Steel posts and beams

It is always one step forward too steps back in this journey it seems. Is nothing destined to go smoothly for us?

On Saturday the steel fabrication guys came to install our steel work to support the second storey. We knew he was having troubles with a supplier getting the galvanised posts for the overhanging second floor so this was to be done today (Monday).

After being about 2 hours late on Saturday morning, they installed four posts against the existing house and four at the rear. Two of the posts against the house were too short.

Here are the posts before installation on Saturday.

Here are the posts at the rear. These ones are correct:

So today they came and added a piece at the top of the two short posts which you can see here:

Then they brought a crane in and parked it in the driveway next door and lifted the other beams over the top of our house and into place.

When David got home from work, he noticed that the galvanised posts at the back weren't up against the gazebo deck. So he measured them and they were 1840mm from the black posts instead of 2 meters. Grrr... not happy Jan.

And the base plates at the bottom were meant to be larger as per the engineers instructions and should have been Chemset into place. That is a strong gluey stuff that you put into the holes in the cement to help keep the bolts in place.

The steel guy is coming back in the morning to do some more welding so is going to take a look at the error then and see how he can fix it. He will have to get the crane back again and I will be furious if he tries to charge us for it.

So we will see how tomorrow goes I guess.

Finger crossed he can fix it as soon as possible.

Cheers,

A house with a wall

Last week the kids and I went on holidays to Tassie to visit my family while David stayed at home and got some work done. I was dreaming that I'd come home to a pretty red brick wall on the boundary and the steel framework up and some flooring done.

The steel guy couldn't get the steel he needed so that didn't happen :( But at least the bricky turned up after we had some doubts as he is a bit unreliable. Apparently he is a hard but very slow working which sucks as he charges by the hour. Dave put did all his labouring for him for the whole 3 days (some of which were 12 and 13 hours) and finally got the wall up.

Look how pretty it is:



Yesterday, we started the framing up of the floor to join to the wall. So now most of the bearers and joists have been done.

We are starting to get a feeling of how much space we will have. I think we will still have to be wise with our choice of lounge etc as it will soon feel like a crowded room I think. We will choose lowish backed lounges and small tables.

There is so much rubbish to get rid of in the front yard too. Must order a skip some time soon.

Keep cool this week fellow Melbournites.
Cheers,

Finally some framing

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2014 everyone. I hope it is a prosperous one for you all.

Today is New Years Day 2014. It's been over 2 years since we first lodged our application with the council to extend our house. And finally we have actually started to see some real building happening.

Dave has laid the 4 big bearers in the extension and had concreted in the stumps.
Some of the stump holes had massive rocks in them so he had to put metal dowels into the rock to secure the cement.

Some of the stump holes were double stump holes like this one under the edge of the existing house.

And here are the four main bearers in place waiting for cement.

Also, he has been framing up the existing floor in the out living room. New bearers and joists and it now feels solid as a rock.

We had a big timber delivery yesterday and thanks to the cool lady at the hardware shop, saved almost $400 on this lot. It was for some of the joists in the new house. Today we started laying them. Hooray!!

The rain came though so we headed off to the pool for a swim with the kids in the afternoon. We have covered the timber with black plastic because the weather is not looking good for the rest of the week.

Other things happening in the background are that the bricklayer is finishing a job off at the bosses house and will be doing our job after that (hopefully next week but I think he went on a big bender at Christmas so may be delayed). Also the steel has been measured up and is being made to also hopefully go in next week if we can arrange another concrete pour asap.

Next Monday I am taking the kids to Tassie to visit Mum while Dave stays to do work without the kids under his feet. I just hope the weather ad delays don't make it a wasted time for him.

So that's what's been going on over this holiday season. It is all a bit exciting :)

Cheers,