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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 (chimney, dining)

Postby chataigner » 21 Dec 2016, 17:53

That process of fitting cut bricks to the faux chimney looks terribly time consuming. I'm sure there's a good reason why you didnt simply build it in brick...

I'm guessing nothing underneath it except roof timber and brick too heavy ?
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (chimney, dining)

Postby Mike G » 21 Dec 2016, 21:15

You've got it in one, David.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 21 Dec 2016, 21:48

Right, lots to get through.

First, a couple of views of the chimney:

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I simply don't have time to do the ridge tiles now, so I had to leave myself a way up there for when I tackle this job in the spring. I covered the missing tiles with plastic, and I'll finish the lead off at the same time:

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OAK TIME!!!

The end wall of the dining room was next on the agenda. This consists of a main overhead beam which picks up the end of the existing bridging joist, and has a structural post underneath which takes the weight of the upstairs floor back to the foundations. I cleaned up a lump of 6"x 5" oak, and did a cut out for the bridging joist:

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That doesn't show clearly, but there is a squint (angled) face cut quite a long way in. There are quite a few electric cables to get across the room in this beam, so I cut a rebate in the top:

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Then it was marking, drilling and chiseling until i had finished all the necessary mortises:

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I wasn't going to do a chamfer detail on this beam, but there was a nasty bash on the edge of the oak where it had been carelessly handled by the supplier, so I managed to get that over the doorway, and removed it with a chamfer:

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Once I had cut all the mortises in the top beam, it was time to transfer them down onto the longer of the two sole plates:

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Here is my dining room, 6 days before christmas. Note the pile of completed oak studs and beams on the right:

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Here's a tip. You know how all your electric tools have indistinguishable black plugs......well, get some Tippex and put an initial or two on them, so that when you are faced with a cobwebs of cables and an extension full of identical plugs, you don't waste ages pulling the wrong plugs out:

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Here's another tip: always know which face of the wood you are working on. Then you won't make cock-ups like this:

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The two holes on the upper face were a start of a cut-out for the patress box for a light switch, but on the wrong face. You can see the correct version to the right, with a stepped rebate to allow the fitting of a cover strip in due course (once the beak has done all its shrinking).

Time to prepare the bridging joist for its new support. Crack out the precision woodworking machinery:

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This new support beam is a featherweight compared with the 2 big lifts I did a few weeks ago. Essentially I lifted each end alternatively on my shoulder and stuck a prop in underneath, with a rope at one end to act as a fail safe. Anyway, here is the lift:

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I should have made a template rather than measuring:

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I pinned a piece of thick lead to the underside of the support post, because it will bear down on top of two engineering bricks sitting on some DPM on the foundation, through a hole I left in the screed. I wanted the weight to bear evenly on the bricks, and lead is a good way of evening out very small differences:

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I had left the brickwork down a course, so was able to offer everything up into the sole plate, then raise the whole arrangement the length of the mortises:

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Note the very long lever:

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Same the other side:

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Finished:

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This wall remains open. It physically divides off the dining room from the hall, but keeps the feeling of space, and keeps everything feeling light and bright. I need to add the pegs, and complete the brickwork, but that is the wall complete.

There's more...........
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby RogerS » 21 Dec 2016, 21:57

The precision of your oak work is immaculate, Mike. You're applying the same degree of accuracy that many of us aspire to with furniture :eusa-clap: :eusa-clap:
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 21 Dec 2016, 22:02

Some days, weeks even, on a building site, you work and work and work, and no-one can see any progress. Then there are other days which are show-stoppers. The same day I erected the dining room end wall, I did the breakthrough between new and old, and moved the stairs to near their new location. First, some before shots:

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Then the after piccies:

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The stairs in their old (temporary) location in the lounge:

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The OSB on the right of the last picture is the downstairs join between new and old, and what I have effectively just done is create the same opening upstairs, directly above it. Now, I dragged the stairs around, trimmed a bit off the length, and stuck them in their new position:

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And there's more......

I also built the downstairs loo enclosure. Unfortunately, this is the only photo so far, but it is already boarded out on one side of each of the partitions, and has a door hanging. A lot of it will get taken apart again after christmas, because there is some complicated oak framing to do in the area:

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Tomorrow, I plumb in the loo and handbasin, fill in the screed around the dining room main post, and put a light on to the WC. Then in the afternoon........ :)
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 21 Dec 2016, 22:05

RogerS wrote:The precision of your oak work is immaculate, Mike. You're applying the same degree of accuracy that many of us aspire to with furniture :eusa-clap: :eusa-clap:


Thanks Roger. I try! I visited a site of mine a couple of days ago where a builder is doing an oak-framed sunroom for a client. I cringed at the inaccuracy, and the poor finish to the faces and edges, but he was proud as punch.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby TrimTheKing » 21 Dec 2016, 22:20

