New workshop build, with a difference!

[Charlie Woody]

Windows look great!

Hope your shingles arrive on time and the weather stays dry and not too windy so you can start roofing.

Good luck.

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Mcluma,

Glad that you enjoyed a slight diversion from the main theme. I thought that it might show that we were still sentient - just, and not popped our clogs :smile:

Hello W.C.....no pun intended :shock:...oh alright a little.

Yes we do have a septic tank. The pipe is perforated in the bottom third of the circle - all along the length. The liquid then seeps into about 12 tonnes of gravel (it felt like more by the time that I had levelled it all out - twice), and thence into the ‘soil’.
The end of the pipe is wrapped with some landscape fabric which I held on with a large cable tie. There is then an overshoot of gravel so that if any water gets that far, it has gravel to disperse into first, as per the rest of the run.

Yes we do have to be careful not to buy anything noxious as a toilet cleaner. We use a plant based product which allegedly is septic tank safe. That reminds me, I must buy a bio starter kit, as the tank has been emptied. The tradition in Arab countries is to slit a sheep’s throat and hoy it down the pit. I don’t think my neighbours would be impressed with me using one of their Hebridian sheep though.

This sight greeted us this morning on our back steps, and I have named it...

Rack of lamb?

They look cute now, but in several months they will look tasty......we have tried them.
It’s part of the deal; we let our neighbour use the field/grass for the sheep and horses, and we get a joint and sausages later, not forgetting a ready supply of horse manure.
And this year we will get the shearings for our daughter to spin into wool and then make something, which will be given back as a thank you for the wool.
I really hate the countryside - but someone has to live here.....just don’t try moving us back to town :wink:

Hi Kirk,

I am glad to see that your sense of humour is as warped as mine.
I can only assume that the lump of wood was placed there by the previous owners to try and limit the backflow of water when it has rained a lot and the river is high. The joy of having clay instead of soil.

Yes I will be making (or trying to) the round windows - yet another new thing to tackle....there’s life in the old dog yet. Who would have thought that retirement would be so much fun? I have even unwrapped the unfinished guitar that I started half a lifetime ago, and am busy designing the bridge, which is all it needs....the first task for the finished workshop.

I would be very interested in seeing the roofing process, even if it will be a bit late for guidance. I do have reasonable instructions though, it’s just a matter of getting the spread of shingles up each face to correspond with the two roof bends.

Hi Charlie,

Welcome to the fold, and thanks for the kind words. The weather looks set to be dry for a while, but we do suffer a lot from wind (Blazing Saddles raises its head again).
I will do the err...back side first, which is more shaded and has no holes (windows) to navigate round. Also, it gives me a chance to try and perfect the art before doing the view that is on show. I do have Mcluma’s standard to try and live up to, if you have ventured that far into this madness.

Mr P (pheasant} is knocking at the front door, I’m not sure if he is coming to dinner, or, he is dinner :shock:

TTFN for now....Dick

 

[wobblycogs]

Thanks for the info, it all makes sense now

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Loving this thread. Well played Dick. Cheers _Dan.

 

[Mcluma]

My BIL just bought 120m2 of shingles, to redo the roof of the barn, and lots and lots of roofing nails :lol: :lol: :lol: yes he will be nailing them by hand (hammer)

 

[Benchwayze]

Dick,

I'll believe it when I see it ! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hat, coat, Door Zoooooooooooooooooom! ---------------------->

Best of British with the build!

Regards John

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi wc,

Just had the bill for the pipe and gravel - the whole job came to £1200. But, as we don’t pay sewage rates, and the metered water is charged at ‘smallholding’ rates. We pay a lot less than we did in town, so the ‘payback’ won’t take that long in comparative terms.

Hello Dan (goldeneyedmonkey)

Welcome to the fold, and I’m glad that you are enjoying it. It really is good to get feedback, and metaphorically ‘meeting’ everyone. Not to mention the boost to morale that it gives.
As Bob Hoskins used to say on an advert - ‘It’s good to talk.’

