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#1100548 2-Aug-2014 11:23

Custom made Dell NSA 240 sonicwall 1U rack mount adapter. Did not fancy spending $200 USD for the original kit.

jimbob79

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#1100672 2-Aug-2014 15:30

Finished and installed into place. One job ticked off my never ending list.

Fred99

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#1103697 6-Aug-2014 22:15

Today I finished installing about 300m of cavity battens for our full exterior re-cladding. I've been working on site with builders, who've completed installing framing timber. They did a great job. Because it was going to be "tricky" installing a flashing system around old wooden windows and doors, and this is normally a job for the cladding contractor, but this had to be done simultaneously with the framing timber installation I agreed to DIY for the cladding contractor, as well as installing EPS battens to form sills and reveals. I bought a router and cutting tool to do this job - it was very tricky. I used my bench saw to cut profile on EPS. All in all quite nasty work.
The builders also installed my new french doors. Of course the wall was neither quite plumb nor square. With my "DIY" skills I would have been stuffed, but they sorted out "best compromise" which means a bit of jiggery pokery for me with internal lining later, but easily do-able - and will look perfect.
The cladding contractor - who I'm sure first thought I was a bit nuts - visited on Monday. He pointed out a detail missed on the plans, for some blocking for support for the cladding system on external corners. Of course he was right. I mentioned this to the builders, who fastened some extra timber. Damn it - my fault as my instructions weren't clear. I have BCA inspection booked for Friday, and this detail was done wrong. Unfortunately I spend this morning "undoing" the extra work the builder had done, and redoing it. Not their fault (they were excellent).
It took me two days to install the battens etc on my own, start at sunrise - finish at sunset - no breaks. Tomorrow a quick tidy-up of a few things. I hope I get the weekend off.

linw

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#1103786 7-Aug-2014 08:02

jimbob79: Finished and installed into place. One job ticked off my never ending list.

I see the 'product placement'!! Must have made that job free?

Fred99

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#1118552 30-Aug-2014 14:06

Our EQ repairs are coming along well.

This shows the new cladding system, attached over cavity battens to "new" 90x45 studs, which have been trimmed to align them straight using string lines from the corners of the house, and the perimeter foundation. Because of variation in depth between the old framing, and that when the house was built (1962) for cladding in brick, then the "good side" of the timber framing went inside, variation in cavity depth between framing and brick didn't matter. It is a significant problem if re-cladding an old brick house. Nothing is quite true, square, and plumb.
So the house is now braced with ply, all exterior walls fully insulated, then extra framing, then 75mm poly/plaster system, panels laid horizontally and staggered, so no continuous vertical joins.
The flashing with alubond tape extends 200mm above the foundation level, it sits on wooden support that I had to rip to depth and cut a 5 deg bevel, then on DPC, then the top of the foundation has a waterproof membrane coating. The sub-floor vents I have replaced - some were broken, but all had to be lowered about 50mm so that the downturn on the flashing didn't overhang. The building inspector was very happy - in fact he was planning a new home on TC2 land, wanting to use a lightweight cladding, and I was able to organise for a tech manager from the manufacturer to visit site and meet. He will use a similar system on his new build.

This shows the mesh from the extruded proprietary flashing system which is slotted in to grooves cut in the old window jambs and seals. I set up the framing on one wall with a window, because it was hard to visualise from drawings how it was all going to fit together, and who was going to do what. The flashing had to be put in place before some of the framing, the white shaped poly under the sill really had to go on immediately after the flashing was inserted. This is all restricted work - but I "DIY" under supervision of LBP builder and cladding installer - while my builder installed the framing timber.
I installed the lower aluminium flashing system, after much experimentation, I found that I could cut the grooves to the sills and jambs with a plunge router, finishing inaccessible corners with a multitool. This was looking like a it was going to be a nightmare - but it went just fine. I had to keep ahead of the builders - but work with them. Some cynics suggested that I'd end up in a massive dispute with the builder. I'm glad to say they were wrong - the whole thing went really well. As I was on site, any little issues could be sorted immediately.

So there it is. Will look much better when the foundation and windows have a lick of paint, and we've got a garden again.
Next project which starts next week is building two new decks - my builder is doing this - I have plenty of other stuff to do.
We had our new log-burner installed yesterday. As I had consents in place for the house, the installer suggested I should apply rather than them. I had done this 4 years ago (just before the quakes), I installed a replacement inbuilt log-burner - but our chimney fell down in the quakes, so we've been without proper heating for years now - just a small heat pump I installed to heat our dining room/kitchen area. The old consent application form was a couple of pages. The new one was 7 pages of tedium. They even ask for a copy of your certificate of title.

