39, Bay Windows.

With the arches completed it was time to finish the bay windows. With a total of 56 rebated limestone quoins, cut at 45 degree angles needed to complete them, a number of weeks was devoted to the shaping of these. In order to maintain the stability of the mullions during construction I formed rough corbels in the stones below and above the fifth course to support temporary, removable blocks.


The quoins in place on the West bay, ready for the installation of the lintels.


The lintels installed and the formwork and reinforcing in place ready for the pouring of the concrete stiffening beam. This beam is tied with the steelwork to the concrete above the arch.


The concrete in place, I could now move onto the East side bay.


Mid June 2008 and the Limestone work is completed on both bays.


For the amusement of the kids, (and myself!) I tried my hand at a bit of carving in one of the temporary corbels. These corbels and the bracing blocks will be removed later to make way for the window frames.


With the Limestone out of the way I then needed to prepare enough Bluestone quoins for the infill over the bays to bring them to the first floor level. A total of 25 were needed to complete this, requiring another prolonged monotonous stint in the stone shed, cutting an chiselling the blocks ready. By now I have had enough of the fiddly work and have firmly made up my mind not to continue the bay windows up through the first floor.

38, Third and final.

March 2008 and the bay window arches were now complete. I could make a start on my last arch, spanning the front door. This one was similar to the two I had done previously over the french doors at the rear, segmental with stepped extrados. It also needed to be rebated on the inside to accommodate the door frame, requiring stepped formwork.
The earlier arches I had constructed entirely of limestone, but now, having the saw, I was able to cut accurate voussoirs from bluestone for the inside.


The inside complete and the keystone inscribed with Edward, my eldest.


The limestone face now in place. I inserted foam strips at the base of each bed to ensure a rebate into which I can key the finish pointing.


The front wall, with the arches complete. From inside,


and out.

37, Extra support and onto the next.

With the arch in place, the next step, for my own piece of mind, was to build in some steel reinforcing. I wanted to be sure that the whole thing would stay as one unit, should any movement occur. To achieve this I created a cavity in the stonework into which could be poured reinforced concrete. For the reinforcing I used galvanised 12mm deformed bar. At each side I formed a return where the steel could be tied to another beam, set behind the bay window lintels.


The concrete done, it's now time to move the formwork and make a start on the next arch.


The west end arch is on the go. I had made a small trolley to run in some 50 x 50mm lipped channel and carry the smaller of my electric hoists. This made light work of the lifting of the voussoirs into position.


The second bay arch completed, this one dedicated to my middle child, Julia.

36, Back to the front.

The ground floor East wall, at the start of 2008, finally completed and ready for the string course. I could now make a start on the arches over the bay windows.


The arch formwork, made from mdf and melamine faced chipboard, propped in position. These arches, being elliptical, took a fair amount of working out and cutting. Using masonite templates, the voussoirs, each weighing about 75kg, had to be cut to a different shapes and angles. I chiselled frogs into the beds to help to key them together and it took a number of weeks for me to have them all prepared, ready for installation. The arch had to be assembled in one go, to ensure that it set as a single unit.


The completed arch, I was very happy with the result, it all went together without a hitch. The alternating textures of the blocks was purposely carried out.


Being one to do silly things on impulse, I couldn't resist having a go at carving an inscription into the keystones. There being three arches on the front wall, I decided to devote them, one each, to my three children. The youngest, Sarah, was to have the first.
All this work, ultimately, will be plastered over, a bit of a waste really but it creates a bit of amusement in the meantime.

35, Releiving Arch.

After pouring the reinforced concrete beam behind the lintel, the next challenge was to tackle the relieving arch over the three light window. This was, primarily, intended to be an architectural feature, but, being properly constructed it transfers the weight from the wall above outwards to the sides of the opening.
The first step was to lay the skew backs and position the infill, this needed to have the right curvature to maintain a neat joint with the intrados. I drew the profiles full size on some old masonite and cut out a template, seen in the above picture. With these in place, I then built up the walls on either side to ensure the arch had lateral support.


The voussoirs in place, ready for me to cut and lay the fiddly, wedged shaped blocks on top of them.


To support the first floor bearers, corbels are positioned in the stonework, these, to my inconvenience, needed to be formed in the backs of the arch. Alternate voussoirs were cut in 2 separate pieces to allow me to form the corbels on the back half, another tricky job, getting the angles right.

34, The front goes up.

During 2007 I progressed steadily with the front, (south), and east walls. By September the bulk of the walls were raised to window head height, 2.7m, (9ft). The bay windows are to have elliptical arches spanning the openings to support the walls above and I have the springers in place. These I done in two halves and not being one to turn my back on a good challenge, I cut the outside stones in the complex shape seen in the pictures above to have them bond with the bay projections.
The slow progress I had been making on this project was leading to another problem, when the rain was falling and pooling on the tops of the incomplete walls, it was seeping through the mortar joints and causing efflorescence to form on the stone face. To help to alleviate this problem I extended the scaffolding higher to allow me to fix temporary roofing, this keeps the stone dry and also allows me to work on the walls during inclement weather.
The scaffolding planks appeared on eBay at the right time and proved to be a godsend, the only hassle being that they were just shy of 1000km away in Sydney. The $300.00 I had to pay to have the 95 of them shipped down, along with my winning bid, brought the price to about $12.50 per plank
The scaffold framework I have been accumulating, a bit at a time, since starting the project and are always looking out for more.


The East wall features a 3 light window, designed to make full use of the window cills I had procured. The lintel for this needed to be 2640mm long, four times the standard 660mm length of sawn limestone. The supplier reluctantly agreed to provide me stone of this length but warned me of the likelihood of breakage. For insurance I had him supply four of these, hoping to have success with one of them. With my luck usually requiring me to redo things a couple of times until I get it right, I was pleasantly surprised to dress and install this lintel successfully on the first go. It is shown above, upside down, with drip grooves and rebates carved out to allow clearance for the window heads.


The lintel, finished and in position. To maintain the stability of the mullions during construction I cut full blocks to bond these to the quoins three courses from the top. The waste section in the middle of these will be cut out later.

33, The laying resumes, again.

Towards the end of 2006 I had stockpiled a good supply of sawn blocks and cut enough quoins to start work on the bay windows. By December the stonework was high enough to position the cills.


The block from the previous post is shown in position on the upper right hand side.


The window cills in place at the start of 2007. To link them together I cut and chiselled matching corner blocks. These proved to be much more difficult than I had envisaged as the profiles of each cill varied considerably.


The saw was proving to be extremely versatile, it allowed me to cut bond stones accurately and in sizes that I had previously been unable to contemplate. Shown above is one such block on my stone barrow, ready to lay. Weighing 175kg, it is 680mm long, 240mm high and 415mm deep.


The same block again in it's final resting place.