Getting out of the ground

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Principle 9: Use small and slow solutions

I've tried to source materials from as close as possible. Supporting small, local businesses, like Chris's Timber in Seymour. Chris makes his own concrete stumps on site, with a machine made by a fella just around the corner. Chris could make about 8 x 800mm stumps for me at a time, each batch taking about a week to fully cure. I used about 40 of them.


Concrete stumps getting made locally at Chris's Timber. Machine built locally too, in Abdallah Road.


Finished stumps delivered


I didn't salvage much in the way of material that I could use for bearers (100mm x 75mm) from the house, so I bought them second-hand from McIvor Hwy Recycled Building Materials in Heathcote (60km west), where all sorts of building materials are recovered from demolition jobs in the local area.


By drilling a hole in the bearer, fitting the stump rods through the hole and bending them over, we could hang the stumps in the holes - resting them on bricks. We could then level the bearers, with the help of a laser level, by adding small pieces of concrete sheet under the bricks.



I managed to complete about half of the joists with materials salvaged from the original house and garage


I purchased the rest of what I needed second-hand from Heathcote, which were denailed on site


Each joist was rebated with a hand saw and chisel, so that they sat on the bearers at the same height. A 45 degree cut joins the joists together. I needed to pre-drill the holes before nailing, because the timber was so hard. A time consuming, but enjoyable, job.


Joists nearly finished, preparing for the next stage... the framing.



Comments

Geoff said…
Everything is coming along so very well there, amazing! Thanks for putting it all online so we can follow it.
August 12, 2009 at 4:45 PM
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