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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 (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Karookop » 20 Jun 2017, 09:29

Yip, stunning and stirling work Mike. What a pleasure to see your pre-planning and accurate execution with awesome end results! :eusa-clap:
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Mike G » 20 Jun 2017, 09:39

Malc2098 wrote:The hole? A grape vine.


Bingo! The vine is planted outside, trained in through the hole, and then up the wall to the roof.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Mike G » 20 Jun 2017, 09:40

Karookop wrote:Yip, stunning and stirling work Mike. What a pleasure to see your pre-planning and accurate execution with awesome end results! :eusa-clap:


Thanks Carel. I'm looking forward to seeing these steps completed, and to getting some paving slabs down. Then having a braai! :)
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Karookop » 20 Jun 2017, 09:42

Mike G wrote:
Karookop wrote:Yip, stunning and stirling work Mike. What a pleasure to see your pre-planning and accurate execution with awesome end results! :eusa-clap:


Thanks Carel. I'm looking forward to seeing these steps completed, and to getting some paving slabs down. Then having a braai! :)


You deserve a lekker braai Mike! :obscene-drinkingcheers:
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Mike G » 20 Jun 2017, 09:44

Well, I've just started sketching a brick-built BBQ/ smoker/ pizza oven. That's for next year. This year I'll have to settle for an old drum cut in half.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby Malc2098 » 20 Jun 2017, 09:47

Mike G wrote:Well, I've just started sketching a brick-built BBQ/ smoker/ pizza oven. That's for next year. This year I'll have to settle for an old drum cut in half.



I'll be up for the plans of a brick-built BBQ/smoker/pizza oven, please!!
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (steps, coping, bog)

Postby TrimTheKing » 20 Jun 2017, 18:05

Ooooooh yeeeaaaaah!

I'm gorging on Pinterest for designs for mine when the 'shop is done...

I'll get a BBQ in a couple of years then...!

Mark


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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 27 Jun 2017, 08:37

Plodding on with the patio.....

I started by spraying off the vegetation, then laid out small pieces of the old render (removed from the cottage walls months ago) over the clay. These I beat with a tamper to settle them down nicely:

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I had laid out the levels of the finished paving previously with a string line and pegs, so was then able to lay a coat of really sloppy concrete over the top of the old render. This ran into all the nooks and crannies to hold everything secure. I guess the total build-up amounts to about 3 inches on average. I didn't bother too much with the surface of the concrete, as it is going to have a bed of mortar over it to hold the paving slabs:

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You'll notice in the second from last photo that I also laid a small foundation. This was dug out to give me about 100mm depth of concrete. That photo also shows the colour change in concrete overnight. Here's that foundation from a different angle:

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The idea is to have a row of bricks matching the top of the retaining walls to demarcate the edge of the paved area from an area which is going to be shingled. As only the tops of the bricks are to be seen, I was able to cut some bricks lengthways, and so get two-for-one:

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I ran out of mortar and time.

In amongst doing that, I also made a start on the main steps. If I'd put a bit more thought into these in the first place, this bit of blockwork could have been properly integrated into the brick piers as they were being built:

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Collecting hardcore from a pile manually is a nightmare. You actually have to lift each piece manually and put it in the barrow. So this took hours:

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I then did something on a whim. I know. Most unlike me, but I thought I'd give it a go and see. I'm still not sure about it.....

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Yep, I laid the bricks to show the "top" of the brick, rather than an edge. This face isn't normally seen in brickwork, and it still feels odd. I rather regret doing it, but my wife likes it. As the brickwork is then only 65mm deep and thus vulnerable, as soon as the mortar was "dry" enough I backfilled with more hardcore, and splashed in some strong sloppy concrete behind the bricks to secure them. I ran out of time and ballast, so will concrete to depth, and across the rest of the hardcore, next time.

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The paving slabs between the piers will be buried under concrete with the next steps. The blockwork and slabs were simply to avoid a pile of hardcore and concrete 3 feet deep.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Phil » 27 Jun 2017, 10:38

Looking good Mike.

When will you get the Oak to work on the house again?


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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 27 Jun 2017, 10:46

The oak is here, Phil. I'll start back on that as soon as the patio is paved and the steps finished.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Malc2098 » 27 Jun 2017, 13:11

Looking really good!
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Andyp » 27 Jun 2017, 16:19

Mike G wrote:The oak is here, Phil. I'll start back on that as soon as the patio is paved and the steps finished.


