Week 36-38 - New Residential Entrance

I've been waiting for Sophie's legs to grow an extra 2 meters, but no matter how hard I pull, its just not happening. Plus I'm getting a little tired of being constantly asked "why there is a random square half way up the wall", so its time to crack on with the new stairs up to the front door of the residential area. (Which FYI - is obviously what the 'random square' is!)

So this is what we started with - you can see the line of lead already in the render on the wall to seal the new stair roof into the building, but that is about it.
Not on the original plans, but since the floods last year with have decided to keep anything timber or porous well off the ground, so I am making the bottom 3 steps out of reclaimed stone from the building and then start the timber structure from there.

This is now my second go at stone walling and although my technique doesn't seem to of improved much, i was at least a little quicker.
Now I fully admit this has more of a ramshackle, found half way up the fells look about it than a freshly built, crisp stone wall. My only real response to this is that this is 100% the look i was going for - and you cant prove otherwise! (so there). I like to think it has the look the 'cool kids' refer to as vintage... and im nothing if not 'down with the kids'

Timber structure then does on top of the stone base and attaches to the wall at the top. Please note (or at least pretend to me you noted) the unsupported double cranked stringer on the side closer to us in the picture. This has some quite complex custom steel brackets uncased in the timber to give enough strength that we do not need any posts coming down to the ground underneath the stairs. It took a bit more work but it means we dont have any pillars blocking the front door.

Timber framework and outer skin goes up and then the roof (corrugated steel to match the rest of the road side) does on.

Another (and thankfully final) staircase made and glued up in the workshop.

Finally the outer skin is battened and bitumen painted. This will then be timber clad along with the front (blue section) at a later date.

Week 33-35 - Road Side Ground Works

There has been getting on for a 2 month break on site while I caught up on some other work, but now it is time to crack on....

We are now doing all the digging up for drains and other landscaping works to the road side of the building - you know, while its the, erm... nice dry summer weather.
My over optimism is this was tested instantly, made worse by the fact that unless you are in the habit of completely wasting your time, you should be digging you new drains exactly where the rain water likes to head to once it has hit the ground. So it gets quite wet.
Having said that it does give you a live/real time test that you are digging in the right place - you've got to find that silver lining.

 New front wall to 2nd ground floor workshop. New window frame and entrance door to the right clad in slate we reclaimed from inside the building where we had to adjust the old roof line at the river side. Have also build a bin store in front - its top/roof still needed to be finished in slate roof tiles and all the brick and block work you see will be rendered and painted the same as the rest the road side of the building.

Finished new threshold to the main front door to the building (Further away in picture) and separate entrance to 2nd ground floor workshop. These 3 brick pillars still need to have there flood gate channels added and then rendered and painted.....
...and then obviously some doors would help too!

 First we are putting a slot drain right across the the front of the property. This will stop any water working its way underneath the large by-fold workshop door at the front and the bulk of any water running off the street onto the parking area and to the main front door - as these areas all slop down away from the road.

Second we are digging a new front door threshold around the main entrance to the building. The internal floor height is actually lower than the ground outside the door. Before you stepped down a single step as you went through the door. This was awkward and very unhelpful for trying to keep rain water out. So i have decided to dig a 1.5m square area out in front of the doors to the internal floor height and surround this area with slot drains.
Now this is all finished and concreted back in with the drains in place it is only about a 250mm step down. Unfortunately to get enough depth for the pipework and a 100mm concrete depth on top I actually had to dig out about 2 ton of mud and stone, which I failed to really think through and appreciate before starting the task - ignorance WAS bliss.

 (Above) Pipes and drains laid out and connected ready for concrete to be poured over.

(Right) Bottom concrete set with shuttering ready for second pour on top to create the side walls of the area

Old windows and structure removed and the new inner skin of block work gone in to create the new window frame with doors to the left. I am increasing the height of this wall so it can be tanked to the same height as the rest of the ground floor. There would have been no point water proofing the whole perimeter of the ground level to 5 ft high only to have all the water pour in at the front window during a flood.

