Today we commenced construction of our external eaves on our small roof. We split up into two teams, Rhys was partnered with Greg, and Dan, Mike and I teamed up. Greg and Rhys worked on an exposed eave where the hardiflex was lined ontop of the rafters, to sit underneath the battens. The hardiflex also fitted into a rebate that was cut into the back of the tilt batten. Underneath they had to cut and fit a birdboard that was to fit up against the wall and run up to the bottom of the hardiflex. The birdboard seemed like a bit of a challenge as it had to fit nice and flush.
Dan, Mike and I worked on the other side of the house on a boxed eave. This consists of a tilt batten, a wooden facia board with a rebate cut 25mm up from the bottom to house the hardiflex, a wall plate that runs along the wall horizontally level with the facia groove and small trimmers that butt join into the wall plate and are nailed alongside each rafter. The trimmers are used to nail the hardiflex to. In the picture you can see the trimmers nailed horizintally into the wall plate and screwed alongside the rafters.
First of all we measured out 600mm from the wall along the two end rafters and marked a plumb line with a level. We then squared this level mark across the top of the rafter (35mm edge). Then we put in a nail on each line at each end and pulled a string line tightly across. We levelled vertically down from the string line on each rafter and then removed the string line. After this we cut with a circular saw all of the plumb lines.
The next stage was to use a small piece of the tilt batten to make a depth mark on an end rafter. By putting the tape measure perpendicular to the rafter and next to the vertical tilt batten piece, we could sight when the tilt batten was 35mm up from the rafter at an angle of 25 degrees. Once we had achieved this mark on each end rafter we could run a string line across them.
We also used a tape measure to mark 40mm in from the edge of the rafter, once again on each end rafter and ran a string line from each point using nails.
Once all of the rafters had been marked with the string line using a spirit level we then set the saw at 25 degrees and set it to roughly the right depth, we cut down the vertical plumb cut lines, whilst keeping the 25 degree circular saw plate flat on the rafter. Then we set the saw to 0 degrees and to the right depth and cut the horizontal marks. By hand sawing and chiselling we could neaten up the the check outs.
Next we simply screwed on the tilt batten into the checkouts. Then we placed the facia board up and checked whether any of the bottoms of the rafters had to be cut to free up the rebate cut into the facia board, which they had, but only by 10 or so millimetres. Once this was done we could then screw on the facia board, as seen in the picture below, flush with the checkout at the top.
Using a spirit level, we levelled across the from the top of the rebate to the wall and made marks on each consecutive stud, this was so we knew at what height to place the wall plate at. We then screwed on the wall plate.
After this we then measured each trimmer and cut it to length. By using a small piece of hardiflex as a measuring guage as such, we put the hardy into the rebate on the facia board, pulled down the trimmer ontop of it and then screwed the trimmer into the side of the rafter. This way the trimmers would hold the hardy down, and push it down against the bottom of the rebate so there was no gap and it was aesthetically pleasing. We then nailed in the trimmers into the wall plate.
Once this was done we could measure and cut our hardiflex to the right width and slide it into the rebate. We then held it tight into the rebate and hand nailed the hardy onto the trimmers underside.
With this done we then put our wooden lining on up against the wall and up against the underside of the wall plate. The hardy only covered 2/3 of the wall plate bottom, so by nailing on the wooden lining it covered the rough cut of the hardiflex and gave it a nice finish.
This concluded the construction of the boxed eave.