If I have this right.. Workshop roof to finish, greenhouse/potting shed to finish, interior woodwork to finish, and the patio. So many jobs on the go would do my head in.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby TrimTheKing » 27 Jun 2017, 16:27

Stairs and patio looking great Mike :eusa-clap:

Going back to your vine comment, how do you know how big to make the hole...? Don't they thicken over time and risk filling that hole, or do they only get to a finite trunk thickness?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 27 Jun 2017, 18:00

I've been trying to get hold of my mate who was the first I saw doing this trick, but he's off climbing in the Alps. If it needs a bigger hole (I suspect it will), I'll get the angle grinder out.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 27 Jun 2017, 18:04

Andyp wrote:
Mike G wrote:The oak is here, Phil. I'll start back on that as soon as the patio is paved and the steps finished.


If I have this right.. Workshop roof to finish, greenhouse/potting shed to finish, interior woodwork to finish, and the patio. So many jobs on the go would do my head in.


If only that were it. I've a bathroom to build (no walls and little floor at the moment), stairs to build, plastering throughout the old part of the house, porch to build, window surrounds, slate roof over the lounge, EML in preparation for the render................plenty to get my teeth into.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Rod » 27 Jun 2017, 18:12

A man's work is never done!!

I'll have to measure my vines thickness, I planted it in 1976.

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Jimmy Mack » 27 Jun 2017, 18:39

Rod wrote:A man's work is never done!!

I'll have to measure my vines thickness, I planted it in 1976.

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I too, was planted in 1976

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby TrimTheKing » 27 Jun 2017, 20:39

Jimmy Mack wrote:
Rod wrote:A man's work is never done!!

I'll have to measure my vines thickness, I planted it in 1976.

Rod

I too, was planted in 1976

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I was 'planted' in 1975 but only broke the surface in mid '76, and I'm quite thick...! :lol:

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Phil » 28 Jun 2017, 12:27

Mike G wrote:I've been trying to get hold of my mate who was the first I saw doing this trick, but he's off climbing in the Alps. If it needs a bigger hole (I suspect it will), I'll get the angle grinder out.


3.5" square is 87.5mm x 87.5mm - Mike I don't think you need to worry too much as it won't become an issue in your lifetime! That would be quite a thick trunk and grapes supply the whole neighborhood or LOTS of L's of wine. 8-)
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby TrimTheKing » 28 Jun 2017, 17:57

Phil wrote:3.5" square is 87.5mm x 87.5mm - Mike I don't think you need to worry too much as it won't become an issue in your lifetime! That would be quite a thick trunk and grapes supply the whole neighborhood or LOTS of L's of wine. 8-)


It might not be a single trunk though...

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Phil » 29 Jun 2017, 08:09

TrimTheKing wrote:
Phil wrote:3.5" square is 87.5mm x 87.5mm - Mike I don't think you need to worry too much as it won't become an issue in your lifetime! That would be quite a thick trunk and grapes supply the whole neighborhood or LOTS of L's of wine. 8-)


It might not be a single trunk though...

Mark


With the wall only patially built, the opportunity is there for more holes, one per vine trunk, different cultivars, more grapes, different wines ........... 8-)


Phil


Ok, let's not hi-jack the thread with wine :lol:
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 29 Jun 2017, 08:28

They actually take a reasonable amount of room, vines. There will only be one, and it will be a dessert grape, not for wine. We'll also be "rubbing out" side shoots so that there is only one leader...........so one stem, and only the one hole needed. I think the size of the hole is going to be more dependent on the shape of the stem than on its size. If it decides to bend half way through the wall, it will need a bigger hole than if it grows straight.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Andyp » 29 Jun 2017, 10:39

How do you provide enough space for the vine to grow without letting undesirable rodents getting in?
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (sub-base, main steps)

Postby Mike G » 29 Jun 2017, 10:47

Dunno, yet.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (curved steps)

Postby Mike G » 03 Jul 2017, 17:36

Still working outside on the hard landscaping. Here's a reminder of how the main steps were when I last posted:

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From there it was a question of concrete, then the following day the next lot of bricks. Some hours later, fill with hardcore, then concrete, then bricklaying again.........

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To the back door steps. Having looked a little more closely at how the levels are going to work here, I laid a soldier course, which I haunched with concrete, as this will have soil and turf hard up against it:

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Tired of bricklaying, I thought I'd do some digging instead, so dug out the base for the path from the patio to the workshop, before & after:

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It drove me nuts that I couldn't lay out an arc for this path. I tried all sorts, and eventually came in and drew it on the computer, and realised that there is no available arc. So that curve is by eye. There will eventually be a pergola over the steps and path at the patio. A new garden like this needs height ASAP, and a pergola is a great way of getting that quickly. Look out for that in 2018.

I finished off the edging strip for the paving:

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That awful last photo helps me somewhat, as the nearest junction isn't my finest bricklaying hour.

I also laid lots of bricks for the greenhouse:

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The corners are to full height, so there isn't much to go to bring the walls up to finished height.
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