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Mike's ext'n & renovation (sunroom stone floor & plinth)

This is where we don't want anything but evidence of your finest wood butchering in all its glorious, and photograph laden glory. Bring your finished products or WIP's, we love them all, so long as there's pictures, and plenty of 'em!

Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Foundations poured)

Postby Mike G » 24 Oct 2014, 17:59

Yep, dead right guys. So much depends on the local conditions.

In Darwin, Northern Australia, for instance, steel cables are attached to the foundations, then taken up and over the superstructure and fixed to the foundations on the other side, then tensioned. This to prevent cyclone damage.

You can tell from the fact that there are 700 year old timber buildings in this area without any foundations at all, let alone thousand year old churches built straight onto the dirt, that our conditions are relatively benign.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 25 Oct 2014, 19:08

I have let the concrete go off for a couple of days, so thought I might reduce the oversite. This means stripping off all the soil down to the underside of the build up for the floor slab. My floor, working from the top down, will consist of 75mm sand & cement screed (with underfloor heating pipes), polythene separation layer, 75mm Celotex insulation, 100mm concrete, 1200 gauge polythene DPM, sand blinding, c.150 crushed hardcore.....so I need to reduce the ground level to approx. 400mm below finished floor level.

Before I did this, I had to set out for the curved retaining wall, because I will be eliminating the centre point, and if I don't do it now, setting out a circle will be so much harder.

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As I won't be digging that out until the spring (I don't want the site to turn into a mud-bath), I had to mark it in such a way as would survive for 5 or 6 months, so I cut a little channel and filled it with lime:

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Then I got to work with the digger:

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I piled up as much as I could, and ran out of room to dig. The digger driver is back next week, and he'll load this on a lorry, then clean up properly. The little digger can't handle the big flat bucket (probably 1500 wide or so, but critically, lacking teeth). This will give us a good surface to work from.

I've ordered bricks and blocks, so once the oversite is cleared, it's on with bricklaying.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby 9fingers » 25 Oct 2014, 19:32

I don't think I recall hearing about the curved retaining wall before Mike.
The site looks quite level so far so I'm a bit curious about what is needing retaining?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Wizard9999 » 25 Oct 2014, 20:57

9fingers wrote:I don't think I recall hearing about the curved retaining wall before Mike.
The site looks quite level so far so I'm a bit curious about what is needing retaining?

Bob


:text-+1: Same question sprang to mind when I read this.

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Rod » 25 Oct 2014, 22:25

Perhaps a moat?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 26 Oct 2014, 09:00

9fingers wrote:I don't think I recall hearing about the curved retaining wall before Mike.
The site looks quite level so far so I'm a bit curious about what is needing retaining?

Bob


I haven't mentioned it before, Bob, but the house floors were lowered, I guess in the 1970's under the Home Improvement Grants scheme. This put them well below ground level, and so they sloped the ground down to the house, all round. The high point of the lawn is some 700mm above the ground level at the house wall, and the man-made depression in which the house now sits is undrained. So that all needs sorting out.

Here's a sketch of the proposed landscaping. Consider it an opening of negotiations......

Image
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby firedfromthecircus » 26 Oct 2014, 09:47

So who owns the land to the right outside the current boundary?

Looks like a nice set-up. 8-)
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Wizard9999 » 26 Oct 2014, 09:47

So is the plan to buy more land outside the current "registered boundary"?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 26 Oct 2014, 10:19

Yes, before we even bought the place the farmer offered to sell us as much land as we want.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby TheTiddles » 26 Oct 2014, 16:48

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Last edited by TheTiddles on 02 Nov 2014, 13:32, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 26 Oct 2014, 18:30

TheTiddles wrote:Curved retaining wall like a dam, nice idea, though I guess it's more for aesthetics?

Aidan


100% for aesthetics, Aidan.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Wizard9999 » 26 Oct 2014, 22:56

Mike G wrote:Yes, before we even bought the place the farmer offered to sell us as much land as we want.


Lucky you! :mrgreen:
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby RogerS » 27 Oct 2014, 12:11

Mike, presumably your extension will have all the well-insulated bits and pieces that are your 'signature' as it were. But will you be retro-fitting stuff to the existing building? If so, I shall watch with even more interest !
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 27 Oct 2014, 18:46

Hi Roger.

Yes, the new-build will be my usual inside-out timber frame, super-insulated, triple glazed and a ventilation system serving the whole property. The old part will be stripped back to the frame, then Celotex between the studs, and 100mm of sheeps wool insulation outside the frame, across the face of the studs. I'll then batten out and lime render. This means the existing house gets c.5" of build up on every wall, so will be 10" wider and 10" longer. The plinth will be rebuilt to suit the new lines (the plinth, like the rest of the house, has been wrecked by having a rock hard sand/ cement render applied over the old soft-red bricks).

