Stud Work On A Farm

Finished the first stage of a local job yesterday on a farm house. To build a new downstairs toilet as the old one was too small- in fact it was only a couple of feet wide!

The room all stripped out and ready for me to start

 I managed to convince the customer to allow me to decided the height of the ceiling as where he wanted it my head would have been brushing against it the whole time, but was where the old one was. Having it higher meant the room would feel bigger and it also gave me a great fixing for the ceiling on top of the brick wall at the back.

Stud work up

I got the stud work up quite fast once I'd insulated the slopping ceiling, then I installed the ceiling joists, making sure the plasterboard would be supported all the way round.



Ceiling in to provide some storage above

The customer did make me laugh when I was doing the insulating (I'm sure he wont mind me saying why). I accidentally brushed one of his wires he had tapped up out the way with my elbow, a loud bang with a big spark followed, I shouted him over and showed him what had happened

 

"Good job you never made a hole in that pipe when the wires touched it." He said dryly

 

"How about - good job you never killed me!" I replied

 

 He smiled as he spoke "Yeah, that as well..."



Door linings in and the wall plaster boarded ready to be skimmed

The last couple of jobs were uneventful just to plasterboard the walls and install the lining for the door and loft hatch. Making sure the studding was dead level and plumb when I built it meant that installing the lining was a quick job.

Taking the plasterer to see the job today and hopefully finish it all off fairly soon.

How did everyone else spend their Saturday?

Green Woodwork Stool

Every night I chuck my work clothes on a stool next to the chest-of-drawers, giving it little thought.

Humble little stool with some great memories

But I remember I had a great weekend making that stool.

For part of my 21st birthday present my mum and dad paid for me to go on a green woodworking course (in fact it's only a couple of miles from where I live now!), many of my friends were only interested in drinking at this age, but my obsession lied somewhere else completely!

Well used pole lathe

 I couldn't get enough of woodwork at the time (and still can't), I'd do it all day, read about it in my breaks and think about it on the drive home, so it was a great present to give me but mum was worried as it was "an introduction to grren woodwork".

But the course itself was brilliant as it was completely different to what I was doing in the week and taught me so much about the material I use. I got to use a pole lathe for the first time and a shave horse, as well as tools I'd never even picked up before.

Shave horse

 The stool I made was a fairly simple design, Ash legs split from a log then turned green on the pole lathe, which were then kiln dried overnight to fit into an air dried elm top that I cut using a large frame saw with an old bit of band saw blade in. I remember them saying they couldn't believe how fast I cut out the 2" thick elm, but I was used to spending most days sawing wood!

A happy group at the end of the weekend, some 8 years ago!

That weekend taught me a lot about a different aspect of woodwork from how I earn my living.

It's things like this that make me realise I'll never get bored of woodwork!

Rotten Roof Repairs

A bee's nest behind a bit of rotten fascia board is what started a larger-than-we-thought-job this week. The painters had been prepping some of fascia when they noticed how rotten a section of it was under a chimney. I went up, stripped off some of the slates and investigated.

Rotten fascia was hiding some deeper problems

The fascia and soffit were both weak with wet rot but as I took back the slates I could see that the wall plate and bottom end of the rafters were rotten as well. 

Not trying to sell a tool but the Fein Multimaster is amazing for this type of work

So I then started quite a major repair for this little bit of the roof. Firstly I removed all the rotten wood, cutting sections out. When I cut the fascia out I used the Fein Multimaster to cut it on a 45 degree angle so I could easily fix a new piece back in, This tool is incredible for doing this, it would be a lot harder by hand and cause more disruption to the roof.

some rooten timber around this chimney

I started by adding in a section of wall plate. I used oak as that is what the original was, I used a good sized half lap joint to make sure the two pieces were fixed together and bedded it on a layer of mortar. I then cut a rafter end with birds mouth and added it into the roof. I made sure it was long enough to sit on the first purlin up in the roof so it would be structural rather and fixed to another rafter and also to carry the soffit and fascia when I add that later. I decided to double this rafter up around the chimney as it will make the lead work easier at a later date.

New rafter added and a new section of wall plate half lapped in place

With all the structural work done I cut a new bit of soffit and fascia to fit. When adding wood like this it's essential that they are added at an angle so if/when  the wood shrinks it doesn't leave a big gap. I replaced more fascia that I had originally though as it was rotten quite far up. I then treated all the wood before I covered it back over.

The finished repair, ready for a bit of paint

Quite pleased with the repair but it took a lot of time and it's never fun playing with rotten timber!

Old Crosscut Saw

My work this week wasn't really blog worthy - unless you want to see pictures of plasterboarded walls!

Old crosscut saw

So instead I thought I'd blog about my latest acquisition from the car boot sale this morning - an old crosscut saw. Now I could do with a bit of advice on what the correct name is for this saw. I know a lot of this style were meant to be one or two man saws but this one is 58 1/2" long so it would be pretty tricky to use it on your own!