Hi Mcluma,

My arms feel tired just reading 120m2 of shingles. Our area amounts to about 42m2, albeit on three different planes, which complicates the layup. Will you be giving a hand - other than clapping applause?

Hello John aka Benchwaze,

Once again, welcome, and thanks for the encouragement. As it happens
<- - - - - - - - - - - - - !moooooooooooooooZ ,taoc ,taH is in order.

The shingles arrived last Friday, but they forgot the nails.....doh! And it’s a 25 mile round trip to get some. So a spell of heavy duty gardening was embraced. Key tools being, heavy duty hedge trimmer, four tined pitchfork, 250 litre wheelbarrow and, you guessed it, a mattock.
Now why don’t we see this sort of gardening on Gardener’s World? ......Wimps :smile:

A miracle has just happened. One of the people that works for Tudor Griffiths has just dropped the nails off on his way home (18.30). Anyone can make a mistake, that’s life. But they/he definitely went ‘the extra mile’ or several. Now that’s service.

So, providing that it is dry, guess what I will be doing :smile:

TTFN for now....Dick.

 

[Cegidfa]

Hello folks,

Over the last few days we have managed to clad the rear roof in shingles, apart from the upper bout. We will tackle that tomorrow, when are not so knackered.

This is not an easy task on a Gambrel roof, as the the shingles have to be pre spaced vertically for each run. This can be done from one end of the roof with a number of cut off end pieces to reduce the weight, and sketchup helps speed this process. But, hanging tiles on a 60° incline is not fun. Trying to hold them to the line, and butted up to the previous one whilst nailing takes some effort. And then there’s holding to the line, and round the bend - even harder. We soon adopted banging the nails in position on a bench and carrying each shingle ready nailed; that really helps - ok, some fall off , but it makes a difficult job a lot less troublesome. See the progress below.

Sunday,

Carried on ‘round the bend’ but each tab had to have two blobs of Shingle Stick adhesive to hold it round the curve.

When first laying the shingles,we started with a row of half height shingles - that is, cut off the tabs. N.B. don’t be tempted to simply turn this first layer upside down, as this will put the glue strip in the wrong place and make the next two rows look bumpy. I have seen this posited on many sites as the way to go, by alleged pros....

Definition of Expert. x = the unknown factor, and spurt is a drip under pressure :shock:

We placed the starter row so that it overhangs the eves by 10mm, and the first full row the same. We also removed the half slit at the beginning and end of every row (our shingles have them at each end), so that there would be a straight cut edge at the sloping verge; but that’s just us being anal.
Beware, Iko shingles are not all the same length or height. This can throw the vertical lining up of the slots; also, the bottom edges of adjacent shingles can look stepped - because they are. Not what a failed perfectionist wants to see.
The other thing that we did was to nail above both sides of each slit to reinforce against the wind (see in the above pic).
The lower rows were reached by a raised platform. This made application quick and easy, but the rest to date were done from a ladder with a standoff, so that the shingles could be positioned and fixed under the ladder. The upper ones are being reached over the top of the ladder - a nice easy job. But, moving the ladder with a lump on it’s end, for each strip, is really tiring, but safe. How I will do the top few rows safely, I have no idea yet - short of kneeling on the roof. So the next missive might be from a hospital ward :wink:

Thats all for now......TTFN.....Dick.

 

[billybuntus]

Superb Job, keep up the excellent work.

I also liked the lining under the window cills, makes a lot of sense.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Dick, it looks like you've done an excellent job.

If you don't have some knee pads, something like this:

you should go get some before doing the top section. When I was crawling around on a platform drywalling & painting my shop, they were the only things that kept me going.

Kirk

 

[SeanG]

awe and envy. If I wore a hat I'd be taking it off to you and your window fitter/bricklayer/trench digger and fabrication erector.