Week 30-32 - External Render and Guttering to road side

Although far from finished the external rendering and gutters to the road side of the building are now finished. So the largest and most expensive climbing frame I've ever had could come down and we can finally see what we've been doing.

 Looking back at the 'before' photo to write this post - I had honestly forgotten how much of a wreak she was! Certainly looking a lot more proud now, Im very pleased (and realise why the neighbors are too).

There is still all the front ground works and drainage to do, the staircase up to the front door of the flat (currently just hanging out, floating in the middle of a wall). Which is to be clad in oak along with the front section under blue cover, and the front doors and windows into the two ground floor workshops. So a lot! No time to hang about patting myself on the back anyway.

Before the render was applied the building had to be prepared for it. All render on old masonry parts of the building had to be stripped. Then all the new timber frame sections first has to be painted in a bitumen paint then coated in a wire mesh for the render to key into.

The mesh comes in long, quite narrow sheets and was time consuming, but a straight forward job. The black and steel mesh did make the building look very space age for a few days too - although it also turned it into a giant cheese grater. Or more accurately a giant wrist and elbow flesh grater.

We also had to fit all the lead work to seal the new flat staircase into the building once built. This means I have to stick to the exact plans now!

 First scratch coat applied and edging beads around the windows revels are fitted

I got a wash and first full coat of paint onto the render while the scaffolding was up but it will get more once the other work is complete. We haven't decided on a final colour choice yet, but it wont be white - front runner at the moment is a pale grey/blue. So it will be less Miami vice - just call me Crockett

Week 27-29 - Making and Fitting Windows (1st phase)

We’ve all seen ‘Grand Designs’ and it’s always the windows/glazing that blows the schedule, right? Even the Germans can’t seem to get it done on time, and we all know they are the punctual elite on this planet! So is this problem solved when you make your windows yourself….?

NO, not really, as you’ve got to find the time to actually make them, which isn’t an insignificant amount of hours…. Never mind.

So we are making the first phase of glazing for the build, which is all windows and most doors for the road facing walls. (to follow will be river facing windows and roof lights)

I have decided to leave all external woodwork (windows, doors and cladding) un treated, ie. no varnish, stain etc. to naturally silver with age. Mainly because I think it is a beautiful effect and also its maintenance free – let’s be honest who ever keeps on top of their external varnish recoating, life gets in the way and I hate to see flaking paint.  There are only a few timbers you can actually do this with (oak, cedar and larch) and expect it to last. You need a timber with a high tannin (oil) level to stand up to the rain and sun etc.

 

For our windows and cladding we are using what the wood yard refers to as ‘Capri Oak’ but what I have always called ‘character grade’ oak. This basically means it is not as perfect a timber a furniture grade oak, so will have nots and shakes etc. in it, but is still very much structurally sound. Also about half the price of furniture grade oak. As we are making these windows over scale (extra chunky timbers) to help with the unfinished resilience, that makes a big difference.

The making of these windows has actually been a collaboration between ‘MOS’ and ‘Keswick Joiners’. I know these guys very well and they are extremely good at what they do, their tooling and machines are far better suited to the scale of the timbers we are using than my cabinet making gear. So they undertook all the major joint machining etc and I did the thinner glazing bars, gluing up, sanding and hinges etc.

 Timber all panned to cross sections needed

 Timbers for window frames (not sashes) shaped, groved, mortised and tenoned

 All internal edged need to be sanded before glue up as you will not be able to get into the corner afterwards

 Six window frames glued up and sanded ready for measurement so we can make the sashes (opening sections)

 Pair of glazed doors for the Juliet balcony on the street side of building.

Week 25-26 - Making and Fitting Stairs

We took the two old staircases out of the building quite a while ago, as they both either rose up too, or away from a floor joist that no longer exists, plus they were wonky, very oddly made and you had to jump the rotten top step is you wanted to avoid broken bones.