I think the re-built walls of the old house will have a U value of about 0.13, and still be breathable. The ventilation system will make sure that there is never again a build up of condensation internally, or interstitially. I obviously won't be showing any timbers externally, but the principle timbers will be on show internally. The increased roof overhang will be catered for with sprockets.

From the above, you'll see that the finished property will be a combination of lightweight (the existing), and thermally massive (the new). It will be interesting to see how this performs, but I'm not expecting to have big heating bills, with my normal target of £100 per year in mind.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby RogerS » 27 Oct 2014, 18:48

Really looking forward to seeing that pan out, Mike.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 27 Oct 2014, 18:55

So do I Roger. I'm already getting people asking me when it will be finished!!
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby StevieB » 27 Oct 2014, 21:06

At the rate you are going Mike I would have thought by Christmas was a distinct possibility! :D
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 27 Oct 2014, 21:52

Don't you start, Steve! :D

If I have finished the extension and the renovation by christmas 2015 I'll be pleased, I think. The renovation could take some time. One fly in the ointment is that I will probably have to have a carpal tunnel operation (or two) done in the next few months, and that means weeks off.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby 9fingers » 27 Oct 2014, 22:19

Are you living in the place during the work Mike?

We did this when adding both an extension and an extra floor on our bungalow. We have "lived" in nearly every room in the house as a bedsit during the course of the works.
Having to keep the property functional, dry and secure at all times was a bit of a pain and sometimes meant the work had to proceed in a less than optimum order had the place been empty.

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 27 Oct 2014, 23:25

Yes, we're living in the cottage. We'll move into the extension when that is finished, and start work on the renovation. When I say "living"...........it's a bit more like camping. Almost all our possessions are in a shipping container on site.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Oversite stripping)

Postby Mike G » 28 Oct 2014, 20:57

The plinth materials turned up today:

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Setting out brickwork)

Postby Mike G » 31 Oct 2014, 19:55

Here is the site stripped to levels and cleared:

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Just to show the slope of the land I referred to previously:

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I am pointing the piece of batten at the underside of the footing of the existing cottage, which is about 2 inches below the current (reduced) floor level:

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It's November tomorrow!!!!!!!

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Right, the serious stuff. I spent hours re-setting out, using a datum along the back of the house. Some of my previous setting out turned out to be very accurate, which must have been an accumulation of errors, because I was working from the curved line of a portion of the rear wall. Now I can get to the whole thing, I can be much more precise. I needed the datum line, and a line at right angles to it. I did this with a 9m, 12m, 15m triangle, which should be extremely accurate........but I won't really know until the brickwork is up.

For those who haven't seen brickwork being started, you string your line between marks (nails) on the profiles, knock up a strong mix of mortar (mine was stronger than 1:2 cement to sand), and spread it as thinly as possibly at the corner locations. You then need to drop the line of the string down onto the wet mortar, which you do with a spirit level.....and patience, particularly on a breezy day. The other notable thing in this photo is the vertical batten driven into the ground near the corner. There is one of these at every corner, and they have been set to the height of the plinth using a laser level. They are accurate to within 1mm, which means I have no excuse if the brickwork isn't horizontal:

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I do this in a couple of places per corner......once at the corner, and then again about 6 feet away, then lay a straight edge between the two and mark with the edge of the trowel:

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Your first few bricks you just have to be careful not to spread too much mortar around, because it will obscure your marking out. Mine isn't entirely set out yet, because I ran out of light whilst I was scratching my head over a difficult corner. Difficult because I haven't got a location I can put a second profile, unless I do a temporary one within the excavation. I'll work something out in the middle of the night.....when all my best thinking gets done. :D
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Setting out brickwork)

Postby Mike G » 31 Oct 2014, 23:40

I know how much you all like a little quiz question, so here's a couple for you. Here is a drawing of the section through the plinth of the extension:

Image

1/ Which brick will I lay first.......A, B, or C?
2/ Why is there a course of bricks under the block courses?
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Mike's extension & renovation (Setting out brickwork)

Postby TrimTheKing » 31 Oct 2014, 23:58

Mike G wrote:I know how much you all like a little quiz question, so here's a couple for you. Here is a drawing of the section through the plinth of the extension:

Image

1/ Which brick will I lay first.......A, B, or C?
2/ Why is there a course of bricks under the block courses?

1/ A
2/ Because the bricks will be stronger at ground level than blocks?…or…Because you want a certain height of plinth and want to bring them up to height and that height is 1/3 of the depth of a block?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (Setting out brickwork)

Postby Halo Jones » 01 Nov 2014, 00:01

I like a quiz, but I am never very good at them!

From your marking out lines I would guess that brick B would be the first?

Are the brick courses made from some sort of engineering brick to withstand loads, or are they more frost/moisture resistant?


btw. I am really enjoying the build - and learning loads.

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