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Clad tidings...

Crofter

Entry posted by Crofter

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So the roof is now totally finished- was a beast of a job and having finished the ridge I felt as though I had been riding a particularly fat horse all week. Physically tough doing it without help and using just a ladder, but I'm impressed with the corrugated steel and would happily use it in future. I would seriously consider it for wall cladding as well, as it was much quicker and not any more expensive compared to my larch.

 

I had made a start on the larch wall cladding a few months back, fixing the first layer of boards on the gables. I'm now comfortably past the half way point with the cladding, with only the seaward walk not yet started.

It's been a process of trial and error to find ways of getting each board in place ensuring that it more or less plumb and with equal gaps either side. Part of this learning process has been judging what kind of tolerance to work to. The boards are highly variable, from less than 95mm width to over 100mm, sometimes tapering at one or both ends, and often with a bit of a curve to them. So my first idea of using a long spirit level and a wooden block as a spacer wasn't going to work.

 

The first layer was done quite carefully with markings on the battens; temporary nails on these marks located each board whilst I used the coil nailer to fix it in place. For the top layer, I didn't want to use that method as it would leave nail holes in visible parts of the cladding. So the best method for fixing the long boards of the gables seems to be to put small marker nails on the reverse side of each board, spaced to match the gap that is being covered. It's obviously a lot of prep time, but I can do that inside the house during bad weather (it is February in Skye after all), and then when the weather allows I can literally just shove the boards up against the wall and they will be in the right place.

 

Unfortunately my progress is now going to be rapidly curtailed as I become the stay at home Dad- SWMBO has gone back to work, so my day now revolves around the couple of hours nap time that let me sprint down to the house site, baby monitor in my pocket, and feverishly nail some boards on.

 

Next project: self build baby pen...

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Crofter

Oh and I forgot the best bit:

I was packing up for the day and couldn't find my wee radio... I could hear it though... no prizes for guessing where it was :D

 

So hopefully that's the only time I will have to pry off a piece of cladding...

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jamiehamy
20 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Oh and I forgot the best bit:

I was packing up for the day and couldn't find my wee radio... I could hear it though... no prizes for guessing where it was :D

 

So hopefully that's the only time I will have to pry off a piece of cladding...

I know the feeling - couldn't find my favourite hammer at the weekend whilst doing some gyproc. We decided we were too tired and wished it well in the darkness but it turned up later under a pile of Rockwool! 

 

It's all looking great! 

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Crofter

Thanks! Really pleased with the look of the roofing and cladding.

Originally I was going to use black box profile roofing, but the 'slate blue' corrugated is a much better look for a small house, I think.

 

Every time I take a pic I realise what a mess the site is though... need to have a bit of a tidy up...

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Barney12
43 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Oh and I forgot the best bit:

I was packing up for the day and couldn't find my wee radio... I could hear it though... no prizes for guessing where it was :D

 

So hopefully that's the only time I will have to pry off a piece of cladding...

 

On my last conversion I lost my favorite side cutters down the wall cavity. I've still not got over it :( I loved those cutters >:(

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ProDave

That's looking very good, and respect for doing all that without scaffolding.  I like the slate blue, that's what I used on my sun room.
 

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Cpd

Very crisp clear lines, you see a lot of horrid modern log cabins that do not sit well in the landscape but this works really well, i used a dark green corrugated iron to help blend a roof into a hillside and was very pleased. Compared to a lot of sites the mess you have got is no more than a few hours work and it will be "good to go"  Great job and good luck getting ready for opening. 

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Tennentslager

It looks great so far...and once the door and window details are finished, it will look ten times better again! The final little details really bring it all together?

Off cuts of larch make for tidy stove kindling??

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