I thoroughly enjoyed doing the box eave as it was fairly involved with sawing, nailing and screwing, and also involved problem solving figuring out how to accurately measure the checkouts by using string lines. It kept us three busy so our conversations only concerned the work at hand, but it was also easy work so it kept us enthused. It also gave us a great sense of pride once we had completed the eave because it had been a product of our knowledge and hand skills without the help of Paul. I certainly enjoy the hands on work and from what i gather so do the other blokes. It also is a great team building excersise and i can feel things flowing very well when Dan, Mike and I work together.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Red Roofing Book and Hip Valley Roofs
So far this week we have been working on simple hip - valley roofs. By using the red roofing book we did an excersise where we had to cut out two opposing common rafters at a specified angle. The angle i received was 31 degrees and fortunately for me, in the book it was listed as 30 degrees and 58 minutes, which is very close to 31 degrees. The rise worked out to be 600mm over every 1000mm run. This way to cut my plumb cut to join onto the ridge i measure down 100mm on the rafter, and then 60mm across the rafter, perpendicular to the 100mm mark. By joining these two lines together, i had made a 31 degree angle. Using the half span and multiplying it by the rafter constant i came up with a rafter length measurement, which was around 1911mm. I hooked the tape on the long end of the plumb cut and ran the tape down the length of the rafter and marked 1911. I then squared it off, and repeated the previous process of the 100mm and 60mm marks to make the plumb cut line. I then used a tape to run down the plumb cut line and marked 110mm and then squared that off perpendicularly. When this triangle is cut out, it creates a notch out of the rafter that allows the rafter to sit on the wall plate. This notch is called the birdsmouth, and because of the 110mm measurement we used to obtain the depth at which it was cut, it is called more specifically, a 110mm birdsmouth.
We also cut a whole bunch of common rafters, two jack rafters and a ridge to length and began nailing them in position ontop of our small stud wall house we had built and used previously. Dan then used the red roofing book to calculate the length of the hip and luckily the hip fitted perfectly, generally hips are just hand measured as sometimes a non-square room can make the red roofing calculations of the hip length wrong.
We also cut a whole bunch of common rafters, two jack rafters and a ridge to length and began nailing them in position ontop of our small stud wall house we had built and used previously. Dan then used the red roofing book to calculate the length of the hip and luckily the hip fitted perfectly, generally hips are just hand measured as sometimes a non-square room can make the red roofing calculations of the hip length wrong.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Wednesday Hanging the Door in the Jamb.
Wednesday. Today we started the day by continuing on with our jambs and doors. It was Michael and my turn to hang the doors after Rhys and Greg had done theirs yesterday. First of we inspected the doors Rhys and Greg had hung yesterday to see how they had gone. Rhys and Greg had somehow managed to install their doors roughly 20mm down from the top of the head when it was supposed to be 2mm, which we all found odd but also helped Michael and myself to look for and ensure that our doors were 2mm down from the header. Also Paul pointed out that the "wind" (whether the two jambs when sited across their lengths vertically, were perfectly parallel with each other or if they differed) was out on their doors as well as the rest of our doors were too. Mine was a significant amount out of wind. I tried by hammering the stiles, to reduce the wind, but only managed to reduce it by half.
I then moved on to positioning the door in the jamb, and to my dismay, found the door didn't fit at all. So then i had to plane it down by about 3mm to get it to fit in place so then i could observe where the door needed to be run down with the planer, to make it fit nice and flush with the stile that was going to have the hinges on it. I managed to plane the door down nice and level along the hinge side and when i placed the door into position it fitted very flush, almost perfect up the entirity of the doors length.
I then placed a 20 cent coin between the top of the door and the head, to give the 2mm spacing requirement, and then wedge the door up. I now had the door flush with the hinge stile and 2mm away from the head. After that I then marked the positions of the top of the hinges on the door and stile with a pencil and tape measure.
When i viewed how in line the other side of the door was in comparison to the other stile, i was pissed to see that the gap went from 10mm at the bottom to 1mm at the top. I measured the width of the door and found that it was 810mm wide at the bottom and fuckn 815mm at the top. After receiving some instruction from Paul, i marked where the gap was 6mm, and then marked in 5mm (because there was already a gap of 1mm at the top) at the top of the door. I used a spirit level to mark a line between the two lines and then gently planed, then belt sanded down the door to the line. Although i understand the door still wouldn't have been perfectly 6mm away from the stile through the entire length of the door, it was still alot closer than it was previously, and was much easier to do other than running the entire door down so it was 810mm wide and then moving the packers out on the stile.
