ankles in sawdust and shavings!):



After tidying up I set up platforms to work off tomorrow, and stacked up a whole load of bricks. Tomorrow I build that bressumer permanently into place.

 

[RogerS]

How many tins of spinach do you eat a day, Mike? Did you simply lift that bressumer up into position?

 

[TrimTheKing]

Mmmmmm very nice!

Mark

 

[Mike G]

.... Did you simply lift that bressumer up into position?

Well, yes, but I can tell you I didn't have much margin. If it were 6 inches longer I'd have battled.

 

[Rod]

Nice work

 

[the bear]

Mike
I have seen several bressumers that have shrunk as you describe and they look awful. Repointing doesn't help as the gap is too wide.
I guess the other way to try and prevent it is to use an old beam, rather than green oak
The old beam would be harder to work with tools I guess though

Mark

 

[Mike G]

You'll see today that I aim to overcome this issue by having a mortar bed of about 4 or 5mm, raked out, so that when re-pointing in a year or two I will have a normal width joint. Don't forget, all of the original bressumers from centuries ago were also laid when green, and so they will have had the same issues with shrinkage. I have even seen tiles inserted in the gap so that the pointing doesn't look too ridiculous!

 

[Mike G]

After bedding the bressumer in mortar, and doing the little cut bricks at each end, I started doing the soldier course above it. You can see here that I laid out the thinnest possible bed, amounting to a couple of mm, raked back from the front edge to aid re-pointing in a couple of years when it has finished shrinking. You'll also note the cling film covering the oak, as it reacts almost instantly with cement, turning black. Don't forget that under this mortar bed is a big rebate, so there is some chunky mortar under the bricks, despite the appearance of having almost nothing:



2 or 3 mm now, but possibly 15mm or more once the oak has shrunk:



Look at all those cuts! Almost every brick had to be cut to fit:



More cuts!!



Finally, some straightforward bricklaying:



I left the bressumer just a little proud, so that it won't shrink back behind the line of the face of the bricks:



The corbelling bonding was going to leave me with a straight joint, so I'll have to cut a brick in situ tomorrow once everything has set solid:

 

[9fingers]

I presume that the slightly arched soldier course will be sufficient to take the weight of the brickwork and imposed load above whilst the Bressumer shrinks and until you are able to re-point it?

I suppose it it a trade of having easily worked green oak for the Bressumer but with shrinkage issues Vs harder to work seasoned oak and better stability.

Fascinating as ever to see your attention to detail and the experience brought to bear.

Bob

 

[AndyP]

Fascinating as ever to see your attention to detail and the experience brought to bear.

Bob

Indeed. Makes me Wonder how many times you have done this and how many mistakes that you have learnt by before before you got to where you are now.

Excellant stuff.

 

[Mike G]

Well, I've built the last couple of houses we've lived in, Andy, but more importantly, I have designed umpteen houses for other people and seen builders stuff up perfectly good designs with poor attention to detail (not every time, I must say, there really are some very good builders around).

 

[Mike G]

I presume that the slightly arched soldier course will be sufficient to take the weight of the brickwork and imposed load above whilst the Bressumer shrinks and until you are able to re-point it?

Yes, but even that is over-kill. The last one I made, and my brother-in-laws, both had a horizontal flat bressumer with nothing but stretcher bond brickwork over, and that hangs up perfectly well with no support once the bressumer shrinks. My B-I-L's has a gap big enough to get your all your fingers through, and its been like that for at least 5 years, yet the brickwork remains perfect.

I suppose it it a trade of having easily worked green oak for the Bressumer but with shrinkage issues Vs harder to work seasoned oak and better stability.........

Well, almost. There just is no way of buying seasoned oak of that sort of size, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't make this out of dry timber.

 

[billybuntus]

Yes, but even that is over-kill. The last one I made, and my brother-in-laws, both had a horizontal flat bressumer with nothing but stretcher bond brickwork over, and that hangs up perfectly well with no support once the bressumer shrinks. My B-I-L's has a gap big enough to get your all your fingers through, and its been like that for at least 5 years, yet the brickwork remains perfect.

