Nick Thomas Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 I'm having a break from the lime render before starting the next coat. Decided to convert a bunch of offcuts from the ceiling and floor into a unit running the length of the round window wall. I can screw it to the floor joists and render right up to it, to make it integrated AF. Leaving the render behind it just basecoated will save me some too. I had to buy some 2x1 and 2x2 to make a frame to hang everything off, and all I could get on a Saturday afternoon was rough-sawn from b&q, so I got to play with an electric planer too. Progress so far... well... it's a pine box ^^. Don't stand on it yet. I'm planning to divide it into three compartments with panels made out of planks surrounded by 2x1, which will make it a bit sturdier. The perimeter is all 2x2. I was going to have a go at mortise and tenon joints, but chickened out and am just using lots of glue and pocket screws. I guess I'll need trim pieces on the front, and some jiggery-pokery to get the wood closer to the lime. The sink will be in the corner closest to the door - probably a counter-top one, to minimise holes through the worktop, with a couple more bits of 2x2 to support it underneath. Then a couple of sockets in each of the other compartments. Cables and pipes will come through from the back. Doors? I guess? They'll have to be flush with the trim, the floorboard offcuts being used for the worktop aren't long enough to give me a decent overhang ^^. Each compartment will be about 7000mm wide at the front, so 2x 350mm doors? I don't have any wood for them yet. I need wood for shelves too. I've got some old decking boards that were going to be the floor; maybe they'd look alright, planed up a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 8 minutes ago, Nick Thomas said: about 7000mm About 21 feet each then, that's wide! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 700* 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 (edited) OK, unit finished except for shelves, doors and trim. Sink is arriving tomorrow, so I get to start fitting services soon. I figure I'll make them all temporary and pluggable until I can dig a trench and get a Real Electrician™ out for that side of things. Got a second coat on the east wall, and it's looking much better than I expected it to. It still undulates, but most of the smaller-scale variation is just... gone. Trowelling it on is much harder and slower than slapping it on with my hands though ^^. One bag went pretty far; the remaining seven ought to be enough to finish this coat everywhere, but I'll definitely need more for the final coat. Edited July 9 by Nick Thomas 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 Another bag down. Managed to destroy my foot somehow doing this, so I'm out of action for a bit now. Tendonitis or something? From going up and down the ladder in stupid shoes? Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted July 13 Share Posted July 13 Gout? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 Hah. Wouldn't that be something? But no, it's not the joints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparrowhawk Posted July 13 Share Posted July 13 It's hard to find ladders with flat rungs now. Wrong shoes + square rungs = muscle pain. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 Back in action. Finished the second coat outside, and got started on the inside today. Three bags of lime left, but I'm out of sand. I can either get as much as I need in 25kg bags for ~£50, or get another whole bulk bag for ~£60. I'm very slightly short of all sorts of things right now, which is a bit of a pain. I did clean the lime off the bubble window ^^. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 (edited) On 13/07/2024 at 13:29, Nick Thomas said: From going up and down the ladder in stupid shoes? Sigh. ladders are not for that job and cotinuops working at height and reaching out on--use a hop-up or small scaffolding it will be bettter ,safwer and probably quicker in the long run Iknow about pains being an old age builder and first thing is proper work boots easy to end up with a life long problem iif your not careful Edited July 23 by scottishjohn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 Honestly I'm a bit of a health & safety nightmare at the best of times. But yeah, after that I got a little step-up for the inside and will be getting a big one for the outside. I've got some lovely work boots, I'm just stupid enough to wear slippers instead sometimes 🙄. Second coat is finished now, aside from a couple of spots where there were really deep voids to fill - I decided not to try to turn them into niches, in favour of just filling them up with copious amounts of straw-lime. I probably need one more bag of NHL3.5 to finish the voids off, then enough NHL2 to do the finish coat with fine plastering sand over the lot. Calculators suggest that could be another 400-800kg of render at 2.5:1 - another 9 bags of lime in the worst case (~10mm thick), 5 if I go for 6mm thick. I think I'd have ended up using significantly less lime if I'd gone the stipple coat route, but, oh well. Some of the void filling has been ridiculous as well ^^. I still need to fit the services, and of course, I've made life difficult for myself there by plastering the unit in. I figure I can cut a series of portholes for access and make them reopenable though. Something to do while taking a breather and collecting the materials for the final coat. I feel like I'm getting better at plastering, but it'll be interesting to see if I can manage a decent level of finish for this final coat. Top rule has to be "don't stop halfway through an elevation" ^^. I looked into buying premixed bags of lime topcoat to control consumption a bit better, but first impression is that it's wildly overpriced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Potter Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 You are getting there. Have you worked out what it has cost you to date? