Cae Helygen Barn September to December 2017

From September onwards we have been fixing insulated plasterboard to the ceilings and external stud walls.
Some of the rooms were really challenging as often the walls weren't square. Sometimes we made templates first to cut the plasterboard to.
Dylan our plasterer did most of the high ceilings in the living room, the larger bedroom and the dot and dab on the blockwork walls.
We also inserted some of the original rafters in the new ceilings.
The most challenging job was to sort out the window reveals, taking half a day each.
Sarah helped to board out the small bedroom and the downstairs bathroom- thanks.
We also had to fix the character oak door linings and window boards.
Work and a 12 day trek  to Everest Base Camp got in the way of progress in October!
After we came back I sorted out the the  internal reveals to the bi fold door. I used anthracite barge board which has a 90 degree angle which covered the steelwork which buts up to the windows.
The limestone floor arrived after a lot of faff and we have paid the kitchen floor- it took 4 of us a day to lay the floor and another day to grout and clean the floor.
I have started to plumb the bathroom, we are using cement board as a backer for the tiles in the shower, they needed  stainless steel screws.
Before Xmas Dylan the plasterer came back for a week and finished off the living room, 2 bedrooms and corridor. Just the downstairs bathroom and loft room and bathroom to go.
Over Xmas we built the internal gable framework in the loft, and built the loft bathroom, blocked  up the gable end doorway and made the plinth for the air source heat pump which is going in in the new year.
 See the pictures of where we are up to, sorry in no  particular order..

 Loft gable end stud work- 3x2 backed by breather membrane, 70mm insulation and then insulated plasterboard.

 Jen filling the ladder with insulation

 Messy job

 Flashback to 2015 when I was making the foundation to the Bi -Fold

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Template for difficult shapes

Sarah did a great job of the Vellux

Complicated shapes

Sarah's artwork

 More shapes

Window reveals- battened out top bottom and then sides  

 Finished job with window board in

Dot and Dab

Jen spent a lot of time cleaning the kitchen wall

The pervious day we sealed the floor with primer G. 

Laying the kitchen floor - Sarah working with me the pattern is called queens- we bought a special trowel but ended up just using a £5 plastic spreader. Mixing the flexible adhesive was important to get the mix right- not too sloppy and not too stiff. 

 Jonny and Tim cutting the edges and holes for wiring

 Fitting the infiills- the gaps are all by eye and about 10mm

 Job done- just need to grout 

 Grouting- we realised that thicker was better and less messy- thick peanut butter.

 A lot of cleaning afterwards now looks great 

 Jen working on the living room wall which now has 300-50 mm rough sawn oak on it

Bed of Mortar for the Oak

The barn yard before 40 tons of slate waste

The barn yard after 40 tons of slate waste

Jonny helping to make the loft bathroom stud 

 Stud stood up

 Jonny and Sarah went sailing in Yorkshire

 Studwork infill - using 4x2 

 Jen cleaning up

Bathroom  

 Plastered living room

 Vaulted Ceiling

 Back Wall

 Steel Beam

 Pillar

  Frame for the air source heat pump  plinth

Everest at 0430 in the morning from 5300 metres 

July and August at Cae Helygen Barn

The past couple of months have been busy at Cae Helygen.

Problem with the gable end pointing
We had  re - rendered the  gable end above the kitchen but unfortunately there were still some damp patches on the inside wall, so we used the kango to take out all of the pointing and then re- pointed  the wall. We also introduced a stainless steel bell bead and flaunched it to protect the lead flashing joint. Finally we need to paint a breathable waterproofer called Kingfisher on..... hopefully it will work.
The other Gable end
Sarah and Jonny helped us to point the North gable end- CW their names in the pointing.

First fix electrics
Steve the sheep man who is an electrician did the first fix with me assisting him for about 8 days- lots of up and over the inside of the pitched roof - with one channel of cables  behind the main room stud wall.

M1 motorway for cables

Kitchen

Positioning lights

Lots of pulling cables through and cutting slots in insulation

drilling 3 foot walls

A bit drill bit

Studwork
We fitted the studwork 3x2 studs to all the inside of all outside walls, and 70mm of insulation between, and then 25mm insulated plasterboard over the top.  It all took some time and effort but its nearly all done now.
We used a breather membrane behind the insulation

Bathrooms
I think we have decided that we need a small bathroom in the loft which is sort of above the downstairs bathroom- so that should make sorting out the services easier.
I've just got to remember how to do the plumbing again this time mainly plastic and push fit.
The loft will need a stud wall and we might need another velux.

Bedroom and bathroom internal stone walls
Jen spent a lot of time raking out, cleaning stonework,  [ which had had a lot of cows rubbing on it], and then repointing the walls. Good job Jen.

Kitchen door and the ~Bifold
Ewe plastics in Caernarfon provided the doors, composite from Endurance which are really good, and easy to fit- even though they don't provide fitting instructions!
The Bifold door also finally arrived after some faffing.
I built up the external wall with clockwork cut down with the big angle grinder, and then 4 of us did a trial fit with the doors in but class work out. It was a great fit - and should have been given that I measured it about 20 times.

The bifold ready for delivery from warm core- 

Its quite big at 3620mm- it took 4 of us to fit it

The big challenge was to get he threshold right - I needed to build up the clockwork about 100mm and we had a double DPC

The opening 

The view out

The bifold in- all the finishing would take some time including toe and heeling the glass, fitting the expensive triangles above the bifold and the trims. 

Kitchen door- by Endurance- what a nice composite door

James needed to adjust the steelwork above the bifold to accept the triangular windows- and he then did a reeled which was a great job.
The biggest issue in measuring was the external threshold level and the internal finished floor level.
I made a template to work this out. Then we screwed it into place using steel self tappers into the gable frame which was easy, and used one of the DPC's to lap over the blockwork and a lot of sealant.
What was more challenging was drilling the steel channel at the top of  door.  I drilled pilot holes and then finally a 6mm bolt passed through- there were about 8 of them.
Then we sealed the edges ready to an eternal fillet of cement to match the exterior stonework.
Then we fitted the 2 glazed triangles above the bifold- this was straightforward.
We bought anthracite grey soft board to make the exterior finish- using rapid set mitre glue [ tape surrounding area to prevent glue dripping], and screws with plastic anthracite screw covers to finish off.
We then heel and toed the glass and put he beading in.
To finish of we adjusted the height of the door roles,  and all was good.
Now we just need to finish off the inside.

Plasterboard and Pastering
Next up we are waiting for Dylan to do the plaster boarding and plastering- I have had a small hernia operation so not lifting for a few weeks.

Finishes
We are now in the process of finishes, its a headache, we want to keep as much authenticity for the barn as possible...

Final Stone wall
Steve finally came back and built the short 5 metre wall to enclose the courtyard.

Stone ready for walling

Steve finishing of his arty wall building- he has a great eye for a wall.

A few other pictures

 The field has been cleared of a couple of hundred tone of earth and re- seeded

 The Swallows

The swallows tried to nest in the barn, but we finally encouraged them to bred in the workshop- they have had 2 broods and come to the barn often to see whats going on.
They will be off soon to South Africa.

 

 The arrow
That was for the small hernia operation I needed which has forced a short halt to heavy lifting!

How many ladders does it take, Jen applying kingfisher breathable sealant to the kitchen.