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

The Digger Returns

5th October 2015 Robin the JCB, returned today from Llanberis to reduce the levels at the entrance to the Barn, lift a steel beam and sort some stone for the new retaining wall and the wall cladding to the kitchen.

After last weeks summer weather, a depression wound its way in with gale force southerly winds and non stop drizzle.

   

Ready to start the job

And we are off

That stone weighed in at more than a ton

 We had to make sure then we didn't undermine the funky starfish factory barn.

Reducing the levels 

The laser is an amazing tool, for getting the levels right- Robin could just about do it without the laser.

Hundreds of tons moved which will be moved to make the pond later

Then the blockwork arrived to finish the build on the kitchen- Mac brought the blocks but they were hollows and we needed solids so he went back and brought solids- Thanks Mac.

Robin then set about lifting the gable beam in place- which is to take the gable ridge. We tied the straps so that they couldn't slip.

 Artistic shot of the beam going up and the blocks being lifted off the lorry

Safely in place

End of the day we now have an entrance - just waiting for the gable frame to arrive so that joiners can finish off the roof. 

Return of the concrete wagon

Not much activity this week apart from laying the slab for the kitchen and filling the trench for the steel gable frame entrance on Tuesday 29th September.

We ordered 2.5 cu metres of gen 3 mix from Porthmadog concrete. Years ago we were concreting the floor of the factory barn and I underestimated how much we needed and we were 2 feet short- which was a bit embarrassing.  I had to go with our optimist trailer to the local concrete supplier to get some more, it was a box trailer, and I used visqueen to make sure the concrete didn't just drain out of the trailer.  They dumped  a small load in the trailer and I towed it home.  I drove not the yard and got our of the car ready to finish the job and noticed that half of the concrete had vibrated the visqueen through a gap in the back of the trailer and half of the concrete had disappeared - where to I wondered!

And since them we have alway ordered a little too much-  good lesson.

Jonny the subie and Jen were on hand and Jerome the driver were ready to do the pour.

Jonny and Sarah taping the plastic sheeting together with Gorilla tape

The machine arrives

Jerome the driver- he renovated his barn in Port or the mad dog

 The get go - wearing tough work clothes- Jonny has given up on flip flops for concreting

Start

Raking it around- put your back into it Jen and Jonny will supervise!

Finishing it off

 The end of the slab- well it is perfectly smooth and level but it slopes one way which we will take out when we screed the floor later. 

  The next job was to fill the gable trench - it took about 6 hours to dig it out - hard boulder clay -  it was like concrete-  some of the hardest digging I have ever done.
The gable trench is for the gable frame and the new entrance to the barn

Jonny borrowing the concrete in 

 Jonny and Jen barrow jam

It will look like and entrance soon

One of the best weeks  of the year