54, Enough scaffold!

Following the purchase of the scaffold frames in February, I received the call I had hoped for in mid March. A scrap metal dealer in Laverton had for resale, a large number of steel planks. The asking price of $400 per 50 2.4meter planks had me making a couple of trips to transport about 110 of them home. These included a number of 1.8m planks, needed to make the correct run lengths. Many of them had seen better days and with a few nights spent in the shed with my welder, I was able to bring them back to a serviceable standard.

Now that I had enough gear I was able to completely encircle the whole house and have enough frames to take me up to final roof height. My tube and clip stuff mainly being used to support the temporary roofing over the work areas.

With the scaffolding taken care of I could get back to the stone laying. The aim at this stage is to raise the first floor walls to window cill height, about 600mm above floor level, around the entire perimeter. This is to allow the temporary roof, covering the ground floor timber framing, to be flashed sufficiently to prevent water entry. It will also, hopefully, enable me to seal the completed work sufficiently to prevent spark and ember entry in the event of a bushfire.













The East wall coming together. The limestone string course had to be stepped and broken, (just visible behind the inclined steel plank,) to allow for the stepped flashing over the existing roof.

For added strength I used a high proportion of full width tie stones for the first course above the limestone string course and reinforced concrete beam.

53, Helping out.

During July I was able to assist a friend, Steve, by cutting for him some 40mm thick slabs. These were to cap off some rubble stone retaining walls that he was in the process of constructing in the backyard of his and Maryanne's house in Footscray.
I had a large rock in my collection that was to be surplus to my requirements, as, externally it showed a texture that varied greatly from that which I was using. Steve was happy to use it, regardless of the texture, so I picked the 2 tonnes of it up with the loader and moved it next to the shed and power supply.


We first split the stone the easiest way across its width using the plugs and feathers. This proved to be a bad mistake for me, as the texture proved to be, for the most part, of very fine grain. Had we split it lengthways I would have been able to use it to provide me with 4 decent window sills or steps and I would have found another rock for Steve. Oh well, too late now!


The next step was to halve those pieces again to create more manageable blocks of about 250kg to load onto the saw.






These blocks I then sawed to the 300mm slab width that was required.


... and then laid these over to saw the 40mm slabs. I squared the ends of some pieces and left the rest at their full length for Steve to cut and mitre as required to fit.






The (almost) finished product! Job well done Steve!.

52, More scaffold!!!

My constant perusing of eBay, once again, paid off and I scored myself another deal. This time it came in the form of a quantity of scaffolding. A large number of steel "H" frames comprised the listing and were compatible with the frames that I already have. I negotiated a cash price per frame on the condition that I take the whole lot.
There was, however, one small drawback with the purchase. By road they were about 930km distant, in Liverpool, just out of Sydney.
I obtained a couple of quotes for transport to Melbourne of $600 and $650, which, to me sounded excessive, especially considering that I would still need to transport them the remaining 100km home. Having a third party pick up the frames would also have further drawbacks, as I needed to pay the seller in cash for all of the frames, the exact number not being determined until they were sorted and loaded.
Unable to procure a small truck for a reasonable price and all other options exhausted, I hitched up a trailer to my van and set off.



It was a pleasant drive and got me away from the place for a couple of days. The van, as in the above photo, paused for lunch on the return trip at Violet town was itself loaded inside with about a tonne. It handled it well, albeit a bit slow up some of the hills.


2 days, $305 of diesel fuel, 1 flat trailer tyre, a $68 overnight stay in a motel in and a couple of meals later I arrived at home. The final purchase totalling 72 frames .
I now have more than enough scaffold to completely encase the whole house, one more hurdle overcome. I am still on the lookout, however, for more steel planking.

51, Ground floor stonework completed. (for good, I hope!)

The blog's been quiet for a while but the work on the house has continued on relentlessly. After completion of the string course my attention was shifted to the state of the limestone that I had capped the rear wall with for the past ??? years. I had left it uncovered, exposed to all the elements but with a channel formed behind it in an attempt to divert any rainwater. This proved to be a mistake as the water tended to form pools, soaked into the stone and kept it wet, causing it to discolour severely. This was not an issue in the area where the rear balcony was to be located, as these were to be re-laid with bluestone in a similar manner as I had done on the front. The 4 blocks, however, forming the string course at the top of the rear laundry wall, the first section of wall completed, were a different matter and were so badly stained that they needed to be replaced.



Work on the rear wall completed, ready for the balcony.
With only about 60mm of the string course to be seen above the balcony floor level I felt it better to use bluestone here, as the wear and scuffing to be expected in this area would be extremely detrimental to the much softer limestone.


Staining is still evident on the top of the east wall on the right of the photo, this is not as severe as it was on the rear. I am hoping to be able to bleach it out, as I do not wish to have to replace these as well.



The rear wall, now finally re-laid. The stonework can now continue upwards.


The north end of the west wall abutting the existing house. The block work has been arranged to keep the, yet to be installed, step flashings at even increments.

50, Ground floor stonework completed. (for now!)

Back to the bluestone, it was time to cap off the ground floor stonework. After much thought on how to construct and secure the first floor balcony I finally reached a decision and was able to cut the blocks to suit. The blocks were to be a depth of 165mm and, to help to tie the wall together I cut them 440mm in width, the full wall thickness (excluding timberwork). Where the windows are situated this thickness narrows to 265mm to allow the flooring to extend into the opening.