I replaced the brickwork beneath two large bay windows last year. I knocked the failing render off and the faces of the 150+ year old brick came off with it. All of the bricks had shattered and were in an awful condition. Pieces literally came off the bricks in sheets and splinters.

I set about carefully cutting 1 metre sections from the bottom upwards and ended up with a huge arch (the bay windows were supported by one strong boy in the centre). The lime mortar was extremely soft and crumbling and yet around 200kg of bring hung suspended in the air without even breaking a sweat. If that's what saturated lime mortar can do I'd bet my life on a cement bond not failing in all but the most extreme loads. It's an impressive material.

 

[Mike G]

Good illustration, BB.

It's worth remembering that any opening in brickwork only "supports" a triangle defined by the corners of the opening, and a line going up from each corner at 45 degrees. This amounts to very few bricks being reliant on the lintel or whatever.

I so mangled the English in that last sentence that even I who wrote it am struggling to understand it! I'm tired.......

 

[kirkpoore1]

Well, almost. There just is no way of buying seasoned oak of that sort of size, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't make this out of dry timber.

Unless, of course, you take the measures that were taken in the old part of your house--get it from some other old building. A friend of mine dismantled a number of old barns just for the lumber. He once sold a tractor-trailer load of that lumber to a builder in southern California. Probably ended up in some rich guy's house in Beverly Hills. Even in a barn, though, you're not going to find many timbers that thick.

Kirk

 

[the bear]

There's a couple of places near me that sell reclaimed whole barn frames and individual beams where the whole frame couldn't be saved. Sourced from both the UK and France. One also advertises air dried new beams

Mark.

 

[Mike G]

Even in a barn, though, you're not going to find many timbers that thick......

Then your barns are very different to ours. Around here, that would be a puny timber for a barn.

 

[Mike G]

Guys, the point is to build the way the house would have been built 300 years ago, albeit with the benefit of electrickery. These big elements of framing would be almost impossible in seasoned timber, and it never crossed my mind to try.

 

[RogerS]

......
Well, almost. There just is no way of buying seasoned oak of that sort of size, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't make this out of dry timber.

Not strictly true. There is a place down Sussex way - name escapes me - but it has several very large barns stuffed to the gills with old seasoned oak taken from old buildings. Many of the oak beams were simply massive.

 

[Mike G]

Guys, the point is to build the way the house would have been built 300 years ago, albeit with the benefit of electrickery. This is only a tiny piece compared with what is to come, and the big elements of framing would be almost impossible in seasoned timber. It never even crossed my mind to try.

 

[billybuntus]

Prices paving in north yorkshire had some of the largest beams I've ever seen in their yard.

I think they were something like 3 feet x 2 feet and up to 40 feet long. Simply massive.

 

[Mike G]

Right, I've a bit to catch up on. Firstly, I just plodded on laying bricks. Squeezing the top course in was an absolute nightmare. I cranked up the acrows half a turn (that was all I could manage) to get an extra couple of millimetres to play with, but had to use wedges to hold each brick up hard against the floor joists. I spent quite a while inside the cramped chimney tidying up the mortar, and of course it showers in your eyes and you've no way of getting out of the way. Nonetheless, I was reasonably happy with the brickwork when I took the guides out of the way:





I had to stop there, because there are two bridging joists that sit in the brickwork, so I had to make them next. I started with the shorter one, in the lounge.

This is a big beam, 8" x 4" by about 4.7m long. I wanted a serious chamfer, with hand-cut stops. I started by cleaning up the sawn surface with a power planer, then belt sander, then a scraper. I chopped out the ends of the chamfer by hand, enough to get a circular saw in and cut the majority out that way, then some work with the draw-knife and finally a scraper to clean up, before paring the ends carefully with a big chisel, and then chiselling out the chamfer-stops. Then there was a rebate to cut on the upper edges so that I can push the edge of the ceiling plasterboard in , so that when the oak shrinks it doesn't leave a gap through to the void over. Finally, I wrapped the whole thing in cling-film because of the nasty reaction oak has to plaster and mortar:





The chamfer is really aggressive, being approx 40mm wide.

