• 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!

Trimble Towers Workshop - Fitting out begins...

:text-threadjacked:

Ok, chaps, pull yourself together and let's get on with the building.

Please don't distract Mark from his build.
 
Andyp":3pvynl37 said:
Andyp":3pvynl37 said:
So Mark, how high did it rise today?
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I never did answer this. No rise yesterday unfortunately, builder called me Saturday evening to say the heavy rain had stopped him finishing off his other job on Friday so apologies but he would be on that again Saturday and would start with me Sunday.

They've been here since 09:30 and I'm just making them a bacon butty now. Lots to do for me in the garden today too so I'll update on all progress later. [emoji1360]

Thanks
Mark
 
I got my time wrong yesterday, they arrived around 10 (I was still in bed so no concept of time…. :lol: ) and set to work moving the blocks they needed into place on the slab.

I had planned to have 4 packs dropped straight onto the slab but the delivery turned up at 16:00 on Friday and the motorway was snarled up, so when that happens our normally quiet country lane becomes a cross country shortcut so was snarled up.

Driver did his best to set up but would have blocked the road completely for 10-15 mins and people were effing and jeffing, getting very angry and just driving under his Hiab, which he couldn't allow, so we had to drop them in the driveway.

Weather was grim when they arrived but warmed (slightly) and brightened as the day went on, and thankfully no rain. By the time they had done this and got the levels sorted, muck mixed and first block in place it was around 10:30, so I made them a brew and set to shifting more blocks and bag of cement closer to the work area for them.

Here's a few snaps of progress through the day. I was busy moving a ton of logs for our log burner onto a pallet under cover to dry out a bit and doing a load of general garden tidy up...





By the time they left around 4pm they had completed the two longest walls up to 5 courses and the front left corner (in the above pic) ready for next time. They have 2 days to finish at my mates job then assuming the weather is okay (and the forecast looks good) then they will be back on Wednesday until done.



We've made a couple of cosmetic changes to the window size to accommodate some second hand windows I will be recycling and adjusted the diagram so he knows what he's working from, so hopefully full steam ahead soon.

I've got a modified steel diagram arriving any day and once that arrives I can prep the steel guys for making that once the brickwork is up and finalised, and also finalise the timber sizes in the roof (with Mikes generous assistance) then get my final materials order in…

Cheers
Mark
 
Wizard9999":2jryg3kb said:
As ever your chaps work like the clappers Mark! :eusa-clap:

Looking good and a nice size. Remind me again, is it around the 30m2 mark?

Terry.
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Yes mate, 30m2 internal. No progress this week sadly, it's been subzero here since Wednesday, when he was due to start back. He's going another job, indoors, for now until the freeze is over which should be Monday according to the forecast, so he's confirmed Tuesday to start back on the walls. He dropped off all the scaffolding mini towers in prep yesterday, so hopefully more progress next week.

If I get time this weekend I will start laying the external drainage pipes in prep and backfilling around the outside with stone and soil and tidying up the outside so at least that's out of the way.

Cheers
Mark
 
Mark,
It might be worth checking with your builders before back filling round the outside, traditionally that is one of the places to dump brick offcuts and excess mortar at the end of the day although that might be frowned on these days(?) With the cost of skips ever increasing minimising costly waste disposal it might be still used.

Bob
 
Will do Bob but it's his idea, at least round the back wall. It's so close to the hedge that they have nowhere to stand to do the facing bricklaying so the idea was to get any drainage in there then backfill with stone to give them something to stand on.

The stone is also to partly help keep wet soil from constantly sitting against the back wall lower courses as I'm paranoid about water ingress and damp.

The amount of rain we've had in the past 2 weeks though has been biblical and the standing water in the trench behind the footings hasn't got above half way up the trench blocks so I'm happy with that, that at least it's draining away fairly well.

Cheers
Mark.
 
OK that should be fine then.