Bung

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#1118602 30-Aug-2014 15:15

On something non routine like that your motivation to do a good job is probably as good a qualification as any.

froob

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#1118646 30-Aug-2014 17:25

I replaced a lot of rotten decking boards a while back. Just mixed and matched new with old...

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Bung

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#1118718 30-Aug-2014 19:38

How old is the deck? I'm surprised you have a lot of rot if it's hardwood. I have one that is probably older and some problem boards are splitting and splintering but not rotting. Your joist spacing looks on the wide side.

froob

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#1118783 30-Aug-2014 22:20

Bung: How old is the deck? I'm surprised you have a lot of rot if it's hardwood. I have one that is probably older and some problem boards are splitting and splintering but not rotting. Your joist spacing looks on the wide side.

Not sure exactly how old, maybe 5 or 10 years. The ends of the boards rotted because the timber was butted hard up against a retaining wall next to the deck. The place was a rental before we bought it, so the end of the deck was also under about a metre of ivy, which couldn't have helped. Have posted a photo below from a different angle, so you can see what I mean. I've now pulled the boards back from the wall to avoid that happening again.

Good eye with the joist spacing - I think it's about 100 or 150mm wider than it should be. The original decking timber is merch grade pine, which basically sprung like a trampoline with the wide spacing. I've been replacing it with hardwood (kwila) to address that, which seemed like an easier option than putting in nogs or more joists.

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DarthKermit

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#1123318 6-Sep-2014 20:13

^^^ All looks good, guys. Keep it up.

Here's two of my projects.

I like the idea of utilising wasted space in houses, such as the stud space inside walls.

In our main bedroom, I cut a big hole in the wall between the two wardrobe doors and made this:

It looks like a mirror hanging on the wall at first glance.

But it's actually a hinged door with plenty of space for my partner's makeup stuff:

This takes up zero extra space in the house.

In our second bedroom, I also cut a hole in the wall between the two wardrobe doors and made a mini bookcase:

I plan to make a hinged mirror in the bathroom, that will hinge down and allow for some hidden shelves and storage space inside that wall space.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Fred99

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#1123710 7-Sep-2014 17:25

I plan to make a hinged mirror in the bathroom, that will hinge down and allow for some hidden shelves and storage space inside that wall space.

That works pretty well - good job. I take it your house is old enough to be made from 4x2 framing - when 4x2 actually meant 4x2.
This weekend, I've been working on windows, scraping, sanding, priming. It got worse, job #2 was painting soffits, fascia boards, guttering. So I have sore arms from reaching up, sore neck from looking up, I think I've managed to get all the paint off myself in the shower. It feels like spring today - so I just had a gin and tonic, and by gum, I think I'll have another...

DarthKermit

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#1123751 7-Sep-2014 18:16

Fred99:

I plan to make a hinged mirror in the bathroom, that will hinge down and allow for some hidden shelves and storage space inside that wall space.

That works pretty well - good job. I take it your house is old enough to be made from 4x2 framing - when 4x2 actually meant 4x2.

This weekend, I've been working on windows, scraping, sanding, priming. It got worse, job #2 was painting soffits, fascia boards, guttering. So I have sore arms from reaching up, sore neck from looking up, I think I've managed to get all the paint off myself in the shower. It feels like spring today - so I just had a gin and tonic, and by gum, I think I'll have another...

Cheers. Yes, the house is early 1950s; all the framing is rough sawn 4 * 2. Not the approx 90 mm deep gauged pine used now. It does make re-gibbing a challenge as nothing is straight or square.

I take my (figurative) hat off to you for all the jobs you've taken on Fred.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Fred99

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#1146072 2-Oct-2014 21:22

I've finished painting / restoring windows, put up about 140m of scotia between new cladding and soffits, and down the side of window and door jambs (lots of nasty 3 way joins). This was horrible work - I have a compound mitre saw, but apart from needing to cut some scotia ends at 15 and 5 deg to match sills / door steps, most of it was easier to do it the old way with a mitre box. I'll post some photos - I'm rapt with how it looks.

My builders are back constructing the main deck. There were some details in the original design that were a bit crazy - I was just so keen to get building consent after much hassle that I missed seeing these issues. I made some changes, but needed engineering input/approval. I redrew the engineer's original drawings, he added some hefty steel brackets (not off the shelf items). These has to be fabricated out of 8mm SS. Fortunately I had a mate with an engineering shop who made this hardware in a couple of days, they're installed and work.

