Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Stone hole, roof and windows.
Today I finally got round to finishing the doorway through the stone
wall that I started last
week. The shuttering on the side pieces was taken up to the
height of the bottom of the lintel and
filled with concrete a few days ago. Today I made the cross pieces for
the base of
the lintel and braced them securely. There is going to quite a mass of
concrete above. Everything was
nailed together and an extra acro prop placed under the center. Before
using masonry clamps to fix the long boards, for the front
and rear face of the lintel, I had to remove quite a bit more stone.
This was to ensure the edges of the lintel extended out over the sides.
The lintel is 20cm thick, the width of the board, which doesn't leave much room above to pour in the concrete. To make it a bit easier I knocked up a 'chute' out of scrap wood to slide the concrete in the gap. Apart from laying a few lengths of iron rod into the mould it was just a matter of pouring, tamping and pouring. It ended up taking 6 or 7 mixer loads (I lost count) to fill the thing up.
Judging by the state of the concrete I poured last week I reckon I should leave this for at least a week before removing the shuttering. I can, in the meantime, re-fill the hole above the lintel either side of the beam with stone to support the wall above. Once everything has set firm I can take out the supporting beam and then finally fill the last hole.
The other thing I did today, which was very satisfying, was put in three of the new windows. All three went in like a dream. I had been very meticulous ensuring that the oak frames and window sills were all level, square and vertical. It certainly paid off. The windows came with some metal brackets that twisted into a groove on the edge of the window and then just screwed onto the inside of the oak frame. A little silicon mastic around the edge and squoodge, installed. One handy thing about the windows is that when delivered they come with temporary spacers around each opening pane to 'lock' the whole assembly square. There is a tiny bit of give, but not a lot. The supplied instructions said to remove the opening window panes, fit the frame, check the diagonals for square, then re-fit the panes after everything had set. I couldn't see the point, so installed the whole lot all in one and just made sure the top and bottom edges of the window panes were level. Checking later in the day confirmed my laziness paid off, as everything worked fine.
The other good news is that the roofers finished the front today and removed the scaffolding ready to start on the back. So to celebrate, here is a photo of progress so far, compared to the starting point.
All in all a good day, the building is starting to go back together and look like a house again.
| 8:15:59 PM
brittany
renovation
Stone hole, roof and windows.
