Scribing Shelves

The other day I had to scribe a shelf to go on top of a plastered wall to mark the transition between that wall and the stone wall above. 

A well scribed shelf!

That meant scribing it to the stone work. 

I use a pair of compasses to mark mine, setting it to the widest point and then marking the board from there before cutting it with the jigsaw. As I work on old buildings a lot, it's a job I have to do quite often so over the years it's become easier and easier - although I challenge anyone to get it right first time!

Cupboard In A Cellar

Last week I build a cupboard in a cellar for a customer. They left it largely up to me on what I built, it was mainly to hide the gas meter and the water filter to make it all look a bit more presentable as they're selling trying to sell the house.

Frame work in - made harder by the fact I couldn't drill any holes in the walls due to the tanking. Instead I wedged all the pieces in place and used a frame fixing foam.

Adding WBP ply to the outside

Adding kitchen hinges on the doors

The finished cupboard - looks much smarter now

The large door gives easy access to the gas meter and to to the water filter

Fitting An Oak Stairs With Winders

an interesting job this week where some of the guys I work with and myself fitted a flight of oak stairs in an old property.

Flight in place and starting to get glued and pegged together

Fitting the winding treads

You can never have too much glue when putting together a flight of stairs!

Glue blocks added to stop any squeaks!

Ready for some handrail and spindles

The finished item!

Landing upstairs 

 It took a little longer than we expected but they went in well and looked great when we were finished. I think it's a full year since the last time I fitted any stairs so it's good to keep the skills in my mind.

I've Got The Van Sign Written

I've finally got around to having the van sign written!

I'm pleased with the result. What does everyone think?

Changing Brushes

An aspect that customers never see is the care and maintenance of my tools and the day to day running costs to keep all these tools working. 

The impact driver is an essential part of a modern carpenters tool kit

 My impact driver is an example of this. This week I've had to purchase two new batteries (coming in at over £50) and replace the brushes to keep it working.

Brushes worn out from lots of use!

The old worn brush on the left and what it should look like on the right

New brushes in place - no down time at a customers house now!

The constant maintenance, sharpening, repairing and updating kit takes lots of time and costs a lot of money every year. A modern and efficient carpenter has to have far more kit than any other trade in the building industry.

Changing Doors

This is a job I've been working on in the evenings and weekends for the last month or so. I've changed most of the doors in the house and the two front doors.

Before

After

 It's amazing the difference changing the front door and painting the windows has made to the front of the house. Certainly improved it's curl appeal!

I changed most of the internal doors for oak as well, and I made a couple on site for the cupboard under the stairs. Architrave and skirtings were also changed for oak in places as well. I treated them all with a coat of Osmo oil before leaving them. 

Hopefully all this work will make the house more appealing to potential customers.

Floating Oak Mantle Piece

A picture heavy post sorry. This is our own mantle piece in our living room. It's been on my "to-do" list for quite some time! 

The top of our fire place looked like this all winter, so it was time to make it look a little better!

Plywood template made up the exact same size as the oak so holes could accurately be drilled and match up between the wall and the piece of oak

Fixing the template to the wall. Making sure it's level

The stainless steel threaded bar fixed into the wall. The holes behind are a couple of mm bigger to allow for the resin to fix the bar. 

Using a template in this way means that the bar will be in exactly the right place. I used the nut to make sure it was the right distance out from the wall.

The three pieces of threaded bar resined into the wall. The middle one is purely to locate the oak and to stop it from warping.

The underside of the two ends. The oak is then tighten to the wall making it very strong. This hole will eventually be filled with a Walnut plug for contrast (If you can't hide something then make a feature of it!)

A good spanner had to die to fix it though as a normal one wouldn't fit in the hole! 

The finished mantle piece

The mantle piece looks quite modern but, in my opinion, goes well with our fireplace, giving it a good mix of the traditional materials with the sharp lines of the rest the fireplace. 

A Pair Of Doors

Last Saturday I fitted a frame and hung a pair of doors on a building we'd been working on.

 When you get to fit the frame as well as the doors its normally makes the job easier, as any twist can be taken out with a small adjustment of the frame. These doors were made bang on so no adjustment needed.

Set up outside on a sunny day

Hinges cut nice and tightly on

The finished pair of doors

A nice job for a sunny day. 

Installing Guttering

A few weeks ago I fitted some white plastic guttering to a large set of out buildings we'd been working on. I was a little dubious as we'd normally fit black guttering to something like this but I think it really looks good and matches in with the house.

The white gutter looks good against the cladding

The front of the building

It took just over a day to get it all up. I tend to fit guttering level as it looks a lot better than having a heavy fall and so long as it's done right then it will run from the outlets as soon as the rain starts.

Cupboard Remodelling

This is a few days work from back in March remodelling a cupboard and creating a new one after a new fire place and flue had been fitted.

Boxing in the flue. I used fire board on the inside just "to be sure" even though the timbers were all outside the distances allowed to the flue

The other cupboard in the kitchen is above the fire place in the living room (if that makes sense...)

Simple MDF doors made on site to match what's already there

Boarded out, trim added and shelf fitted.

The finished cupboard

The othe cupboard finished. I also think that with this one I must hold some sort of record for the fastest hung door...