Magnificent! Love the oak work Mike, and leaving that wall open, unusual but inspired! :eusa-clap:

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 21 Dec 2016, 22:27

I often leave dining room walls open like that mark. Clients love it. I loved it in my last house. How often are dining rooms left closed up and unused? They don't feel part of a house sometimes. This details solves all that. Besides, I badly want the light thrown around downstairs as much as possible.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Malc2098 » 21 Dec 2016, 23:13

Outstanding, Mike. Gives me the confidence to do my small erection, if you'll pardon the use of that word!
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby TrimTheKing » 21 Dec 2016, 23:27

Makes perfect sense Mike, just not something I've seen before.

Out of interest, why have it at all? Why not just go full open plan in that area?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby StevieB » 22 Dec 2016, 04:08

Phenomenal work Mike. Out of interest, with all the jacking up and lowering you are doing, have you noticed much settlement in existing walls? I ask because when we did a steel in our kitchen I got so much settlement I had to have an upstairs wall re-plastered due to cracking. To be fair the walls in my house seem to be a brick skin with loose infill and yours are all timber, so maybe not an issue for you?

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 22 Dec 2016, 08:01

TrimTheKing wrote:........Out of interest, why have it at all? Why not just go full open plan in that area?


Even when doing open plan, I think it important to define areas, but in an old cottage, one wouldn't expect to find open plan, but would expect some oak framing. If I did away with the posts (and plinth), I would have needed another mega-beam to hold up the floor above.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 22 Dec 2016, 08:03

StevieB wrote:.....with all the jacking up and lowering you are doing, have you noticed much settlement in existing walls?.....


None at all, but then, I'm not sure what I would expect to see anyway with timber framed lath & plastered walls.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby chataigner » 22 Dec 2016, 10:15

Great work Mike, looking terrific.

Please tighten the chain on that saw before it jumps the bar and does you an injury.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Stargazer » 22 Dec 2016, 10:23

Mike G wrote:I pinned a piece of thick lead to the underside of the support post, because it will bear down on top of two engineering bricks sitting on some DPM on the foundation, through a hole I left in the screed. I wanted the weight to bear evenly on the bricks, and lead is a good way of evening out very small differences:

Image



We use a lead sheet on the top of 3 steel columns to support a 13 tonne glass mirror for the same reason....the lead gives slightly under pressure rather than the mirror! Will see if I have a pic somewhere although I suspect it is 35mm rather than digital.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby TrimTheKing » 22 Dec 2016, 11:28

Mike G wrote:
TrimTheKing wrote:........Out of interest, why have it at all? Why not just go full open plan in that area?


Even when doing open plan, I think it important to define areas, but in an old cottage, one wouldn't expect to find open plan, but would expect some oak framing. If I did away with the posts (and plinth), I would have needed another mega-beam to hold up the floor above.


Makes sense, thanks.

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Commander » 22 Dec 2016, 20:26

Excellent progress Mike! I really enjoy easing everything come together!
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Andyp » 22 Dec 2016, 22:52

chataigner wrote:Great work Mike, looking terrific.

Please tighten the chain on that saw before it jumps the bar and does you an injury.


Is the bar upside down as well?
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Tusses » 23 Dec 2016, 15:35

Love this thread Mike

I might not comment much,
but it's all excellent work,
both quality, and speed of progress !
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby ScotlandtheDave » 23 Dec 2016, 15:46

Andyp wrote:
chataigner wrote:Great work Mike, looking terrific.

Please tighten the chain on that saw before it jumps the bar and does you an injury.


Is the bar upside down as well?


Chainsaw bars can be flipped to extend service life, as it distributes the wear on the rails to both top and bottom. the top rail hardly wears at all in normal cutting scenarios.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 29 Dec 2016, 15:31

chataigner wrote:Please tighten the chain on that saw before it jumps the bar and does you an injury.


I slackened it off deliberately when I last put it away, thinking I wouldn't use it until spring. So yes, I adjusted it before starting it up. And yes, the bar is flipped, too, as it was getting a little worn the other way up.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Mike G » 29 Dec 2016, 15:34

Apologies for my absence over christmas, but I now know what a power unit does for a computer, and how poorly computers function when said unit goes on the blink.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby Malc2098 » 29 Dec 2016, 17:12

:D
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby RogerS » 29 Dec 2016, 17:31

Mike G wrote:Apologies for my absence over christmas, but I now know what a power unit does for a computer, and how poorly computers function when said unit goes on the blink.


Hope it's not your back playing up again.
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Re: Mike's extension & renovation (oak dining wall, breakthr

Postby StevieB » 30 Dec 2016, 12:48

I read that as a PC failure rather than a healthcare issue....

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