I was hoping to take advantage of the annoying paradox of the woodwork industry, where you can buy a finished mass produced product , for example kitchen cupboards, flat pack wardrobes and in this case straight flights of stairs, for less than its possible to for an independent joiner/carpenter to purchase the materials for.

For once I thought….  the faceless, corporate, throw away and wasteful society we live in is going to benefit me. I can be one of the blissful consumers, instead of muttering pointlessly under my breath about it. YAY!

But alas, my hypocritical trip down that road was not is not meant to be. These pre-made flights of stairs are only produced to suit the standard and the most common floor to ceiling heights, which ours are, of course, not. This means I need to make them instead.

So we now have 3 of our final 4, shinny new flights of stairs....

As you can see in the picture at the top the main commercial stairs from ground floor up to the gallery level are brick for the first 3 steps. This is in keeping with the plans to have all timber work 3 feet of floor level in case of any future flooding in the building. The current concrete slab isnt exactly level so this meant casting a new completely level base for the new brickwork to start from. The timber flight is temporarily propped up approx 10mm higher then level and was dropped onto the brickwork once built and set.

Flight up from middle (gallery) level up to residential area

 Same flight from below in front workshop

 Also from below in front workshop - half flight between residential front door and floor level

 Half flight down to what will be front door to residential flat

All the new stairs have an Oak top tread. This is to ease the transition between floor finishes. I.e. all the stairs will eventually be carpeted (hard wearing, similar to 'front door mat' carpeting on commercial stairs and standard style carpet in residential) but either side (top and bottom) floors are likely to be wood or stone finishes. This means the carpets can then butt up to the underside of the oak tread instead of jarring with the tile or wood flooring.

Halfway through building the brick bottom to the main stairs, you can see a MDF template on the right hand side to help me make sure i am laying the bricks evenly. I had to make sure to get exactly 17mm of mortar between each layer of brick to achieve the correct stair height. As they have to match exactly to the height and depth of the timber steps above to comply with building regs. Considering i had never done any brick laying at all till a few months ago i am quite pleased with how this has turned out.


MAKING THE 3 STAIR FLIGHTS IN THE WORKSHOP

Now I’m rather embarrassed to say that although I like to call myself a joiner – I have never actually made a flight of stairs and now I need to make 3. Luckily I know some guys that do. So a big thank you to Chris from Keswick Joiners for giving me a crash course in stair building. My tutorial lasted about 15 mins and went very fast (I should have taken notes!). Luckily they are in the workshop right next door to me so I could ask for reminders as I went along.

So for those interested this is how you make stairs….

 Rough sawn timber to make the 'stringers' (sides of the stairs that the steps go between)

 Same timber now planed, glues up and cut to rough length for each staircase

The 'treads' (flat part of each step that you put your feet on) and the 'kicker' (upright section between the height of each tread) glue into groves the inner faces of the stringer (side planks of stairs)

You route these wedge shaped groves into the stings using a hand held router with a collet running against a marking out jig. You need to make 2 mirror images of these groves, one in each stringer per flight of stairs. This takes time to mark out and set the jig up, as building control requires every step and every kicker to be exactly the same, so you have to make this work to get to your overall 'rise' (height the stair needs to climb between floor and floor above) and 'going' (how long the stairs are between the top and bottom step in the horizontal direction) this sets the angle of the stairs - which there are also rules on, so it can get rather complex to set out

 All 6 stringers grooved out

 You then need to shape the top and bottom of the stringers to hook around the floor joist of the floor above and cut the bottom at the correct angle of the stairs so it sits flat on the floor below. Above you can see the left stringer has been cut and the right is still to be done.

The bottom of the first finished flight. If you look closely you can see the treads and kickers in the grooves are then pinned in with a wooden wedge. These are hammered in tight and glued along with the tread. The backs of each step are then reinforced with more angled glue blocks.