I then began to mark out, with stanley knife, the outline of the hinges where the lines i had drawn previously were. With these lines in place on the door and hinge stile, i then began to chisel out the timber. The pine was so fuckn hard to chisel out neatly and was quite frustrating as i wanted that perfect finish i had seen in the video on Monday but i relaxed and just dealt with the fact that the pine was shit.
Once the door and stile were chiselled out to the spacing and depth of the hinge, i then screwed on the hinges, still joint together by the pins, onto the stile, making sure they were fitting flush with the rebate and then the edge of the stile. This was the easiest part of the entire project. I then placed the door into position next to the stile, and whilst wrestling the door to stay into position by means of maneuvering a wedge with my foot underneath it, holding the hinge perfectly in place and holding the screw with one hand, i used the other hand to screw it together. After completing all three hinges, and closing the door i Paul and discovered that the hinges weren't exactly in position, which made the door not have an even 2mm gap up the side of the hinge stile, which also threw out the nice 2mm gap i had along the top of the door and header.
Although challenging i learnt quite a bit about installing a door into the jamb and how to correct a few problems with making with the door flush and square with the jamb.
I then moved on to positioning the door in the jamb, and to my dismay, found the door didn't fit at all. So then i had to plane it down by about 3mm to get it to fit in place so then i could observe where the door needed to be run down with the planer, to make it fit nice and flush with the stile that was going to have the hinges on it. I managed to plane the door down nice and level along the hinge side and when i placed the door into position it fitted very flush, almost perfect up the entirity of the doors length.
I then placed a 20 cent coin between the top of the door and the head, to give the 2mm spacing requirement, and then wedge the door up. I now had the door flush with the hinge stile and 2mm away from the head. After that I then marked the positions of the top of the hinges on the door and stile with a pencil and tape measure.
When i viewed how in line the other side of the door was in comparison to the other stile, i was pissed to see that the gap went from 10mm at the bottom to 1mm at the top. I measured the width of the door and found that it was 810mm wide at the bottom and fuckn 815mm at the top. After receiving some instruction from Paul, i marked where the gap was 6mm, and then marked in 5mm (because there was already a gap of 1mm at the top) at the top of the door. I used a spirit level to mark a line between the two lines and then gently planed, then belt sanded down the door to the line. Although i understand the door still wouldn't have been perfectly 6mm away from the stile through the entire length of the door, it was still alot closer than it was previously, and was much easier to do other than running the entire door down so it was 810mm wide and then moving the packers out on the stile.
I then began to mark out, with stanley knife, the outline of the hinges where the lines i had drawn previously were. With these lines in place on the door and hinge stile, i then began to chisel out the timber. The pine was so fuckn hard to chisel out neatly and was quite frustrating as i wanted that perfect finish i had seen in the video on Monday but i relaxed and just dealt with the fact that the pine was shit.
Once the door and stile were chiselled out to the spacing and depth of the hinge, i then screwed on the hinges, still joint together by the pins, onto the stile, making sure they were fitting flush with the rebate and then the edge of the stile. This was the easiest part of the entire project. I then placed the door into position next to the stile, and whilst wrestling the door to stay into position by means of maneuvering a wedge with my foot underneath it, holding the hinge perfectly in place and holding the screw with one hand, i used the other hand to screw it together. After completing all three hinges, and closing the door i Paul and discovered that the hinges weren't exactly in position, which made the door not have an even 2mm gap up the side of the hinge stile, which also threw out the nice 2mm gap i had along the top of the door and header.
Although challenging i learnt quite a bit about installing a door into the jamb and how to correct a few problems with making with the door flush and square with the jamb.
