Tennentslager

How are the midges down there at the moment? Can't leave the house today on Skye!!

It's midgy free but a lot of wasps!

 

Chuck more wood on, the wasps don't like smoke. 

No midge problems here, that's why we chose to live on the East. Mind I have been on the boat all day and they are never a problem there.
 

I find proper, lemon scented candles lit at night on the patio table keeps the midges down.

Daft as it may sound, try Avon Skin so Soft..! Even used by the Royal Marines as a repellent ..!

TUPE transfer happened but instead of redundancy got suspended within an hour?

Anyhow, have some time so got the shed under build started.

Used some 5" posts and postcrete, very fast and easy to use stuff.

Not so easy however digging out the roots underneath!

Next decision is to either buy the cladding and joists or spend my last on Christmas presents...groan...more tat and commercialism or joinery fun.???

 

Well, spend £500 on timber to keep me busy...oh how I forgot the fun of working outdoors in the rain.

Shed didn't look big enough so made some running adaptations, a metre here, 900 there?

It's now 4.8 * 3.5m...manly shed I'd say...

Edited January 9, 2017 by Tennentslager

Won't those posts be rather short life if direct in PostCrete, even if tanalised? 12-15 years? How long do posts last in Scotland :-).

 

Can you make a provision to add more in between later ie leave places to attach to the superstructure of your shed. Otherwise you could end up doing repairs over a big distance sideways - looking at the big size of your concrete blobs.

 

That makes me wonder whether concrete 1200mm repair spurs may be an alternative for me in the future for supporting shed bases on sloping ground. 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Ferdinand

I've always thought with short timber posts in the ground, that if you were able to drill up the middle with say a couple of inches left undrilled at the bottom you could tap a funnel in and periodically full with "creosote" or old engine oil.

Good that you've got a project to focus on.

 

Agree re commercialisation etc. Buying an endless succession of unnecessary, short-lived tat to fill our houses and landfills. Bt that's economic growth I suppose.

 

On fenceposts and concrete: Hydro boys have told me that their posts should never be concreted in because it causes faster deterioration (freeze/thaw damage where encased and unable to swell, water-logging of the encased timber which cannot dry out because there is no pathway) and they are forbidden from climbing concreted posts without the use of a cherry picker as they are all classed as dangerous, even if they were installed yesterday. But on the other hand, the crofting grant technical guidance allows you to use shorter strainer posts if you concrete them in.

I tend to prefer surrounding posts by good hardcore, rotten rock if I have any, and pack it down hard. Not as strong as concrete but at let it can drain and allow the wood to breathe a bit.

In the other hand, if the posts are UNDER the shed, they are never going to get wet from rain. The concrete will protect them from water in the ground. so totally different to an exposed electricity pole.

 

I know it's a totally different climate, but my BIL lives in a 100 year old "Queenslander" wooden house stood on telegraph pole size posts just buried in the ground.
 

I think exposed telegraph poles wee a different matter to wooden fence posts wince they were deliberately long lasting wood treated with all klnds of luvvly stuff such involving arsenic and tar, which has now been banned.

 

I am not sure what under-shed shelter will do for posts, but they usually go just above ground as we all know. I suspect some water will seep in somehow.

 

I either now bash them in sans concrete for 5-10 years, or use concrete posts for 25-50 years.

 

Or metal ones for gates than will defeat anything up to a tipper lorry :-).

Ferdinand

Edited December 12, 2016 by Ferdinand

I remember I think Tomorrow's World where they followed a crew going around Scotland attaching CO₂ "sparklet" powered injectors to the base of telegraph poles that pumped in some form of preservative. 

 

Carol Vorderman ü

Maggie Philbinü

Kate Humble ü/ ?

Judith Hann ? 

Well, spend £500 on timber to keep me busy...oh how I forgot the fun of working outdoors in the rain.

Shed didn't look big enough so made some running adaptations, a metre here, 900 there?

It's now 4.8 * 3.5m...manly shed I'd say.

I've never heard of a shed that was too big...

+1 "shed" and "too big" never appear in the same sentence.

 

 

This is how the half day shift started

And this was afterwards

OSB bit is for the shed and the decking part will be open to the front to create a little *bus shelter* area.

And this is the Hut looking dressed up in the snow?

Two half days and two wall panels complete but at 3.5 * 2.4 and clad in 18mm OSB I can't lift it safely?

Need to recruit another helper this weekend and might get the roof on.

Crowbar, car jack, blocks of wood... but yeah maybe a helper is a better idea!

Two lady helpers and I'm half way there...

 

That's funny. The panel had a window in it when it was lying down......... 

 

Lol, it did. Seemed like the best place to store it since I'd gone to the bother of making a nice sized hole for it.

Probably pop it in tomorrow?

How are you going to clad it?

Same as the Hut...cedar rough sawn stuff 

Planned horizontal overlap style but might change to vertical hit and miss due to using exterior gate hinges for the doors...nightmare to fit if its not all on a uniform plane

Cedar? Very posh... I thought you were using sarking boards?