Colorbond Window Sills

The upper windows were taped up ready for rendering, the window header was patched up and ready to go when it became apparent how silly and difficult it would be to render the small patch of hemp between the window and the upturn of the roof flashing. In fact on all other windows the wall forming the sill slopes away from the window, but the wall forming the sill under the upper windows was made flat as it was too difficult to slope the sills when the walls were being made.

Upper windows ready for rendering

Tiny section of hemp between window and roof flashing

The solution was to get out the angle grinder and cut away the hemp wall so that it sloped down from the window to the top of the roof flashing. I then carefully measured the angle, which was slightly different for each window, and ordered some Colorbond angles from Kiteleys Roofing to be made up in the same colour as the roof to slot in under the bottom of the window then go over the roof flashing. The result was a very neat finish and it saved hours of fiddly rendering. I am also very confident that it will not leak.

Hemp wall cut off with an angle grinder

Installed flashing blends seamlessly with roof

Although the outside of the house had been left untended for about a year without any problems it seems that now some birds had decided to try and make a nest in the wall. Luckily they started on a weaker spot where a spacer hole had been filled and the spacer had been over one of the timber studs, which meant the birds were stopped by the stud and did not get all the way through the wall. It just showed us we needed to hurry up with the rendering.

Bird holes in hemp walls

Brett, our renderer was caught up with other jobs, but put in a weekend of work to try and get the walls finished. Significant progress was made with render going on around three of the five upper windows.

Front pavilion completely rendered

Render around upper windows on back pavilion done

 New techniques were also tried out. The hemp making up the window header above the long kitchen window was loose and crumbly, possibly because there was a very thick lintel behind the hemp, which was therefore separated into two parts rather than being able to key in each if the sides together. Screws with plastic washers had been used to try to help the wall stay together but thus did not assist with the crumbly window header. The solution was to mix up a slurry of sand and cement and flick it on the window header, using a special tool for the purpose. The cement helped hold the wall together enough to stop it crumbling, but only covered such a small area it would not affect the breathability of the walls. Once the cement slurry had set it was much easier to patch the gaps ready for rendering. The texture created will also help provide a key for the render to adhere to.

Cement slurry flicked on window header

Holes patched ready for render

The weekend of rendering meant that we only have three walls and the front door area left and the rendering of the whole house will be done. An exciting prospect.

East wall of back pavilion

House looks finished from the back

Render finished on the western side of the house

Awning Roof Goes On

Just over a year ago the roofing went on the main sections of the house and now the awnings have received their roof and guttering. We needed scaffolding again for this work to be done. It was an annoying expense, but as I was keen to have the professional roofers do the work so that I do not get any leaks, I had to provide them with scaffolding. I contacted Andrew again from Access Scaffolding at Wollongong and he sent his crew down to put up the scaffolding on afternoon before the roofers arrived.

Scaffolding goes up for the front awning

And the back awnings

The roofing (and scaffolding) had been put off for two weeks due to delays caused by a week of heavy rain in the Shoalhaven, so I was keen for it to all go smoothly. The day the scaffolding went up I phoned the roofing company, Kiteley’s, to confirm they were all lined up for the following day, only to discover at this late stage that they had booked the fascia and gutter to be done Friday and the roofing on the Monday. I wanted to be on site to discuss with the roofers the flashing of the awning roof into the hemp walls and quickly had to rearrange work and family to be on site on the Monday.

I had originally not wanted to have guttering on the awnings, in an effort to make them visually and actually lighter and because we have no storm water and any excess water, not diverted to the water tank, had to be dealt with on site. I also did not want the heavy look of downpipes coming off the awnings. But my concerns about the decks under the awnings rotting from the constant dripping from dew and rain caused me to change my mind and get gutters. I have also decided to use rain chains from the awning gutters and make a feature of and incorporate the use of the water in the landscaping.

The metal fascia and gutter, in Windspray colour to match the other gutters and window frames, started to go up quickly Friday morning, but rain threatened. It sprinkled with rain, stopped and sprinkled again, then a brief shower made the materials too slippery to put up and the roofers put off the job until Saturday, when fine weather was predicted.

The roofers were back Saturday and the remainder of the fascia and guttering were attached, save for the awkward join over the entry area that was not a standard angle and required a different piece to the one that had been provided.

Metal fascia and half round gutters go on the front awnings

And the back awnings

 Monday a different crew of roofers arrived and shortly thereafter so did the roofing. Discussions were had about how to install the flashing where the awnings abutted the hemp walls. I thought it would be easy to chase the overflashing into the hemp as I had had no trouble cutting the hemp with an angle grinder. What I did not know is that on a brick wall they normally chase in a thin groove and slide the overflashing into this and this holds it in place. The groove cut in the hemp walls was not such a tight fit and after discussion of possible alternatives it was decided to try to use silicon to try to keep the overflashing attached to the hemp wall and to have that flashing set in from the finished face of the render so if any water ran down the walls it would drip off the bottom of the render rather than running along the flashing and into the wall.

Some last minute work was needed adjusting the ridge over the entry section. In order to get the minimum 5 degree fall in the roof over the entry and bathroom the framing company had come up with a solution to push the ridge back slightly from the junction with the wall of the main pavilion. This however caused problems for the roofing because a valley commenced at this junction and it commenced any higher there would be water running toward the hemp wall above that junction. The solution was to put the ridge in line with this junction and have a stepped ridge. I originally thought this would look awkward but quickly realised that because of the angles of the roof you will not be able to see it. To then do this all I needed was to add some extra timber for the moved ridge capping to attach to. 

The next problem was that, while I had carefully put in my valley boards and cut off my battens 20mm from the valley boards, I had forgotten to put in the valley battens. So I commenced trimming all the battens and putting in the valley battens parallel to and 20mm out from the valley boards. Being an unusual angle I had to measure all the angles for the valley batten. There are three valleys in the awnings, one over the entry and two either side of the hallway. The valleys over the hallway had the added difficulty of water pipes running through the ceiling that needed channels cut away in the rafters to allow them to fit underneath the valley battens. The temporary roofing over the back valleys were all taken off to put the battens in and then put back on again as the roofers had to come back the next day to finish the back section and the flashing.

Finally a covering over the entryway

The two different height awnings in Shale Grey colourbond

Looking down the awning over the main room

I am keen to see what the house looks like with the awning completed, without the scaffolding in the way, and to see how the flashing to the hemp wall has turned out.