Altering The Layout Of A House

A friend and customer of mine does drawings for a living (in fact he did the drawings for my own extension), so I wasn't surprised when I went to do some work on his hous and there wasn't a single drawing to look at! We were completely changing the layout of the upstairs of his house. the upstairs was two bedrooms, a lot of landing space and an airing cupboard. 

New hole into the second bedroom

 He decided that by creating the access to the second bedroom off the stairs he could then use all the landing space and a small amount in the bedroom to create a new bathroom upstairs. It's difficult to explain what he's done without seeing a floor plan but it really works well and makes much better use of space.

An area in the second bedroom where the bath was going to go

handrail and airing cupboard to be removed

New steps built. A job like this takes a surprising amount of time as it's a really fiddly job to do!

Staring to build the bulkhead over the stairs to form the new bathroom and make the most of that space over the stairs that's often wasted.

New door way into the second bedroom, brought out into the room to allow for the steps the other side of the door. I hung the door before plastering or plasterboard so it could just be removed when the plasterer comes and refitted afterwards (saves me a repeat visit)

Studwork for the bath ready to be boarded.

Dan was really pleased with how much I got done in two days, especially considering how much thinking was involved to make sure everything was in the right place and making the best use of space. 

By using someone to redesign the layout of your house it's surprising how much better it can make a house flow and I'd say you'd also add a lot of value as well. His website is here and I really recommend him for any drawing work you need.

Oak Trellis

Some oak trellis for a customer fitted during the end of August.

Fitted between brick piers 

The panels scribed in to the brickwork giving a really nice finish

The finished panels oiled up

Blending in well with the garden

I was really pleased with the way that these looked when they were fitted. They really worked well in the garden and the customer was really happy with them. 

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.