Finishing An Oak Floor

I remember pricing an oak floor, over a year ago now, and the customer said to me not to bother pricing in for staining and oiling the floor, they'd do that themselves. I cringed, as this can really make or break a floor. It's a shame to spent a lot of money on the oak and then skimp on the last bit.

 

 Last week I laid an oak floor, so all this week I've been juggling my week around sanding, staining and oiling it. Once the glue had gone off I filled all the deep knots, then spent a morning sanding all the filler off and any planer marks from the supplier (there were plenty). I sanded it to 120 grit as this is all that's needed for flooring.
I then spent quite a while cleaning it, making sure that there was no dust what so ever in the room before I set about staining it down to a medium oak colour.
The stain involved putting it on with a brush and then removing the excess with a rag (wax on wax off) and as the room was bigger than one pot would do, I emptied both pots into a container and mixed together so there would be no difference in colour tone.

This then took a day to dry before I set about oiling it. It took around two hours to apply the first coat of hard wax oil and this then took 24 hours to go off, I did set a large fan to blow over it to decrease the drying time.
I sanded lightly back between coats, hoovered it all again and applied the second (and last) coat of hard wax oil. I fitted the skirting in there yesterday and I'm really please with the finish. The floor has a warm even tone and is smooth to the touch. More pictures to follow!

Making Box gutters

This week I had to make up two sections of large box gutters to waterproof an area of a barn we're converting.

The roof used to run down into a wall with vertical cladding that had normal guttering at the bottom. This was fine when it was just a barn as the water could run down onto the floor and not cause any problems.
As we're now doing them up it need to be water proof. We stripped off the cladding and the first four or five runs of slates so we could see what we were working with.
I then started at the lowest point and made the first step. A 1.4m run of ply that had a good fall on it. I then worked my way back to the other end of the roof creating each 1.4m run of gutter with a 50mm step between each level Each bit has to be fully supported and built in such a way to take the lead.


Working on the roof

 Bert the plumber then leaded these for me and we set about lapping the felt back over it to make it waterproof before we put the slates back on.

One stretch of leaded gutter

I've now got to reinstall the cladding and repair a section of oak frame that I exposed due to a high level of rot/woodworm on one joint.

Large Oak Frame

In what must have been a moment of weakness I agreed to make a green oak frame this week for someone that needed it asap. The frame was to measure 5m by 4.3m in a H frame with mullions on the top section.

Some big bits of wood. 5 of these were over 5m long and and so heavy that I couldn't even roll them over on my own

Looking at the plan it didn't seem too bad, just lots of mortise and tenons to cut, but the job was made much harder by the size of the timber. Some of it was 200mmx300mm section and I couldn't even roll it over.
Luckily I had a large work area as by father had cleaned out the grain shed ready for harvest but hadn't started combining yet. Also I had a forklift to help move the timbers around, but it was still tricky to move them round on my own and it turned out to be a really hard weeks work with some late nights chucked in to get it finished on time.

The A4 plan I had to work off

A homemade hook to roll the beams on my own

The chain mortiser didn't come with a clamp big enough so I had to improvise

Lifting one of the smaller timbers

Checking a mortice and tenon fit

The only way to move these beams

Chiseling up a tenon

Chain mortiser makes it a little faster but they still need a lot of cleaning out

My only worry with this frame was the fact that there are 4 mortise and tenons I couldn't check to see if they fitted. This was because they were far to big for me to handle with the forklift to get them to line up (you'd need a crane). I checked them load so times so there should be no problems.
I also drilled out for the pegs in the mortise side of the timbers only, leaving the hole in the tenons to be drilled on site. This means that if there is any discrepancy with the building it's being fitted to then it can be altered slightly before they are drilled (as the building it's for is a couple of hundred miles away there is no way I can check it myself).

I'm sure carpenters have sat like this for hundreds of years whilst cleaning out mortises

This was a hard week, back breaking week, and I can really feel it this morning. But the frames finished and ready to be shipped to it's new home. Hopefully they'll send me a picture once its been erected. Lighter work next week please!

New Kit - Festool Plunge Saw TS55REQ

As stated many time on this blog, I'm somewhat of a tool snob.

I spend everyday working with my tools and I like to use the best.

I've been looking at buying a new circular saw for sometime now and I wanted one that would follow a guide rail for straight cuts when I'm building built-in units out of MDF or ply.

 I kept looking at all the different ones on the market and although I'm normally a Makita man I decided it was time to move up to the next level and buy a brand I've wanted to try for ages - Festool.
Anyone I've ever spoke to about these tools raves about them so I thought I'd suffer the cost and try it.