For these blocks I used some large stones, ex railway platform coping's, as well as one squared stone weighing in excess of 450kg, (which yielded 2 blocks), from my stockpile of "scavenged and hoarded" bits and pieces. As the maximum cut of the saw is 440mm and I wanted the blocks slightly wider for later trimming the last bit of stone was broken apart and cleaned up later.


Once roughly cut I needed to saw a 45deg bevel to one top edge to match that of the limestone in the string course. Rather that adjust the saw for the angle, I found it easier to set up a simple cradle in which to mount the stone.


With the bevel cut accurately it was a simple matter, albeit time consuming, to hand chisel the exposed surfaces. This completed the next step was to cut a rebate in the lower face to allow the flooring to slip slightly under the nosing, this is to enable it to be better sealed to help prevent water egress. Following this, a drip groove was sawn on the bottom to ensure any moisture which does penetrate can be sheeted to the outside, this is of particular concern over the bay windows.



The weight of these completed blocks averaged about 180kgs which raised the problem of being able to gently place them in their final positions. To overcome this I made a lifting clamp specifically for this purpose, with a bracket hooking into the rebate and a pin which locates in a shallow dimple drilled in the back, it worked like a dream. This clamp can be modified down the track to handle any other shaped stones of similar thickness.


A four foot doorstep was also needed, but my stockpile did not include any blocks clean enough to be used "as is" for this purpose, so one needed to be trimmed down. Rather than spend the time hand chiselling, I opted to try a different method, this entailed making successive light saw cuts across the top and front face of the step, simulating a tooled finish. The process took a little longer than I had envisaged. The top, needing a saw spacing of about 1.5mm for a nice finish, took 4 continuous hours to complete, while the face, at 2mm spacing, took 3 hours. The saw blade, by now has had considerable use and the cutting tips have become very rounded. This necessitated the close spacing required to avoid having the corrugations too deep. The lighter blotches visible on the finished step are areas of quartz which naturally occurs in basalt, this tends to fade and discolour over time, becoming much less obvious. I am very happy with the end result and feel it was well worth the effort.


Lifting the blocks to their rough positions.


The lower front wall finally complete, showing the recesses for the upstairs windows.


The almost complete east wall. The top bevel on the limestone in the string course will be trimmed true once the blocks have dried out.

49, The threat of bushfires.

The cooler Autumn weather and the lifting of the seasonal fire restrictions saw my attention diverted away from the house for a couple of months. The major fires which devastated much of north eastern Victoria, (about 150km away), were of a ferocity and intensity which was unprecedented in this country. Many of us, who were lucky enough to be spared the ravages of these fires were served a far from subtle wake up call. The front end loader and chainsaw were pressed into service and most of the trees in close proximity to and threatening my sheds, fence lines and driveways were removed and the ground rubbish cleaned up. Bonfires were lit and were kept burning non stop for about 7 weeks, to dispose of the tops, stumps and litter.

The bulk of the wood I cut into short pieces suitable for splitting into firewood as it was unsuitable for milling.

Having a friend who, in the 2 years since he procured his explosives licence, has not had the occasion to put it to use, gave us the opportunity to remove one of the more stubborn stumps the fun way. After the placing of 3 sticks of gelignite under the offender only resulted in blowing the dirt away, we drilled 2 holes into it with another stick placed in each. The end result of which is shown in the above photo. Click on this link for the video of the event.

The removal of the native eucalyptus trees threatening the drive also afforded me the opportunity to complete the planting of elm trees to fill the voids in our avenue.
With enough cleaning being done to satisfy me for the time being I was able to re divert my attention back to the house.



Next on the agenda, while I was still set up for cutting bricks, was to form the upstairs bedroom fireplace and raising the stack as high as possible underneath the temporary roofing. The front of the opening is formed to the same dimensions as on the ground floor but the breast needed extra width to provide ample insulation for the flues. This I achieved by stepping the stack out by a 1/4 of a brick and narrowing the internal width of the opening by the same amount.


The completed lounge chimney with the bedroom fireplace and hearth over.

48, More floor joists.

The fireplace brickwork erected to the joist level for the first floor, the central bed is formed to accommodate the upstairs hearth.


The view down the kitchen flue showing the angles required to bring it over to the upstairs chimney breast.


The need for the remainder of the first floor joists coincided with the arrival of my annual leave from work in late March, it was again time to start making large quantities of sawdust. The kiln and my stockpiles of sawn and previously dried timber needed to be unstacked and sorted, extracting all the lengths of 12 by 2's. These all had to be planed true on one face and edge and then dressed and sized to the finished dimensions of 290 x 45mm.
After machining, to give the wood some short term protection from the elements and longer term protection from the local termites, (which have already made their presence known around the place,) I am now painting all my timber with a concoction consisting of turps, linseed oil, paraffin wax, bee's wax and a product called permethrin, a residual insecticide. Into this mixture I also added some tracer dye to allow easy identification of treated pieces. The only cheap dye that I have so far been able to procure is pink in colour and made for weed killer, this stuff tends to fade out after a couple of days of exposure to the sun.


The Joists, all finally in position after nearly four weeks of toil, I had thought that I was going to have had these completed within the first week, but as usual, my guesstimations were again, way off.
Much of the time was spent having to continually re erect and re position the scaffolding to allow the correct positioning of the members.


The framework in place to allow the pouring of the concrete hearth, a couple of days were occupied cutting the wedged "tusk tenon" joints for the trimmers


On the last Sunday night of my holidays I had the concrete for the hearth mixed and poured, finally completing this stage of the construction
With the four weeks I had up my sleeve being almost entirely consumed with this, it was a bit disappointing for me.