McGovern Barrow Boys

Jonny and Tim came and helped to empty the right hand side of the barn on Monday 16th December. Tim had just come back from Turkey so it was a bit of a shock to the system.
they did a great job, more than 50 barrows down the field and about 3 tons of stone all moved by hand.

                                                                  Clearing out the barn

                                                       Some pretty heavy stones to move

                                                                   The final pile

                                                                   Front cleared

Tim moving a heavy stone

                                          Job done thanks for your help!

Digger the Jedi

We have had a lot of problems with water at the back of the barn, and we should have laid the drains in September when it was dry- hindsight is a great thing.

The digger came on the 16th December and dug about 100 metres of trenches and started to backfill as we laid the field and brown pipe.

Cut off from the road as the digger crosses the track

Laying the Brown pipe across the track

Working up the back of the barn

Refilling the trench with washed slate

Fitting the gullies

 

The trench up to the back of the barn

Gable Ends- and Insulation Arrives

The weather has been pretty wet from the beginning of November so we haven't spent much time on the barn.
After the timber roof was fitted we had to build up the gable ends - that was hard, a lot of material and cement had to lifted up onto the scaffolding,  and we had to make sure that we matched the outer stonework with the existing walls.
Then we started to repoint the stone walls with 6:1;1 sand, cement and lime.
The next job was to move the scaffolding to along the wall, and inside the right hand end of the barn so that we could start to close off the the facia board to keep animals out.

The gable end finished- just need a block worker to build the kitchen

James helping to move the scaffolding

We always get great sunsets out to the west

We bummed and ached about insulation but eventually bought seconds from Pontypridd in South Wales for about 25% less than the cost for new. As it  is all going to be hidden it doesn't really matter.  Its Celotex and Recital seconds. The lorry and trailer delivering it couldn't get down the track, so it had to be offloaded at the end of the track and then taken by trailer to the yard.

The lorry arrives

 

Insulated track

Empty trailer

Getting it up the track

Yard full of insulation

James with a rainbow coming out of his head -- must be a lucky sign

Roof Timbers Finished

Darren the joiner returned to finish the roof timbers- this time they needed to complete the gable frame, the gable ladders and the facia and barge boards which we have painted.
Some heavy rain resulted in a lake out at the front of the barn so we bought a pump which seems to do a good job.

The following pictures show the rest of the framing- there was an issue- the gable frame is set to 35 degrees and that side of the roof is 32.5 degrees so it took a lot of head scratching to sort out the valleys.

The next job is to fill in the gable ladders and fill in the stone work at the gables then we can add insulation and felt and batten.

 One side of the gable frame completed

 Scenic View 

 Completing the valleys

Ski Slope- 9x1

Finishing off- complex jointing

Barge boards and Facias 

All that was left from a vast amount of timber

  The inside of a Builders van

The Steel Gable Frame

The steel frame finally arrived in two halves to be welded together onsite which would form the new entrance to the barn.
We needed to insert insulation into the frame before it was closed up. We started off with polystyrene balls but that was messy so we cut lengths of insulation and pushed them in.
The pictures tell the story.

 Steel gable frame being constructed at the engineers workshop

 This upright proved to be short

The bolted cross member

Filling the frame and hovering up.

Emlyn welding the frame in place

 

 Checking out the welds

Bolting the frame to the concrete which was 1inch to so required steel packing shims

It wasn't square and too some time to get square, it had a twist in it, also the upright in the middle was short so they tried to force it down and all that happened was that the U channel section was bent and inch upwards. They came back the following day and inserted a new section in the middle.

 The bar going across is bent up 25mm in the middle

 Resin bolting the frame in

 The frame is set 200mm back from the wall.

Phone a friend

Finally all square and ready to be boxed in