New saw - not for normal site work

I decide to go all out and bought the saw complete with two guide rails and the auto start midi extractor, which will be great on things like my mitre saw and sander as well as the circular saw.

 

Hopefully these tools will be a bit of an investment. The extractor should mean I breath in less dust during the day and make it easier to clean up when I'm working in someones house. The circular saw should make building things like fitted cupboards and wardrobes easier, faster and more accurate.

I'm looking forward to putting these through their paces! Anyone else have any experience using Festool kit?

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!

Pine Truss

This week we've had to put a roof on to a large underground shed that houses the water tanks for the house I've been working on. For this roof we had to make two large pine trusses as the roof is to have Coraline sheeting on, so there will be no rafters only purlins.

Pine truss ready to go in

Made out of 9"x3" timber they are mortised and tenonned together with a large bridle joint for the top of the truss. They look really smart and should last many years.

Old Wooden Tree Pump

On Friday night I had a strange phone call quite late.

A man phoned about this blog, he'd found something he called a tree pump on his farm and tried searching for information on the Internet and came across this post.

Only one large lump of wood found this time

 He didn't live very far away (and knew my dad - although everyone round here does) and would I like to come and have a look. So on Saturday I popped by and I could see straight away that it was similar to the other one I had seen but not in as good condition, only the timber had survived and  this was only one piece.
I'd say it was older than the one I saw near Bishops Castle, not so much time had been spent on the outside of this pump or pipe as it was quite rough, just hewed square I'd guess. Also they'd picked a piece of wood that had loads of knots in it which seems an odd choice if your drilling it by hand as it would make it much harder work. That said there might have been a shortage of timber at the time and apparently there used to be monks living there so time might not have been an issue.




From what I can work out I'd say this was the base where the water was drawn from. It's set up from the bottom to prevent too much sediment getting pumped through

 As for it's usage I can only guess. There were a number of pools there where the monks would have farmed fish for eating (there wasn't many days in the week where you could eat meat compared to fish ion medieval times so freshwater fish were an important food stuff in those times). I think it was probably to pump water up to the pools if the brook feeding them ran dry.

roughly a 5" diameter hole all the way down it

This would be the top. Tapered to fit tightly into another length of pipe

A fragment of timber from it that looks like elm

The pool where it was taken from

The man who found it, Bob, was a right character and we hit it off straight away, we share a common interest in trees, wood and the countryside. He did say if the digger is around that area again then they will dig deeper to see if they can find anymore of it so maybe that would put more light on the subject.
If I ever have enough time I'd love to build a working wooden pump like this and make it the traditional way (although finding the elm might be difficult these days). I think that through building it you would learn how it works to a much greater level and what they must have done all those years ago to have water close at hand.

Shuttering Steps

Back on the swimming pool this weeks to build the form work for the steps into the pool.

The finished steps

Building the underside of the steps. There needs to be a void underneath for duct work

A side view of the shutters. I enjoyed putting this together as it's only the inside measurements that are critical



My work area was not great!  It was raining and the layer of sand we put down to protect the floor slab stuck to all my tools.

A picture showing some of the bracing for the strings and the two tie bars holding both sides to each other

The completed stutters. There is two layers of steel mesh tied together inside the form work

We mixed the concrete by hand. Here's Neil and Richard levelling off and vibrating the concrete

The completed stairs in the pools with the side shutters off

Finished job. We'll remove the underside shutters on Monday

Stripping the shutters off yesterday I was pleased with how these stairs turned out. I'm just looking forward to when we've got some water in the pool and I get to try them out for real!

Radiator Bench

I finished off a bench over a radiator today.

 made out of sapele with storage underneath, it finishes off the porch nicely. It's going to have a dark stain applied to it and a brass socket where I've left the plastic back box.

The end section slides up to allow access to the soil pipe behind and the wire to the socket

Storage at one end, ideal for shoes etc. The other side lifts up to allow access to the radiator

Testing it out. Complete with Cheesy grin!

Quite pleased with this little project. It goes well with the feel of the room (the expensive tiles on the floor and the limestone window sills) and it's one of the first things people will see when they walk into this grand house.

Shuttering For Footings

Had a good day today, something a little bit different from the final fitting we're doing in the house, building shuttering form work for the footings of the swimming pool.

 I can't take credit for all of this, as I've only worked on it one day, but it was good to be working out in the sunshine. I quite like shuttering, although I've not done much of it, I find it interesting to build the inverse of things to make the concrete look right when the shutters are removed.

We made sure we put in plenty of props as the weight of concrete can be surprising, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all stands up to the concrete pour we've got on Thursday.

I love the variety of work you have  to be able to do as a carpenter.