Always worth having good communications with your builders. I've done quite few jobs with the work split between myself and a builder. They can still catch you out though. Burnt into my memory is when building a large house extension, one evening when I came home from work, he said, we are going to be rendering the internal walls tomorrow and did I want to any wiring first!! :shock:

I worked all night chasing walls, fitting cables and sinking socket boxes. Just got it all done in time.

Cheers
Bob
 
The Polish army arrived again today after finishing that job at my mates half a day early. Due at mine tomorrow but turned up at 2pm today to get cracking and got another 1.5 short walls up to 5 block courses. Half a day on the rest of the blockwork tomorrow then the facing bricks start to go up.

We finally found a decent mix of white cement, sand, lime and a small amount of dye to get the kind of look I'm going for with the mortar for the external so he's going to experiment to get the dye ratio exactly right on the back wall that's tight up against the hedge and will never be seen so that on the other 3 elevations he has the exact mixtures to repeat through the job.

Wanted to avoid dye altogether but the sand I got, although as washed as I could find, sadly only went a kind of pale grey rather than the lime mortar colour I was looking for so I'll have to make do!

Roll on the end of this week and we should se some real progress hopefully…

He's going to hate me though with the number of brick cuts he's going to have to do for the variation of English garden wall bond that I want. That's what the main house is done in and I want this building to look as close as possible to that. Not quite as many cuts as there could have been as my bond has 5 courses of stretchers as opposed to the more common 3 courses between header courses but still a lot of cuts...

Cheers
Mark
 
Top banana! The ole Pols certainly are grafters. I feel proud to say there's a bit of Pol & Rusky running through my veins. At this rate, I reckon your first project will be coming out of the shop before Christmas! 8-)

:text-bravo:
 
Pinch - yeah they're really good lads. Wife texted me at 8:15 this morning to say they had just arrived (I was on a train to Laaandon Taaahn). It was -3 !!!

He's brought some front inhibitor for the brickwork he's doing today but I'm wondering if we need to wrap it in some kind of blanket..?! Not sure I could ind something that big even if we should...

It's due to warm up nicely during the day but then drop again overnight.

In terms of a project before Christmas, slim to no chance of that! [emoji23]

Even if it was completely finished by then, which it probably won't be, I'm far too busy between now and then to get everything in there. Electrics and alarm to go in first then fashion a temporary door until I can get the machines in there and make the proper door.

Terry - thanks. Much of that comes from, as I'm sure it does for many of us, from Mike's posts and the things he thinks of. The brick detail is one that I have very much had in mind from the early conception though as I'm conscious this is quite a large building being plonked in the garden so it has to look right.

Cheers
Mark
 
things might have improved ..

but years ago, when brickies put antifreeze in the mix, to work in the cold, you would get white "leaching" running down the walls after they are built.
You can always spot a wall/house/whatever, that's been built in the cold.

no idea if it's better now or not ?
 
Rod":3t543fil said:
Hessian sacking, old tarpaulins or polythene sheeting is often enough to keep the frost away in this country.

Rod
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They covered everything in polythene last night before they left. [emoji1360]

I've got loads of tarps so can stick them over tonight when I get home if need be.

Cheers
Mark
 
Tusses":20eoa1kz said:
things might have improved ..

but years ago, when brickies put antifreeze in the mix, to work in the cold, you would get white "leaching" running down the walls after they are built.
You can always spot a wall/house/whatever, that's been built in the cold.

no idea if it's better now or not ?
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Not had much to do with bricklaying for a few years but non of the antifreeze additives used to be certified by the British standards.

Judging by the frost still on the roofs that don't get direct sun that I can see from the workshop at 14:30 this afternoon would suggest it's been too cold to lay bricks today, a quick look at the forecast shows a high of 3 degrees at 15:00 dropping to 0 degrees by 16:00 so not really a day for laying bricks, seem to remember 2 degrees being the cut off point
 
From memory 3 degrees and falling was when we stopped laying bricks, always use to double up hessian over the brickwork at night very occasionally put wide dpc or some plastic sheet over the top if there was a chance of rain, don't leave the plastic on for days though as the brick work needs to breath and the plastic will keep moisture trapped under it and the mortar won't set properly.
I Can't comment on additives as I've not seriously done any bricklaying for over 15 yrs and have no idea what's available now.
Harvey
 
So when I got back that night everything was covered in double layers of dust sheets and a layer of polythene. Hopefully that will be okay, looks okay from what I can see, no visible cracking etc.