Today I was gopher (go-for) the builders. It's not an easy job. In their words "5 years ago we'd have built this deck with about 1/2 dozen bolts, and nailed the rest". I get up to 55% discount off retail on supplies. So far I've spent $1500 on assorted SS hardware - with more to come. Various details on fixings were incorrect, yet from standard documents used by architects/designers. Incorrect dimensions etc. It drives the builders nuts - something specified as ie 130mm, when standard size is 120 or 150. You can't assume 120mm will do, and sometimes 150mm won't work. Checking this is my job.

In between gopher duties, I reattached bearers to the foundation, as the original #8 wire ties had pulled in EQ (vertical movement - the entire house jumped in the air). Those ties couldn't be reattached, so replaced with hefty brackets, secured with 10mm concrete screws and coach screws to found and bearers. Overkill - but I'm happy with overkill. Jammed the bit on my rotary hammer drill when I hit some rebar, and the blardy thing nearly twisted my arm off - I'm still sore. I have a battery high-torque impact wrench I use for automotive stuff -that was needed to drive the screws, a regular 18v brushless impact driver wasn't working into 50 YO heart rimu, and I'f I'd been doing it by hand, I'd still be under the house.
Also re-fitted a wrought-iron hand-rail today. It wouldn't fit where it used to be as the cladding is 10mm further out from where it used to be... So I needed to chop it up, weld it back together, drill into concrete, and epoxy the thing in place. One more nasty little job done. More to come.

Despite grizzling - I'm enjoying this stuff.

Bung

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#1146154 2-Oct-2014 23:03

Fred99: Today I was gopher (go-for) the builders. It's not an easy job. In their words "5 years ago we'd have built this deck with about 1/2 dozen bolts, and nailed the rest". I get up to 55% discount off retail on supplies. So far I've spent $1500 on assorted SS hardware - with more to come.

In your case is it critical which grade of stainless you're using? Just using retail outlets open on weekends I've found that Bunnings only have some bolts in 316 at more than 3x their Galv price whereas ITM have the same bolts in 304 cheaper than the Bunnings Galv price. So discount has to be off a realistic retail price to count. I'm sure there's some excess profit taking by some outlets with the requirement to use stainless now.

There is a builder across the road putting a deck on his sister' house. There's SS bolts and screws everywhere on the boundary joists + plenty of strapping. The stringer is solidly bolted to the house then the joists sit on top and are just skew nailed. He agrees that it looks a little under done there but it is according to plan.

Fred99

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#1146179 3-Oct-2014 00:12

Bung:
Fred99: Today I was gopher (go-for) the builders. It's not an easy job. In their words "5 years ago we'd have built this deck with about 1/2 dozen bolts, and nailed the rest". I get up to 55% discount off retail on supplies. So far I've spent $1500 on assorted SS hardware - with more to come.

In your case is it critical which grade of stainless you're using? Just using retail outlets open on weekends I've found that Bunnings only have some bolts in 316 at more than 3x their Galv price whereas ITM have the same bolts in 304 cheaper than the Bunnings Galv price. So discount has to be off a realistic retail price to count. I'm sure there's some excess profit taking by some outlets with the requirement to use stainless now.

There is a builder across the road putting a deck on his sister' house. There's SS bolts and screws everywhere on the boundary joists + plenty of strapping. The stringer is solidly bolted to the house then the joists sit on top and are just skew nailed. He agrees that it looks a little under done there but it is according to plan.

Some fasteners aren't available in 304 - from specialist suppliers - so have had to use 316.
In our case the ribbon plate/beam is secured to the house with 12mm ss rod epoxied to the wall at 450 centres. Joists are attached flush (not on top) with ss hangers and 6kn straps. Outer joist closest to external beams nogged and secured with 250mm x 10mm screws. The outside beams are double 240x45 bolted together. The original design had an anchor pile and post under the beams where they attached to a r/c wall - this was nuts as it would look terrible, digging the required 450x450x1200 holes would have been a nightmare in that location. That's what I changed - beams now attached to walls with an 8mm thick custom-made L bracket anchored with 16mm rods underneath, and an angle bracket and backing plate securing beam to ribbon beam, with extra 12mm rods into the wall.
My builder thinks it's nuts - way overkill. I do too - but nothing we can do about it. It's designed to withstand 90 people dancing on it, in a magnitude 9 quake, during a force 9 gale.

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