 

[Cegidfa]

Hello billybuntus, Kirk, and SeanG,

I know that I said some posts back, that the encouragement makes a difference, but I do want to be able to enter the shop once it is finished :wink:

Billy, The Americans have been using timber frame for rather a long time, compared to us. And there is no denying that when they hit problems, they get inventive. The typical construction worker here tends to carry on repeating the mistakes. There are luckily, notable exceptions, such as those who belong to the AECB; these pioneers are pushing the Passivehaus system of air sealing and insulation that has been on the go for about thirty years now. But, it is new to Britain, as Kirk might say - go figure.

Hi Kirk,
Thanks for that, and yes I do have some kneepads, just not as posh as the ones that you showed. But they do the job. If you look at the pic below, you will see from the angle of the ladder, that they are essential, as I am kneeling on the ladder rungs and the metalwork of the standoff. After a lifetime of genuflecting in front of control panels, on metal flooring usually, I inevitably have arthritic knees, so it’s kneepads and fish oil capsules for me.

Hi Sean,

Err....you forgot wife, and that’s not in the acronym sense :wink: but thanks for the kind words.
I take it that you don’t have the room for that which you would like?
I notice that you live in Bristol; so does our son Stefan, and, he is into code as well; albeit, a different area. He works for a startup called Jiva, but does music and now ‘visuals’ in his ‘spare’ time. Try his website http://stefangoodchild.com/ to see if it is of interest code wise. Let me know what you think.

Yesterday was spent on more anti lamb incursion activities, as we woke to them chewing their way through the garden again....grrrr. In the afternoon we ambled up to pay our friend Jimmy the digger for his err...latrine works. He generously offered us the loan of his heavy duty scaffolding and a large trailer to transport it. When I say heavy, I am not kidding. It nearly killed us erecting it. But, it has solved the ‘how do I finish the upper roof shingling’ problem, as you can see in the pics above. It will be invaluable on the front where we will have to fit windows and flashing, etc.
I will sign off now before I fall face down on the keyboard.

Regards....Dick.

 

[Cegidfa]

Hello folks,

Well, that’s another major part of the build achieved; the back roof is finished.
It’s amazing how ones confidence in walking on a roof is strengthened, when proper scaffolding is in position. To start with, the ladder to get onto the roof, from the scaffold, was being moved and tied off for each shingle. That soon went by the board and once there were enough shingles to walk on and get a grip, it stayed in one place.
However, I did forget to allow for gravity - and the ductility of aluminium. I had that sinking feeling when going across the ladder - the standoff is only supposed to operate in a vertical..ish mode. That was rectified by a cunning plan. Take a 300mm length of 50mm batten cut a vee in each end, and jam it between the stays....problem solved....what a dope.

There will be a short ‘interegnum’ before the next thrilling episode of Njárl’s Saga.

It is now time for some r and r ...allegedly, as we are going to Fromey land to visit the children/grandchildren. Whether that can be classified as rest and recuperation is a moot point.

TTFN....Dick...aka Grandad, for the next few days.

 

[kirkpoore1]

My aluminum ladder also...oscillates. I hate it when I have to go high, but it's the only way to do it.

Well, you're over a third done. Since you've worked out the bugs, I bet the other side will be easier.

...Fromey land ...

Huh? Ok, you've got me on that one. But have a good trip...

Kirk

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Kirk,
Fromey is one of the members of this forum who has commented on the build. He is called Fromey because that is where he lives...Frome in Somerset. Coincidentally, that is also where the grandchildren live - small world.
Having handled the shingles in 20℃ and some, how on earth do you manage over there, where it gets considerably hotter? They turned decidedly droopy :shock:

Regards...Dick.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Hi Kirk,
Fromey is one of the members of this forum who has commented on the build. He is called Fromey because that is where he lives...Frome in Somerset. Coincidentally, that is also where the grandchildren live - small world.
Having handled the shingles in 20℃ and some, how on earth do you manage over there, where it gets considerably hotter? They turned decidedly droopy :shock:

Regards...Dick.