Front handle - notice the different teeth at the start

Handle at the back

It's in great condition, the teeth are all there and the curve of the blade looks like it's never been messed with, in fact It almost looks as though it's never been sharpened. Not bad for £4 (he wanted £5 but I haggled him down). The rust is only light on the saw as well with no pitting.

Curve of the blade

So if anyone knows the right name for the saw and the type of teeth (which I'm fairly sure I know but I'll test you all anyway) please let me know.

I'm very tempted to mount this saw on the wall going up the stairs and then just use it for special occasions!

Lead Work

Parts of certain trades fall out of favour or get past on to others.
This is what has started to happen with lead work, as plumbers become more and more expensive it falls to carpenters and roofers to do the lead work required on old buildings. It's something I've been doing since I was trained up as we used to do a lot of roofs.

Roll mops and lead on a roof in 2005

 Cutting and folding the lead, beating it into shape and knowing how it moves with different temperatures is key to making sure that the lead makes the roof watertight and it will last for many years.

Andy, Del and me working on a flat roof 7 years ago

 Sometimes you come up against a problem where cutting or folding won't be good enough - here you have to weld it. It was on the roof on a steel frame that the box gutter against the existing wall would require some lead welding. Luckily the guy I'm working for got an old school plumber in, he was trained in the traditional way to do lead work. The guy was 67, so we carried up the lead for him and I ground out all the masonry so it could be fitted (dusty job), but he knew his stuff.

My first attempt at lead welding (It was raining during this photo!)

I showed a real interest in what he was doing (and fixed his mallet for him), in return he showed me a little bit of lead welding, how to set up the blow torch to get the flame right and how to join two pieces together. I practised on some offcuts and then let him carry on with the real job of fitting the lead to the gutters we made.

welding on the roof - a water proof joint

I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again so I can learn more about lead work and how to weld it together. It seems fewer and fewer people can do this, instead turning to fibreglass, so it would be good to be able to do it myself when I need to. Bit more practise needed yet though!

The Darkside Of Stairs

A fairly unrewarding job today. Not that's its not been challenging it's just that no one will really know what I've done when it's covered over.
I've been battening out the underside of a flight of stairs (and now I've got to plasterboard it). If I do it right the plasterer will be able to skim a beautiful twisting curve all the way up underside of these stairs.

Looking up at the underside of the stairs

As you can see from the photo I've had to add a fair few battens to get the curve right . I've also been using the electric plane to take the edges off of these battens on the correct side so it all flows from one side to the other as it twists. This is a job that would be eaiser with the traditonal lath and plaster but I can't see the plasterer mixing anything up with horse hair in!

Quite a frustrating job really - but it will look good and should add some character to the house when it's done!

Letter holder

I saw the oak letter holder I made whilst doing the utility room revamp again today and I was really pleased when I saw a friend had taken the time to paint the words "letters" one it. They'd stencilled on the outline in pencil then painted it freehand up to the lines.

 

Completed letter holder

 A really professional job and its really made the piece stand out.

Fitting Stairs

It's been a long while since I've fitted any stairs. This can be the trouble with the huge range of jobs a carpenter is expected to do, it can be a long time between doing certain jobs - good job I've got a good memory for things like this!

Fitted flight of stairs

There's two flights to fit, we finished the first today and made a good start on the second. As there is winders (the angles steps that make the flight go round the corner) some of the assembly has to be done on site using lots of glue and wedges.

Underside of stairs

The first flight went in well, we've temporary propped it up until we've built the stud wall to carry the back corner of the stairs (although they do hold their own weight now). I've still got to infill the sides and add handrail at a later date to these. 

Checking the treads are level

The second flight are directly below the first and are the same size with three extra treads on the bottom to give it the extra height.

Dry fitting the second flight of stairs to mark positions

We dry fitted these in this afternoon as they're in a tighter space than the first ones. It's going to be much more difficult to get to the underside to fix the treads and wedges so we need to make sure everything is cut ready. It's at time like this I could do with a small apprentice to get into the tight spaces (I remember being sent on my belly to fix the last few glue blocks!).

Fitting A Large Light Well - Part 2

Somehow I always end up being the guy holding the instructions. This roof light was no exception, its been like a big jigsaw puzzle packed in 12 different boxes. I didn't take any pictures of us putting it together (mainly because it kept raining) , but here it is almost finished.

Large light well

It's aluminium frame with a UPVC top and bottom, coated in fake oak. Although fake oak wouldn't be my first choice, I can see why they went for it. It looks quite good from a distance and needs no maintenance (which is always an advantage when it's way up on a roof).

The fake wood looks OK from a distance

It took some brain power to put together (more than I'd care to admit), as the instructions weren't the best and they were to tell you how to put a conservatory up! We were also three bolts short but we managed to find replacements after we'd searched the whole roof and surrounding area. We got there in the end though.

