Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[n0legs]

Steve,
With all those hidden treasures you should have called in Time Team.
John

NO!!!!!! Nice idea but that's the last thing you want when building.
The archaeology people can hold you up for weeks and cost you thousands :evil:

 

[wcndave]

1.5m cubed is massive, about 3.4m^3. Would not want to dig that by hand... UK average annual rainfall is about 1m so 2.5cm of rain would be 2.5% in one day.

0.6" would seem to be about the 95% percentile of daily UK rainfall, which gives you 1.2 m^3 so about 1/3 the original requirement. Depends who you have to persuade!

 

[n0legs]

1.5m cubed is massive, about 3.4m^3. Would not want to dig that by hand...!

That's only about 5-6 Ton.
Easy, good honest days work, where's my mattock and round mouth 8)

 

[NickWelford]

Where are you dumping all the spoil?

 

[Steve Maskery]

There was a pond up at the top of the garden. It's not a pond any more.

 

[Brentingby]

From the sound of it, your pond is going to be a mountain. -b

 

[Steve Maskery]

I first machined the glazing beads a couple of weeks ago at the Community Workshop, but the only cutter we had that was suitable was a roundover and I wanted an ovolo. We didn't have a smaller bearing to fit, so I removed the bearing altogether and used the straight fence instead. This turned out to be not a very good idea, and the end result was a bit scruffy, to be honest.

Fortunately the beads were plenty big enough, so I put them through the thicknesser to remove the mess and used the bearing, but took two cuts, one at 90 deg to the other. OK the round part is not truly a quadrant, but it's not bad and I don't think anyone wold ever know.

So on Friday I fitted them all to the frames.

They are just pressed into place at the mo, the glass isn't going to be that thick!

I've just been along to order the glass. The bloke was very helpful. Doug B had suggested that I would be better off with laminated glass, so I discussed this with the Glass Man and the upshot is that I am having sealed units made with laminated glass, smoked. It also comes to a few quid less than he quoted me over the phone last week, so I'm happy. I can pick them up tomorrow.

The weather forecast for Wednesday is not very good, so there may not be any soakaway progress, but if not I'll see about getting these frames installed.

 

[Graham Orm]

Lammy is much more secure than toughened Steve. Cars have toughened in the side windows. When you see a pile of tiny fragments in the road, that's where a car side window has been broken. You can bounce bricks off it, but if you tap it on the edge or with a pointed instrument near to a corner it will disintegrate into tiny fragments. Hence it's use in areas where people are prone to fall against it.
Laminated is what they put in the windscreen of a car, it's 2 pieces of glass and a piece of polythene between them so if you break it the polythene stays intact and you get a bulge but it doesn't go through without a lot of effort and repeated impacts....and noise.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Completely agree with Graham.

We fitted laminated glass to the bottom sashes in our last place, and have fitted it here to the only single-glazed window we have (after a break-in!).

The glazier cracked a piece slightly, doing the sashes, and left it out on top of the stuff in the skip. My builder at the time hadn't heard of it being used that way and wanted to test it. He sat it up on two bits of 2x4 and hit it in the centre with a 2lb lump hammer. It didn't shatter completely, but smashed, taking the shape of the hammer head, like something from a cartoon.

It's good stuff. It's also slightly sound deadening too, as the plastic part of the laminate damps vibrations. I've also got it in the garage/workshop windows, but backed up with rebar mesh on the inside so it looks hard to get in, too. I'd far rather they didn't try...

E.

PS: it's a bit heavier than a single pane, so you have to re-balance the sashes, but not by much.

 

[RobinBHM]

I think laminated glass blocks UV light by 99% so is good to use for minimising fading of fabrics.

Its not good to handle, it has sharp edged as it is annealed glass and breaks easily on the edge, but very strong when installed. Of course you need to have a secure method of fitting the beads or use security tape

 

[Eric The Viking]

I designed my frames to glaze from the inside for that reason and the beads are screwed in.

 

[Graham Orm]

If it's purely for security then Georgian wired has the same effect and has the visible deterrent of wire inside the glass.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"I think laminated glass blocks UV light by 99% so is good to use for minimising fading of fabrics." - Robin

Good to know your curtains will be OK Steve.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I was hoping that we would get the windows in today, but Ray wanted to dig. So I let him. I barrowed and tipped.

The pipe I found last week is a land drain. No idea where it goes to, but it is on a bed of solid clay, which is obviously why it was put in in the first pace. It is possible that it is older than the house - it might have been put in when these were fields. Ray tried to see ow thick the clay bed is, but a hole a foot deep showed no sign of becoming soil again. It could be metres thick.

That's not exactly going to help drainage, is it? So we now have a hole 3m x 1.2m, 0.85m deep. If I have a foot of soil on top of it, we shall have a 1.6 m^3 void, or enough to hold 20mm of rainfall.

I rang Kevin the BCO and told him where we had got to, and when I told him we had hit clay and the size of the hole, there were no sharp intakes of breath through puckered lips, so I hope he will pass it. He is coming next week.

Ray wanted to finish early today, but we did have time to fit the outside glazing bars to make the rebates. I've decided to set them back 40mm from the front, which will give me plenty of room to sort out shutters, in due course.

We've both got other things to do for a few days, so there will be a bit of a hiatus.

 

[wcndave]

It was very thoughtful of you to put flowers at the head of his grave. Nice touch!

 

[Shultzy]

Steve, It's only a land drain if they don't have socket joints. If it is a land drain the water will escape into it.

 

[Steve Maskery]

That's right.
We dug one up, it was cracked, and when we saw that it was just an arch in cross-section, it confirmed what several people had said. It's right on top of the bed of clay, so I guess that is why it was put in.
We syphoned a few gallons of water into the pit and it did flow away, slowly but surely, but the clay hole will still be full this time next week, I reckon.

I'd love to know where the land drain goes to, though, there is no obvious destination, like a stream, anywhere around.

 

[Graham Orm]

Looks like you've got exactly the same scenario I had Steve, Loads of graft digging a sump hole only to reveal a drain right where you want it.
Because we also are on clay this part of the garden becomes a quagmire in the winter.

This is Dave....he's my version of Ray.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Looks like you've got exactly the same scenario I had Steve, Loads of graft digging a sump hole only to reveal a drain right where you want it.
Because we also are on clay this part of the garden becomes a quagmire in the winter.

This is Dave....he's my version of Ray.

Now that's a neat hole.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Where can I buy a Ray, please?

Mark