Charpentier

The last week turned out to be a bit of an adventure.
After a few phone call, someone going to Liverpool passport office for me and a ferry ride, I ended up going with a friend to work in France for the week!

Leaving England behind

 The job was to fit a flight of stairs, handrail out a balcony and to second fix as much of the house as possible. We got loads done over some really long days.
Unfortunately the stairs were a nightmare to fit. Whoever had measured them to fit had given absolutely no tolerance to get them in. They had winders round a complete 180 degrees so things became a little difficult. It would have been much easier if they'd had gone in before the house was boarded or plastered. We got them in in the end but we did have to cut the wall in a few places to make them fit.

These stairs were the most awkward I've ever fitted

Not much space to get them in

 The balcony handrail also took some thinking about, this went in easy once we decided on our method and looked really smart when they were finished

Balcony to be hand railed off

 The only difficult with them was clamping the handrail to the newel posts as the glue went off. Tom and me managed to quickly knock together a wooden clamp that could be wedged up so the glue could go off over night, leaving a perfectly tight joint in the morning.

Clamping the handrail together with a quickly built clamp

The adjustable end of the clamp

Balcony handrail finished

 Tom and me worked really fast doing the second fit together, I think we were both impressed with the amount of work we got done in the time. We had a good system going and each stuck to a certain job to increase speed and keep the quality high.

Tom routing hinges out of the doors

Oak doors, pine linings and MDF architraves and skirting fitted.

All in all it was an interesting experience. I enjoyed working with Tom Weston again - who is an excellent carpenter (I think we both learnt a lot from each other) and made good friends with the plasterer, Rick, who came out with us. We worked hard and did a serious amount of hours, but I was missing my family by the end of the week so I was glad to come back to a rainy UK yesterday.
I learnt lots and got some good stories to tell, not much more you could ask for really!

Restoring Shutters

On the large job we replaced the windows many months ago for new ones. In doing so we removed the old shutters and their surrounds that they sat in. These were a real feature of the house and the customer wanted us to make something similar to what was there before.

One of the windows with plastered reveals

 We reused the old shutters, but replaced all the ironmongery and the surrounds. First we refitted the shutters then built the surrounds around them as they were all individual sizes so each had to be built to suit.
We framed below the bay windows with 3x2 this meant they weren't quite so deep and could have a wider window board.

We cut a wide architrave and machined a rope bead on the front to match the other mouldings in the house (as well as machining a smaller architrave that sits on top). We then created a frame to bring out the architrave to give the shutters the clearance they needed before fitting it all.

 Once we had done that it was a matter of installing the window boards and plaster boarding the bay so the plasterer can get it finished next week.

Three windows finished and a lot of character added back into a large room.

Completed Curved Architrave (almost)

The underside now re-skimmed and the architrave filled and painted

The Plasterer, Justin, has now re-skimmed the curve under the architrave to a mirrow like finish and the woodwork has now had it's first coat of undercoat. So although it's not completely finished it gives a good idea of what the finished product will look like.

Justin the plasterer trying to show off the "guns" under the freshly coated arch

A near mirrow finish on the plasterwork sets the architrave off great, just a couple of coats of paint needed then it'll be finished.

Good feature for the room

Making Curved Architrave

The main job I've been on has given me plenty of unusual projects where I've had to do some thinking. Curved architrave around an arched opening is the latest one.

I formed the arched opening some months back where the curve was to be semi-segmental, but since then the customer has changed their minds and decided that they want it to be semi-circular. I'm to build the architrave out and then we're to bring the plasterwork out to match at a later date.

Clamping boards up - the red light is from the heater.

 Making anything curved on site is harder than you might think and involved many more steps than putting architrave around your standard square door frame.

The architrave has to match the original architrave mentioned in a previous post. This is built up out of two parts. A thin flat layer with a bead on, then a narrower moulded section that is fixed to the outside of it.. To start to make the curved architrave I had to make the flat section first. I decided to leave the bead off for now and attach that later, as no router cutter would shape it in the same way as it is on the original (two cove cutters wouldn't look quite right). I planed the timber down then clamped boards up together and left them to set (with a heater chucking some heat on to them - the barn isn't very warm!).

Rough cut with a jig saw

 I then rough cut the curve with a jig saw. Drawing the lines on with a homemade compass and pencil. If you were just making one side of something curved you might be able to cut it free hand but any imperfections and flat spots would stand out on what is to be matching sets.

Using a homemade router jig

 To make sure every piece was identical I made a jig for the router with two points for it to be fixed to for each cut (inside and out). I screwed the wood down to prevent it moving while I routed it. The screw holes on this first piece will be covered by the second set of architrave.

The first layer fixed around the arch.

I then fixed this architrave around the arch using plenty of adhesive and pins.

Same jig but with another point to make a narrower set of architrave.

 The second set of architrave used the same jig but with the addition of some extra points to fix it down. I also routed a large groove in the ply base of my jig so a bearing guided cutter would then run against it to create the moulding without having to take it off the ply. I used my larger router for this and as the cutter was new it cut the moulding cleanly in one pass.

The second set fixed on top of the first

 I then fixed the second set of architrave on top of the first and switched the kettle on. This wasn't for a drink but instead to fill a 4" pipe full of hot water. The only way I could think of bending the beading to fix round the first set of curves. This involved leaving the wooden bead in the pipe to get hot and steamy before running up stairs to fix it on. I had to move pretty fast as it soon cooled down, it also had to be in quite short sections so it didn't twist as I fixed it. Only managed to complete one side last night though as it got too dark and the lights weren't working on site.

It was dark when I took these pictures but I'll get some close ups next week. The beading is fixed on these as well. It also needs a good sanding down.

A couple of day of firsts - Never made curved architrave before and I've never bent wood using hot water.

I really enjoyed the challenge of this project, even though many people won't know the effort that went into creating a seaming simple set of architrave. I love the fact that after over 10 years in the trade there are still completely new projects to test my skills and keep my brain working, I can't think of a more enjoyable job than being a carpenter!

Tall Skirting And Wide Architrave

Although we're going to be using standard skirting through the main house, in the master bedroom and dressing room we needed to match the existing tall skirting.

This consisted of a 9 inch high skirting (which in the past they would have made on site). We managed to find a simular moulding off the shelf and with a couple of cuts on the table saw I managed to make it match the top of the old skirting excatly. I then used my biscut jointer to join this to some 7"x1" PSE which I had already added a chamfere to.

Tall skirting with stop blocks

Fitting skirting is always interesting in an old house as it can be difficult to find a fixing and the walls can be far from great. Luckily these walls were lath and plaster on timber battens, so I spent a little bit of time finding the uprights and it gave me a good fixing without too much bother.

I added stop blocks to four external corners as these are the bottom of an arched opening which I've got to add a curved architrave to next week (more on this another time!), having the blocks gives the architrave something to stop into rather than being knotched round the skirting - A much tider job!

Nice wide architrave

 

Wide architrave

 The architrave I fitted is made from two seperate peices planted one on top of the other. I love this wide architrave, I think it really sets a door frame off, much better than some of the tiny modern stuff we end up fitting!