Facias and Fixing

Tuesday Access Scaffolding put up the the scaffolding for the facia, gutters and roof to go on. There was a lot of scaffolding as due to the skillion roofs, on three sides each roof was over the Workcover limit of 3.2 m above ground, over which scaffolding was required.

With all that scaffolding in place heavy rain Tuesday night did not deter the boys from Kiteleys getting straight into work 7am on the dot Wednesday morning. The fascia and gutter installation went smoothly even on the tricky bits - one of which was where the roof it split into two different pitches - the other were the roof abuts a vertical hemp wall. Here enough room had to be left for the 55mm of hemp on the outside of the frame and for the formwork. So that there is no gap between the fascia and the wall when it is all finished the thickness of the formwork will almost completely be taken up by the render. The gutters and fascia are both on Colorbond Windspray colour, the roof and over flashings will be a lighter grey colour called Shale Grey. 

Facia and gutter go on the low side of the roof.

Scaffold in place with fascia waiting to go up

While the boys from Kiteleys were working on the fascia I tidied up all the timber that had been left in the house from the cutting of the rafters. This was to make the interior of the house ready to store the hemp and binder when it arrives late next week. I had also planned to continue working on installing the damp proof course that also acted as a flashing. The best way I worked out to do the damp proof course was in two parts - I used an embossed polyethelyne damp proof course for both parts. The first went under the frame extending 10mm past the frame on the outside and 55mm (the width of the hemp walling ) on the inside of the frame. Obviously this was installed at the same time as the frame. It was a bit fiddly to get the damp proof course to stay in the right place. Although the builders said it was redundant since the slab had a layer of plastic under it, I took the more cautious approach and insisted on the damp proof.

The second part of thedamp proof course ran down outside bottom of the timber frame, to which it was attached with clouts, down and across the step down alonge the outer edge of the concrete slab. It overlapped the 10mm of damp proof course that was sticking out from the first part of the dame proof course, and then stuck out 10mm past where the hemp walls will finish.

Damp proof course under the frame and where the hemp walling will go

Sticking out a little from the frame to overlap with the damp proof course that runs down the outside of the frame

Damp proof course running down outide of frame and step down in concrete to stick out 10mm from the finished wall

From the inside of the house

But I only put a small section of damp proof course in place as much of my time was spent checking the window openings before I put my final window order in with Rylock. Angelique from Rylock has been very patient with me providing several revisions to my window quote each time changes were made to the windows. Angelique even phoned to remind me to get my order in before the end of the financial year to avoid any price increases. I chose to get my aluminium windows from Rylock as they custom make all their windows (meaning size changes were not an issue), are accoustomed to providing double glazing, have a more solid architectural look and have an integral timber reveal on the inside that will act as a sort of permanat shuttering and a render stop for the internal render. However the windows will not go in until after the walls are made, to allow temporary shuttering to be used around the window openings, but will go in before the rendering is done to allow a neat finish around the windows.

The scaffolding made it much easier to access and measure the highlight windows above the sliding doors, and to check and recheck that three of the highlight windows that were supposed to be the same size were all substantially different heights. Two had double sills and one had a single sill. The right information had been given to the framing company and after a phone call was made to the framing company it appears they drew up the right sizes for their workers, but a double sill was put on the wrong window. This was easily fixed by the removal of a sill with a pinch bar, then it was close enough to thwe correct size. The other window that only had one sill needed an extra one. This was a bit more difficult as the window was wide than the one that had the sill removed and I did not have any timber the right thickness, width and length. The frame company will drop a piece down on Monday, so I can put it in while I still have easy acces from the scaffolding. When discussing these problems with the frame company they alerted me to the fact that two of the three openings for the cascading windows in the hallway were the wrong size too. Two of the window openings were too big and easily fixed by adding an extra sill of the right thickness, after measuring and checking three times that I was adding timber timber in the right place. So with all this measuring, checking and fixing I did not get much of the damp proof course done.

Front view. Facia and gutter all done

Facia and Gutter from the scaffolding

View of the river and mountain from the sccaffolding

The main roof

I also learnt the benefit of taking the time to sort and compact the building waste, of which I have a small pile. All the small offcuts of timber were collected and taken home for a friend to use as kindling for her fireplace. The metal strapping, of which I had a large and unweildy pile, was sorted from the plastic and other scraps and tamed by bending and folding it and squashing it into a box. This was then dropped off at the Nowra metal recyclers, in doing so I got rid of a waste product that was always springing out everywhere creating trip hazards and taking up room, it did not cost me anything and it will now have a new life as something else.