Having made it, and prepared the support pieces in the joists, it was then the big job of lifting it into place. I started by rocking it on a pair of saw horses spaced each side of the middle, and packing under each fulcrum in turn. Bearing in mind that this beam weighs 80 or 90kg, and that I was by myself, I decided to put some slings around each end as a safety first precaution, but in the end. I used them as the principle means of lifting:





Once I was within range of an F clamp it became easy. I bolted everything in place, and tidied up:



Some awkward little cuts to do around the end, but it shouldn't be a big issue:



Next job was the kitchen beam. At 7 metres long, and again 200 x 100mm , it weighs about 150 kg (330 lbs in 'Murrcan). It was something of a task to even put it up on the saw horses to start work. You can see that I used levers and packers:



On inspection, after a quick clean-up with a power plane, I was disappointed to find quite a large area of sap wood, and even a patch of the brown furry stuff on the underside of the bark:



That obviously had to go the the unseen top side, but luckily, the rest was fine, although rather curvy. I spent a while chatting to my wife about the design of the island unit in the kitchen, because there is going to be a post "supporting" (more of that later) the beam, and that needs to be in the right location on the beam as to work in with the island unit design. Believe it or not, the first job after cleaning up the beam was to drill the peg hole for the mortice for the joint with the post, and to mark out the mortice:



This is because once there is a chamfer, it would be impossible to drill the hole accurately, and there would be no reference face to mark out the joint from.

Having made the chamfer in the same way as before, I chopped out the start of the mortice:



Then drilled away some of the waste:



Then chiselled out the rest of the joint:



I drilled a bolt hole in the appropriate location in the bottom of the mortice, one of three bolts holding this beam tight to the underside of the joists:



This is one of the other bolt holes, which will get a grain-matched plug of oak in a year or two once the oak has finished shrinking:



After all the work (same as the lounge) had been done, it was time to start the lift. First job, move the two saw-horses close to the middle, so that each lift of an end was counterbalanced by a big overhang:



Then, with my wife putting in the packers, it was just a question of rocking each end in turn down and slipping in a packer or two, then onto taller saw horses, more rocking, more packing, until I could fit in a scaffold, and then more rocking and more packing:



Obviously the beam is longer than the room so it had to be raised on the diagonal. Swinging it around to position, and sliding it along particularly, were much more difficult than simply raising it. It took a couple of hours, but eventually I got it as high as possible on the scaffold:



....and finally into position on the brickwork of the fireplace, and supported on a bearer on the far wall, with its weight entirely off the scaffold:



I'm pretty pleased with that. I've lifted 3 hundredweight safely to 8 feet up in the air using muscle and brain power alone. I love these little challenges !!

 

[9fingers]

Mike,
Do you have a hydraulic bottle jack? I find one of these very useful for this sort of job and keeping control of any rise and fall with out relying on too much muscle power.

Bob

 

[TrimTheKing]

:eusa-clap: :eusa-clap: :eusa-clap:

Yet again I find myself in awe of what can be done when you know how and what can be done. Nice touches with the staggered brickwork and fat chamfers Mike. Can't wait (as I'm sure you can't) to see what this room looks like when finished.

bscene-drinkingcheers:

Cheers
Mark

 

[Mike G]

Mike,
Do you have a hydraulic bottle jack? I find one of these very useful for this sort of job and keeping control of any rise and fall with out relying on too much muscle power.

Bob

That'd be cheating, Bob :lol:

 

[Mike G]

......Yet again I find myself in awe of what can be done when you know how .....

Thanks Mark. I enjoy the process as much as the results.