Looks quite posh!

This is the first aluminium/plastic window thing that I've put together from scratch, If I had to do another it would take half the time (but that's normally the case).

The opening light came the wrong colour so we couldn't finish it!

There's still a bit to finish as the opening light (window) came just painted brown so needs the fake grain adding, this means we couldn't get it sealed and water tight tonight. We've also got to bring the fibre glass up the sides of the wooden frame and repair all the slate work, but that can wait for another time.

Anyone else been fitting windows like this lately?

Cut Roof On A Steel Frame

If you've been following the blog you're know I've been doing quite a bit of roofing lately.

This is our latest one (with the other carpenter on site):

The Orangery

Good view of the new roof

 Quite an interesting roof as the one side is fairly normal, except it sits on a wall plate we had to bolt to the steel and the top has to notch around the ridge beam.

Picture showing the top of the rafter nothced round the steel and ceiling collars

Small birds mouths with the end of the rafters trimmed to make fitting fasica easier

 The other side finishes into the existing wall, so a timber first had to be bolted along it (working out the height for this was quite tricky) and then the rafters cut to fit between.

Other side into the existing wall - supporting timber is bolted

Tight reversed type of birds mouth

Enjoyable roof again though. The outside details for fasica and bardge board are going to be difficult but I'll post about that when we do it. We've got the box gutter to put on tomorrow (where the roof meets the wall) before we start back on our large roof light installing the plastic frame.

How To Make A Thermalite Saw

Brick layers are always trying to nab carpenters old saws to cut Thermalite block with. I've managed to make the bricklayer on site a little happier by making the saw cut a little better for them. I know it works as they asked me to alter another saw for them yesterday!

Saw Set

All you need is an old panel saw and a saw set.

Adjust the saw set so it's altering the teeth of the saw to the maximum (in this case it's to 4 teeth per inch) and work your way along the saw, setting every other tooth. When you've finished one way turn the saw around and set all the teeth you missed out. The saw set is basically pushing over each tooth making the kerf wider and therefore the cut more aggressive.

The Set in clamping mode

The "tooth" that pushes over the teeth on the saw giving it's "set"

A much more aggressive saw

Doing this isn't as good as buying a proper Thermalite saw but it is much cheaper and it works pretty well. It makes the cut much more aggressive and faster as well as clearing out the waste better, stopping the saw from binding which can be a problem when using an old wood saw. I also used it on cutting kingspan and it cut much faster than a normal saw would.

Fitting A Large Light Well - Part 1

The second half of this week the other carpenter and myself have spent installing the frame work for a large light well that is going above the stairs.

We first had to cut into the flat roof and make a hole the right size. Below the roof a different carpenter had already installed the supports to take the extra weight of this roof light.

The roof before we started (well a little hole to get up)

The frame work was relatively straight forward. We set the laser level to make sure the top was bang on, as the roof itself is sloping, also getting the frame square was really important otherwise the roof light won't fit when it comes.

Frame work

Frame work making all sides level

 Once we finished the frame we covered it in 18mm WBP ply for the lead to be fixed to, we formed a box gutter at the back just below the ridge and added fillets all the way round so when new fibre glass is welded/glued on it's not such a steep bend.

Box gutter formed on the sloping side to allow for lead work afterwards

Light well plyed

Ready for the installation of the roof light and lead work next week

It's certainly a large addition to the roof but it adds so much light to what were otherwise a dark flight of stairs. I've never been asked to cut something like this into a roof before (plenty of normal sized skylights though) has anyone else?

Cut Roof On A Porch

In the UK we describe a cut roof as one you build from scratch, not using preformed trusses. These tend to be the roofs I end up doing and it's funny when I've spoke to other carpenters who avoid them.

Getting the first four rafters up and the ridge is normally the tricky bit

This week another carpenter and myself have put a cut roof on a rather large porch, it has quite a good pitch (40 degrees) and a wide overhang to allow for the stone work that needs to be built up under it.

Ceiling collars added to give the roof that triangulation it needs for strenght

Starting a roof like this is the hard bit, working out the angles, cuts and lenghs. We used a ready reckoner on this roof (a book with tables of values for different pitches), each working it out separately and making sure we arrived at the same answer (we did!). Getting the first four rafters up with the ridge is normally tricky (you could each do with three hand to fix and hold everything). This is the point where you need to make sure all your cuts are spot on before you cut everything else.



Front view of the framed out roof



Side view showing the gable ladder on the front to be supported by the stone work

Picture showing the eaves with soffit added and fasica but barge board still to go on

Once all the rafters were up we added the ceiling collars to strengthen it then work on cutting the rafters to the right overhang and adding a "ladder" to the front to carry the barge board past the stone work that's to go up.

Not bad for under two days work but still a bit left to finish off next week.