by Paul Woodlock » Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:41 pm
Thursday 01 April 2004 10:16pm
Greetings Peoples :)
Well I awoke today to find a 5.4 metre 150x50 ( 6x2 ) length of C16 stuctural timber laying outside on the driveway. And a delivery note pushed through the door
It looked straight when I spied it through the landing window, but I had to wait till actually inspecting it close up to find the real deal.
First a few gallons of coffee to wake up!!
This piece of wood will determine how level the concrete slab will be, so its very important for it to be straight.
Thankfully the wood was actually fairly straight. Phew! I Knew it wouldn't be dead straight. Wood never is. So today I set to work on the straightening process.
I laid it on a flat surface and got out my trusty power plane, and carefully shaved off wood in the right places. About a 0.25mm at a time. Took a while, but I was left with one edge of the wood dead straight. Cool. I then cut the wood to length. 5.06m was the optimum length to sit the wood on the brick parapets forming the edge of the mould, and allowing a modicum of slding back and forth to screed the concrete. However I wasn't finished.....
The trouble with a 5m span of wood, is that it sags in the middle. So to get it straight under these circumstances meant it needed to be slghtly curved, so it sags straight.
I scratched my head for a few seconds and came up with a cunning plan.....
You may remember I fixed a length of wooden battern all the way around the room at the finished floor height for levelling purposes, and knocked small nails in it every few inches to allow string lines to be attached.
I set up a string line across the width of the room, and placed the wood on edge on the parapets underneath it. Measuring from the string to the bottom of the wood was 245mm at the edges and 248mm in the middle. This meant the wood was sagging 3mm in the middle.
A few more nifty power plane moves resulted in a peice of wood that was indeed straight over a 5m span. Within +/- 0.5mm anyway. not bad eh? :) :) :)
I also managed to avoid ripping the DPM Sheet with the power plane. ( for me, that was a result. )
Sorted. ( and the sort of care you wouldn't get if you got the Contractors in )
In true fashion I haven't swept up the wood shavings from the garage yet. I'll probably do that later tonight.
I also can't order the concrete until monday, as one of my helpers doesn't know where he'll be working next week. He might have to goto Belgium again to fit more kitchens., so if that's the case, Ill have to postpone the pour another week ( GRIM ), or get someone else in. So fingers crossed for monday.
The concrete pour started off as VERY VERY SCARY. Now it's only a little scary. I shall certainly be relieved when it's done and level. :)
The next big scary job is ordering the Sylomer. Which I'll probably get on to on monday. Leaving the weekend for some final final final final checks.
I've also been digging a trench in the garden today. Woman and I want a pagoda in the garden with small brick walls. This won't be done until next year really, but the current plan with that is to dig out the foundations now , and use any left over surplus concrete from the two floor slab pours I've got to do.
I can't believe how unfit I am. I only dug out a little bit and got absolutely fucked!!!
I wonder if there'll be any room for some Gym equpiment in the new studio??? hmm?
Paul