Since then the temps have gone up to 8 during the day and 4-6 at night so they are still covering up but much nicer temps.

They have all the walls up to 5 block courses and are now bringing the facing skin up to the same level. I fully expect the next set of blockwork to start rising today given this where they are up to before 12:00 today.





There is a 5m section that is halfway up the blockwork and the front 2m long section that needs to come up from the floor, so I might be being a bit optimistic, but the way they are going it wouldn't surprise me to see a few blocks land today.

Cheers
Mark
 
looking very nice Trim !

I like the bond they are using, although as far as I can see it's a single brick thickness veneer, so just decorative ?

, and the variety of colours in the bricks is pleasing on the eye :D
 
Hi mate

Thanks. Yes the bond is the same as the house but because this is just the facing skin and the bond isn't required to tie two skins together it is purely for aesthetics to match the house.

Bricks are reclaimed Cheshire reds chosen to match the house as much as possible, as is the light, lime effect, coloured mortar. I am very pleased with the colour and variation now they are going up and drying out. I've only really seen them in their palleted stacks up to now and while wet they looked a lot redder than this (as you can see in some of the damp ones stacked ready to lay), so I'm really pleased with the close colour match to the house. :obscene-drinkingcheers:

Cheers
Mark
 
Looking good - must be warmer up north than down here in the sunny south 3C.
Are you insulating the cavities and the door opening looks pretty wide - double doors?

Rod
 
Hi Rod

100mm of rock wool going into the cavities as the my add the outer skin.

Door is 2m wide with plan to add barn style double doors.

Here's the latest pic, I think they're about to call it a day, Jaco is just going round and finishing touching up the pointing.





Cheers
Mark
 
Rod":37fmct7r said:
This is not a criticism but how does the Barn Doors fit with the potential future house plan?

Rod
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That is a very good question and one that I hadn't for one second considered...

[emoji15][emoji51]

Mark
 
Andyp":34632ue6 said:
Great progress and I bet really satisfying after so much planning.
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Yes definitely. Still a good way to go but I'm seeing progress every day (almost) so that's good for the soul.

Cheers
Mark
 
Mark...they need to watch their bonds. There shouldn't be any straight joints, and there are quite a few. A header should be bang in the middle of a stretch above or below it, and that gable wall has more than one or two that aren't. Have a quiet word in their ear.....
 
Mike G":5dwngiqy said:
Mark...they need to watch their bonds. There shouldn't be any straight joints, and there are quite a few. A header should be bang in the middle of a stretch above or below it, and that gable wall has more than one or two that aren't. Have a quiet word in their ear.....
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Is there a structural issue there Mike or just aesthetics? I thought the brickwork was facings just to match the house and the structure is held together by the block work.
 
Mike G":ew6fqqd8 said:
Mark...they need to watch their bonds. There shouldn't be any straight joints, and there are quite a few. A header should be bang in the middle of a stretch above or below it, and that gable wall has more than one or two that aren't. Have a quiet word in their ear.....
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Good eye Mike!

Now then, what would you say if I said in answer to your statement 'There shouldn't be any straight joints, and there are quite a few.', no Mike, there aren't any!!

The answer might upset you, or maybe not. It's possibly unconventional but from a bit of googling doesn't seem to be an issue...

Cheers
Mark
 
Mike / Mark

I didn't want to post anything negative .., after all , it looks pretty ! :lol:

I assumed the bricks were "tied" to the blockwork at regular intervals ? .. which would add structural integrity ??

I spotted things that would bug me .. but didn't wan't to point them out , in case you hadn't noticed ! :lol:
 
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