Oh, good. I thought you were referring to fromage, i.e. cheese, and thus were going to Cheese-land aka Wisconsin--where you'd see people like this:

As far as floppy shingles, if it's hot I either carry them by one end (letting the other hang down), or in a pack of 20. Working in the evening or early morning helps too, though the latter tends to p*ss off the neighbors. (Back when I was getting my shop built, the guys putting up the siding started at 7 AM--on a Sunday. I was about to go outside and ask them why they started so early when a woman a few houses down the street came over and started balling them out. I decided to hide out in kitchen until she was done. )

Kirk

 

[kirkpoore1]

Dick:

I hope the rest of your roof is going well, and you're still working safely. I had my roof replaced on Friday, with the whole thing done in one day by 5 guys. Here's a few pictures:

Tear off:

The tool you really need for this kind of job:

Complete:

Kirk

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for the pics. It looks a nice job - in one day :shock: I'm suddenly feeling very old and decrepit
But I suppose there were five of them. However, the one in the white tee shirt looks as if he should be at junior school....from the rear view.
Was it a 'family' company :wink:

You certainly have a different approach to health and safety in America; here, full scaffolding on both sides of the roof would have been required by H & S law, and that would have taken a fair part of the day to erect, not to mention the add on cost (not that everyone adheres to it). Mostly, it occurs on new builds where there is a site safety officer.

At the moment we are concentrating on the garden and veg plot whilst waiting for the kit to do the flooring. I decided that having shingled up to just under the roof windows, the manufacturing would go better with the table saw, so I sourced some T & G ply and non compressible insulation, not an easy task round here. The underfloor insulation is rated at 30 tonnes per square metre, so it will handle the incursions of rogue elephants that we have roaming these parts :wink:
And the cost of the insulated floating floor, £600 or $982 - yikes..... Workshop building isn't for the shallow pocketed.

As the wood has dried out, it has obviously shrunk. I didn't expect it to warp the Simpson Strong ties though. I had to remove all the nails, straighten the metal, and re-nail nearly all of them. They had distorted out from the wall about 1.5 inches.

I have fitted some Newfie glazing to the front doorway that gets the most weather, and a roll up unit on the end doorway - to keep out the weather and dust once the floor is down, and also to stop bees from entering, as they can't find the way out and die trying. It seems that bumble bees are pretty stupid, they can see through the plastic and don't look at the open end of the shed....hush your mouth, it's a workshop :wink:

Today's job is to cover the brick courses in a waterproof fabric, so that it won't dampen the back of the wallboard that will cover it.

That's all for now..TTFN....Dick.

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi folks,

Having fitted the vertical DPC over the bricks, I thought that we would be twidddling our thumbs for a few days waiting for the insulation and flooring. It turned up on Monday morning, just before lunch. So, thumbs untwiddled and set to laying, cutting and taping the insulation...only to run out of tape half way...doh. Went out this morn to buy some more tape and see if we could find some Ronseal grey floor paint (for wood). To my amazement we managed to get both items; no mean feat round here.

See below the before and after pics. I know that it was a sunny day, but it augurs well, given that the roof windows have two layers of green covering - isn’t it bright....result.

This shot was taken at about seven in the evening.

Tomorrow we will be laying the flooring as a floating floor, all joints glued and pushed tightly together with a 10mm gap all round the outside for expansion. Some of the boards look like they have been pre-used they are so grubby, so it will be out with the sander before painting.

That’s it for now........Dick.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for the pics. It looks a nice job - in one day :shock: I'm suddenly feeling very old and decrepit
But I suppose there were five of them. However, the one in the white tee shirt looks as if he should be at junior school....from the rear view.
Was it a 'family' company :wink:...

I think the young one was about 18 or 19. I was just glad to see that none were illegal aliens, who do a lot of this kind of thing.

At the moment we are concentrating on the garden and veg plot whilst waiting for the kit to do the flooring.

If these guys show up offering to protect the garden, I'd turn them down if I were you:

I don't think I've seen insulation above the slab but under the deck before. Interesting. How thick is it?

Anyway, it looks good, Dick. I hope it keeps going this smoothly.

Kirk
sitting in the near ruins of my house, where hardwood was laid down in the living room on Saturday, and tile is going into the kitchen tomorrow...