A lid on the Basement !

With great relief the weather finally gave up on trying to wash away the Island and tried to bake it to death instead . I built all the internal stud-work to account for irregularities in the concrete floor with the use of a tight string line off the wall plates cutting each piece individually . These were placed on chalk lines meticulously measured on the floor and the wall plates . they were connected together with a second top plate overlapping the joints by at least two feet where possible .
Next the position of all the beams were marked on both wall plates by measurement ai 16" centres to give 3 pieces in every 4' as the flooring comes in 8' sheets . Underneath where the upper walls were to be either one or two glu e micro laminate beams were fitted to give them support .
The TJI beams , which are a sort of engineered I beam with laminate on top and bottom and a web of osb between , were put in position 1 1/2 " in from the wall plate to make room for the " rim joists ". These TJI's come in at about $1.75 a foot compared to the micro laminate at $ 6.00 per foot .

Darrell had to go to another job after cutting the tji's to length . Unfortunately there was some error and Dave and me placed them in position averaging out the long and the short ones . and pinning them loosely down . When we then fitted the rim joists by toe nailing them we had to

adjust the lengths of the tji's again to ensure the correct dimensions of the building .

We used joist hangers and micro -laminate beams around the stair well and acr

oss the fireplace . I used an excellent air palm nailer to do the final nailing .

With all the marking out and measuring and re-adjusting the job had gone not as quickly as I would have liked but we took a break and sourced some nails for the flooring before putting in a hard 2 hour session in the evening to fix the floor . This was a special type of OSB with a tongue on one long edge and a groove on the other . Firstly a chalk line was made across the joists one width in on the long edge . the tops of the joists were glued and the 8' x 4' sheets were placed in rows on the line being nailed in position as we went . The second row was started to with a shorter piece to space out the joins and firmly seated with a sledge hammer and a block of wood

The neighbour Bob came out with three cans of beer as the sun came down and we used up all the sheets we had . We w

ere three short ! It had been a long day !

OSB or osb = Oriented strand board
More pictures here !

Comments

The S.T.EN. Gun

“ We will never surrender !” France fell to the German Blitzkrieg in May 1940 . The retreating British Army ended up being rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk by a flotilla of little ships leaving behind much of their equipment . A German invasion was expected ! Winston Churchill the British prime minister made his famous “ we will fight them on the beaches – we will never surrender ! “ speech and the Battle of Britain was on ! The UK desperately needed submachineguns . The Government ordered well made expensive Thompsons from the still neutral United States but there was never enough available . In order to rapidly equip a sufficient fighting force to counter the threat of invasion , the Royal Small Arms Factory , Enfield ( North London ) was commissioned to produce an alternative quickly and in large numbers . Whats in a name S.T.En. There Major R. V. Shepherd OBE and Mr. Harold John Turpin came up with the Design which became

Bonny and Clyde and the Browning Automatic Rifle

Bonnie and Clyde and the BAR ! Clyde Barrow, holding a Browning automatic rifle. BAR's could fire a twenty-shot magazine loaded with armor-piercing ammunition in under three seconds. During the depression of the 1930's in the USA criminals were looked at in a different way by many of the people who had been victimized and impoverished by the rich bankers and the emerging powerful corporations. Many people saw them as people driven to the edge that were only taking back what was stolen from them and striking back at a society and Government that let the Depression cause so much harm to so many . Two of the most famous criminals of that time were Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow . They were known to be quite skilled with their weapons, and unlike most criminals, they practiced with them and maintained them . Sadly they are considered to be responsible for the deaths of at least Nine law enforcement officers and five civilians during

501 NE 4th street - Plumbing

Drainage The first thing I have found strange is the constant requirement for testing at every stage but here with the building being largely wooden it does make sort of sense . A minor fault in the plumbing could lie undetected otherwise within the walls and only surface once damp damage had become extensive and be very costly to repair . Thus it is required that once the drains have been run throughout the building frame they are filled completely with water to ensure their soundness . I took the wise precaution of making up a screw in fitting with a pressure gauge and an inflation valve to test the pipes with air first as once the system was full of water it would be time consuming and difficult to get the water out and to dry where necessary to effect repairs . First things first - all the drainage flows within the house in a trunk and branch layout . The main 4 inch drain had already been tested and laid under the basement floor . There are tables to show how

The man from the Clapham Omnibus

Search This Blog