Making A Window

For the wet room job I've got on at the moment I've got to make small window to replace the current one.

Today I had the day at home to make this and did some "alfresco" joinery between showers. I dimensioned the timber the other day using my little planner thickness so this morning I set about rebating all the stock. This isn't as easy as normal as I have no spindle moulder nor router table so in the end I routed it out using the router handheld, moving the clamps on each pass, and adjusting the depth of cut on each one also - a slow job!

Then using an old kitchen table I found in one of the sheds as a workbench, I set about marking out each joint before fighting my way inside the container to use the mortiser and bandsaw. It was worth the fight though as it saved no end of time, the joints are quite simple mortise and tenon, just with the tenon stepped to account for the rebate. Clamping up on the floor of the container was a little awkward but its made the two frames rock solid. I haven't got enough space to do them both at the same time so they took it in turns!

I had to finish the final mouldings round the outside of the frames by halogen site lights (in light rain) so I could get them finished tonight. The neighbours must wonder who lives next door!

The window is now sat on the dinning room table with the paint drying - I'm not sure who misses my workshop more - me or my wife!

More on this window when I order the glass and get it fitted.

Wet room Part 1

I started my wet room job properly this week. Its surprising how much work there is in such a little room. First off I had to strip out the old toilet and shower then remove all the tiles and plasterboard.

Not only had the root damaged the bottom of the boards and broke through the grout, this then allowed the water to travel up the plasterboard making it very weak. The picture above shows how bad its gotten. All the waste got skipped off site giving me a (unlevel) blank canvas to start afresh.

I removed the roots then repointed the wall where it had done any damage. I then started the slow process of battening the walls out to take the plywood. Slow because I want it to be perfectly level to enable easier tiling and so it looks right, the battens before were just fixed straight to the out of level walls and tiles cut to suit which doesn't always look the best.

I did cheat and use plastic spacers which save loads of time (although it's sometimes easier to use folding wooden wedges if you've got the saw set up to make a batch). The plastic ones are useful though as you can increase or decrease the spacing by 1mm just by changing the packer rather than knocking wedges all over the place.

With the external walls insulated its ready to have ply fitted next week and then I can tank it out to make sure its waterproof before I lay a single tile. I've also got to make a new little window for the room so that should be a nice job for a sunny day next week.