Loft Conversion - Deforestation in action

This is the first delivery of timber and whilst they look like pretty substantial timbers, these are just the 9" x 2" packers required to pack up and out the existing 6" x 2" joists.  These 'packers' will then be sandwiched in between structural 9" x 2" C24 timbers which will be hung from the steel beams.  Yup, you guessed it, the structural engineer strikes again!

The yellow tinged timbers are the C24 structural timbers specified by the structural engineer.  When assmbled these timbers will create thirteen 9" x 8" joists.  To put this in context, the first floor of my house is supported by single 8" x 2" joists spliced over a supporting wall, much in the way that the existing loft joists are.

This is the detail at the splice joint of the existing timbers.  The 9" x 2" extends the spliced joist 300mm past the line of where the steel beam will sit.  84mm high timbers will site on top of the existing joist to create a 9" x 4" sized joist.  The C24 timber will then sit either side of this and be coach bolted through at staggered centres to create a 9" x 8" sized joist.

This is the view from the other side of the joists

Loft Conversion - Steel yourself for this nonsense

Here are the steels which the structural engineer has insisted is the only way to support the additional en-suite bedroom in the loft space.  These are required in addition to the 'quadrupled' up 9"x2" joists and the flitch beam.

and here's a close up of the 6.8metre long x 254mm x 146mm x 43Kg universal beams which i need to crane into my loft to hang the 9"x2" C24 joists from.  They have a spliced joint at 2/3rd section and when bolted together each of these beams will weigh 300kg (47 stone).  In my opinion this is complete overkill and could have been avoided by the use of alternative glue-lam beams or other modern, timber composite alternatives to steel. So, here we are already £4k over budget.

This is the flitch beam which I had to construct to satisfy yet another requirement of the structural engineer.  The flitch beam comprises of a 6m long x 200mm high x 13mm thick steel plate sandwiched between two 220mm x 50mm C24 structural beams the same length. The flitch beam will sit at a 90 degree angle to the steel beam around the edge of the stairwell opening and will be suspended from the steel beam by anchor ties.

The assembly is held together by 130mm grade 8.8 x M12 bolts placed at 200mm staggered centres with single sided toothed connecters either side of the steel plate which bite into the timber.  I estimate that this weighs approximately 120Kg (19 stone) and because of the length and weight this will need to be craned straight into the loft along with the steel.

Structural engineer - bolt!

Loft Conversion - A corker of a time

I had always thought that laying loft insulation was the worst job in the world, turns out i was wrong, it's the 2nd worst job in the world.  The worst is removing loft insulation!

and just when you thought you'd prepared yourself for an evening of hot, sweaty, sticky action you lift the itchy, invasive glass wool to find dusty, loose, cork insulation which will need to be swept up.

The glass wool insulation was bagged up and disposed of at the local civic amenity site, the foil wrapped lengths of insulation were laid aside for reuse in the eaves area later.  The loose cork insulation was bagged up and set aside for re-use in the under-floor area, because a wee bit of t'internet research has confirmed that loose cork has insulation qualities which are at least equal to, possibly better than, glass mineral wool (c.0.045Wm/K).  Not only that, it's in short supply and accordingly is quite an expensive insulation option.

With the floorboards lifted, the route of the electrical conduit can be seen.  The conduit will be bypassed by the new wiring for the loft conversion and lighting in the ceiling below which will be installed by a qualified electrician to ensure compliance with current regulations.

With all the insulation removed, the 6"x2" joists and their spliced joints can be seen.  These joists will be doubled up and packed out in line with the structural engineers requirements prior to being sandwiched between the C24 timbers specified by the structural engineer.

Loft Conversion - Parging the Party

 To prevent any leakage of fumes from the 4 flues within the chimneybreast into the new room the brick chimneybreast party wall had to be coated with a mortar render.  The process of coating the wall with the mortar is known as parging.

Parging is a fairly easy and straighforward DIY job, particularly as the finished wall will be hidden behind an insulated and plasterboarded partition.  The most difficult bit of parging is carrying the many buckets of mixed mortar up into the loft (or alternatively, carrying all the bags of sand and cement and buckets of water up into the loft).

There was a small gap at the top of the brickwork between my neighbour's loft and mine (barely big enough to put a finger in).  This gap was filled with fire retardent expanding foam to reduce the risk of fire breaching the party wall in any direction.

Not a great picture, but that's the job done.  Yes, the chimneybreast is an odd shape, however it'll eventually be behind an insulated partition, so who cares!

Loft Conversion - A single step and all that

Right, the blog is now back online after quite a bit of time off.  Lots of the time off was spent preparing for the next project, which is probably the biggest project i've ever undertaken.  So, here goes, 2015/16 will be the year of the loft conversion and i'll keep the blog updated to show you the progress made and some of the technical stuff required along the way.

Fortunately the shape of the trusses already provided for the basic shape for the planned bedroom and en-suite and didn't require any alterations to the roof trusses other than the strengthening of the joists (more about that later) and the fitting of ridiculousy sized steel universal beams to carry the weight of the floor (i'll have a right good moan about that later).

As you can see, the children of the former owner(s) must have used this as a den/hangout at some point in the past.  By a strange coincidence i recognised one of the names and when i spoke to the woman she confirmed that she had stayed across the road from this house, had been friends with the girl who lived here and that they often hung out in the loft.

 This is the area between the collars and the ridge of the roof looking towards the party wall and chimneybreast which seperates my neighbour and I.

So, that's my loft in it's current state, but it won't stay that way for long!

The New Kitchen: Part 3 - Never Did That Masel

I was very happy with my work installing the kitchen, however I knew that my tiling abilities weren't fantastic and I was worried that my efforts would look a bit iffy.  So, a quick phone call to one of the best tillers in the town and hey presto a fantastic job!

We choose brick style tiles which have tapered edges.  We found them on sale in Homebase at a very reasonable £12 per square metre.  Thanks to Nicky at NB Tiling for firstly sorting out the walls and then doing such a brilliant job with the tiles.

In fact, Nicky done such a great job with the wall tiles we asked him to do the floor tiles too.  Again, we found the tiles we wanted in Homebase at a very reasonable £20 per square metre.  The photo doesn't show the tiles to well.  They're textured slate style porcelain tiles and are a lot darker than they look in this photo.  I laid plywood on the floor to give a sound surface to tile on and this was fixed in place with 25mm annular ring nails in a 4" nailing pattern, in fact I think I ended up with more nails than wood in my floor.

 

So, not quite Dae It Yersel, mer like made a phone call masel.  Anyway, it's still looking fantastic thanks to Nicky.

 

Stairway To Heaven (well, upstairs actually)...........but not the bedroom!

 

Needed to make a small staircase and fortunately my brother had a couple of spare planks of wood which were perfect for use as the stringers and treads. 

I set up a simple jig using some pieces of scrap wood to ensure that the same angle was maintained for each of the tread grooves.  The jig simply slid up and down the length of the stringer and was screwed into place.

Each tread groove was recessed by 5/8" and even my relatively cheap router managed the job no bother, taking out approx. 1/4" on each pass.

Whilst it looks as if i'm making this on the living room carpet, I'm actually making this in the garage and have laid the old living room carpet in there to make it easier on my old knees.

Once i'd cut all the treads to the same width and length I gave them a quick sand a chamfered the front edges.  Plenty of glue and 3 screws in each side of the tread through the stringer should ensure that it's sturdy enough.  I laid it on it's side and left it with weights on it overnight to ensure that it didn't twist or separate whilst the glue was setting

The finished article, an open tread staircase ready to be varnished then fitted in place.