Acrows and rebars in the pit below the wall where we'll be pouring yet more concrete. Tens of cubic metres of the stuff. Thought of going down the bank and getting bags of pound coins to chuck in the hole. Would probably work out cheaper.
Section of wall underpin with rebars sticking out ready for the slab in front of the wall to be poured in due course. Note the sheets of ply, shuttering, to form the slab.
Reinforcing for the slab with green acrows and timbers to shore up the wall above.
The back wall we're underpinning and supporting crosses our boundary onto the neighbours land. In providing a retaining wall for the wall bounding our property we have to support the adjacent portion of the wall belonging to our neighbour while we're doing the underpinning.
The external faces of the studwork are coplanar because they had to be lined up to take the weatherboarding. However the internal faces of the studwork are all over the place because the timbers themselves are so irregular in size. Plastering over the internal side of the studs yields the slightly odd situation in which some timbers are deep enough to remain proud of the plaster but others just get covered over. Hence the apparently missing studs. They're still there - you just can't see them. In a couple of places this leaves the wall looking so imbalanced that we've decided to ask the builder to put up some false studs - fairly thin strips of oak screwed to the wall where the stud would be visible if it were deep enough. Am I making sense? This is especially true of a couple of the trusses in the ceiling over the kitchen - of which more anon.
Wall plastered with studs showing – main bedroom
View along the West wall. Downpipes still need to be fixed properly. Have to remember to make sure they finish them off.
Issues nagging us this week.
We need to decide on what kind of screed to put on the floor over the insulation. Traditionally it's a fairly dry sand cement mix, thickness 70mm. The self-build comics have adverts for a new system using a wet flowing screed, more of a hard plaster than a cement mix. It's more expensive but supposed to be quicker to lay and set, which saves time. And time is money in this game. And it's only 50mm thick which means the underfloor heating is a bit quicker to respond. But, and there's always a but. But the guys have never used it before so, there's the usual reluctance to change working practices (if it ain't broke don't fix it, would be a charitable view). That means there'd be a learning curve and scope for error which could eat into any time savings. Also it does seem to require more preparation than the traditional method. And last but not least the 50mm versus 70mm thickness would mean that the underfloor heating pipes are 20mm closer to the surface of the screed and therefore potentially more vulnerable. All in all we're inclining towards the sand cement screed. Cowards or what?
Talking of underfloor heating, we've now placed the order for the kit. Exciting times
We need to decide on what kind of screed to put on the floor over the insulation. Traditionally it's a fairly dry sand cement mix, thickness 70mm. The self-build comics have adverts for a new system using a wet flowing screed, more of a hard plaster than a cement mix. It's more expensive but supposed to be quicker to lay and set, which saves time. And time is money in this game. And it's only 50mm thick which means the underfloor heating is a bit quicker to respond. But, and there's always a but. But the guys have never used it before so, there's the usual reluctance to change working practices (if it ain't broke don't fix it, would be a charitable view). That means there'd be a learning curve and scope for error which could eat into any time savings. Also it does seem to require more preparation than the traditional method. And last but not least the 50mm versus 70mm thickness would mean that the underfloor heating pipes are 20mm closer to the surface of the screed and therefore potentially more vulnerable. All in all we're inclining towards the sand cement screed. Cowards or what?
Talking of underfloor heating, we've now placed the order for the kit. Exciting times
And finally
Wow, it's starting to look really great now! I'm planning on starting my own barn conversion around the Summer sometime, maybe I should start a blog too!
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