Monday
Monday. On Monday we watched three videos on how to install (hang) a door frame and door. The door frame is called a jamb and consists of two vertical pieces (stiles) and a top piece called a head. The oustide of the frame, once installed is framed with an architrave, which neatly finishes up the border of the door and wall lining. One side of the jamb that is to have the hinges fitted onto it, is levelled using a straight edge and a spirit level. Once it is nicely levelled, an assortment of different thickness packers is used to neatly fill out and support the stile against the stud of the wall frame. The head is also secured level, thus giving a perfect 90 degree corner and level side to work off when hanging the door.
The video involved all the nescessary steps in hanging a door, i found it very thorough and the video clips used were well shot and accompanied the voice over nicely. The voice over was spoken smoothly and at an even pace allowing easy following by the listener, which made it easy for me to draw up small diagrams and write notes as i watched. I felt i learnt quite a bit about hanging a door from these videos and upon watching them again i feel even more knowledge would sink in. The music was hell gay hahaha.
After this we researched information on how to hang a door on the internet. At times we have struggled to find adequate information on the net but this time i found the research exercise very worthwhile. There were quite a few sites that had easy to follow, step by step instructions accompanied by informative diagrams and/or pictures. By reading through different sites i learnt that there are numerous different ways in how to hang a door. Some of the sites showed some key points of hanging a door that the video tape we watched previously, didn't have such as checking whether the floor was level as it affected the gap at the top of the door.
We then began making our jambs and installing them into the stud wall frame of our small house that we had built previously. I really enjoyed installing the jamb in our small house as its outside and the boys and i feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment in our final product we had constructed. This made for a good atmosphere to install our jambs in.
Installing the jambs was quite a difficult task and required quite a bit of problem solving. Using the packers to pack out the sides of the jambs against the stud walls was hard and as you packed and checked the level, sometimes packing accurately would throw out another part along the length of the stile. Other information on how i made and installed the jamb is in our construction sequence that i wrote.
I found Monday to be a great start to the week, in the morning, due to a phone call from Bernie, Paul was away for 15mins or so, so we had time to catch up with we were doing outside of work. But also i felt the Paul had a great set out of tasks for the day that kept everyone focused and enthused in what they were doing. The practical is an excellent balance during the day to the computer work and watching the videos.
The video involved all the nescessary steps in hanging a door, i found it very thorough and the video clips used were well shot and accompanied the voice over nicely. The voice over was spoken smoothly and at an even pace allowing easy following by the listener, which made it easy for me to draw up small diagrams and write notes as i watched. I felt i learnt quite a bit about hanging a door from these videos and upon watching them again i feel even more knowledge would sink in. The music was hell gay hahaha.
After this we researched information on how to hang a door on the internet. At times we have struggled to find adequate information on the net but this time i found the research exercise very worthwhile. There were quite a few sites that had easy to follow, step by step instructions accompanied by informative diagrams and/or pictures. By reading through different sites i learnt that there are numerous different ways in how to hang a door. Some of the sites showed some key points of hanging a door that the video tape we watched previously, didn't have such as checking whether the floor was level as it affected the gap at the top of the door.
We then began making our jambs and installing them into the stud wall frame of our small house that we had built previously. I really enjoyed installing the jamb in our small house as its outside and the boys and i feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment in our final product we had constructed. This made for a good atmosphere to install our jambs in.
Installing the jambs was quite a difficult task and required quite a bit of problem solving. Using the packers to pack out the sides of the jambs against the stud walls was hard and as you packed and checked the level, sometimes packing accurately would throw out another part along the length of the stile. Other information on how i made and installed the jamb is in our construction sequence that i wrote.
I found Monday to be a great start to the week, in the morning, due to a phone call from Bernie, Paul was away for 15mins or so, so we had time to catch up with we were doing outside of work. But also i felt the Paul had a great set out of tasks for the day that kept everyone focused and enthused in what they were doing. The practical is an excellent balance during the day to the computer work and watching the videos.
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