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 2 minutes ago, Gus Potter said: Have you worked out what it has cost you to date? I've kept a spreadsheet ^^. Ignoring tools, the unit, services, things I bought but never used, and factoring in what I'll need for the finish coat, I'm at about £4500, making the straw less than 10% of the total build cost. Other big-ticket categories - about a quarter was wood: OSB, 2x4, 2x6, 2x8, floorboards, ceiling cladding, that kind of thing. I was buying a lot of that piecemeal, due to limited storage, so I also paid a fair bit out for delivery, and used what I had fairly inefficiently. Could probably get this down a fair bit with better planning. I already had the doors, but spent ~£500 on windows-that-got-used. Honestly, I'm not very happy with the doors, but won't think about a replacement until after everything else is done. Might be another £1000-2000 if I went for something with a big double-glazed panel on the side - it's a ~1.3M wide gap that needs filling. It's taken a long time, but I've not actually put a huge number of labour hours into it. I've not tracked that closely, but the rendering has been ~20x6hr sessions so far, for instance. At £25/hr that'd be a nominal £3K. Doing load-bearing straw like this swaps out a lot of technological wizardry in favour of brute-force labour like that ^^. If I were to do it again, especially at a larger scale, I'd probably be thinking about straw SIP stuff instead, and it seems like the direction of travel is generally that way. I found https://www.thelaststraw.org/panel-fever/ a very interesting read on that front. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 Eyy, that's £520/sqm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 This is actually working \o/ (Right hand side is rubbed up, left hand side is not). Managed to get two bags on in one day yesterday, right the way up to the door at the front. The finer sand really aids workability, although it's not *great* stuff, there are some big pebbles in it, and a little bit of sharp glass. Found some charcoal as well? Still, 3 more long days of this and I should be finished. A few hairline cracks have shown up, especially in the very first section, where I think I put it on a bit thick. So far they've all rubbed out without issue. Limewash apparently helps to heal them as well, once it's time for that. Or I can always cut bits out and re-do, but hopefully it won't come to that. Still not level, obviously. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted August 15 Author Share Posted August 15 (edited) Got there in the end. A break from rendering to let the hands heal from lime burns (d'oh) is in order before the final coat inside. Plenty of other stuff to do though. It's going to be great to take the hessian down in a week or so, although I've got one awkward set of neighbours who have already telegraphed that they're going to hate it (and hate everything already done; and hate that I replaced a rotten pergola with a huge viney beast straddling it with a modest building). They've been out measuring, bless 'em, but it's definitely <2.5M. Fortunately, the other neighbours range from indifferent to fascinated. I offered some evergreen screening as an option to block their view of the side a while back; trying to work out what's most cost-effective (and would be happy in pots) there. 2.5M tall trees, even bamboo, doesn't come cheap 😬 Edited August 15 by Nick Thomas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted August 22 Author Share Posted August 22 Yeah, OK. That looks decent enough to me. It'll scrub up nicely. The drainpipe is temporary, eventually it'll come in under the overhang via 92.5' elbows and run down close to the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 On 15/08/2024 at 23:15, Nick Thomas said: have already telegraphed that they're going to hate it (and hate everything already done; On 15/08/2024 at 23:15, Nick Thomas said: offered some evergreen screening as an option to block their view Don’t bother, neighbours like this are never satisfied, stuff them, it looks good, well done 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 Managed to injure myself down at the allotment, so a bit delayed on the plastering indoors. Just finished now; it took 3 bags of lime and all the sand I had left. Phew. Now for a week of checking it several times a day for cracking. Once it's had some time to cure, it'll get painted. I'm thinking whiteish silicate paint outside and earthborn "claypaint" inside - they have an offensively yellow shade which is reminiscent of the straw. Dunno if either will hide hairline cracks, or if I'll need to do something about any that show up first. I still need to get doors on the unit, shelves in, oil all the wood and fit the services too, but that's everything that could be called construction finished. Thanks everyone who made suggestions, checked my maths, or just offered encouragement. It's been a great help throughout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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