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Published: 06 February 2013

Today, after having a good sweep up, I put the first of three coats of sealant to the bottom of the walls about three courses up, beyond the 100mm level for the concrete floor.  Although this is probably not necessary as I'll be placing two DPM (damp proof membranes) under the concrete but doing this results in the walls being completely covered with the liquid DPM at the end.  I'll be applying this to the rest of the wall surfaces later but now I can get on with the preparation for the concrete pour.  One thing is sure, this is going to be one dark room when all the walls are covered. >>photos<<

Details

Published: 06 February 2013

I managed to get the pointing finished during the week so that left today to get on with the next job...expanding foam filling.  The corrugated roof is attached to roof timbers leaving gaps at the front and back, so I decided to fill these and other gaps with expanding foam.  The first can went a little too quickly and afterwards I realised how much this stuff expands!!  I was left with balls of foam running down the wall and a lot of waste.  Oh well, next can went a little further and was enough to complete the job

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Published: 06 February 2013

First thing on Saturday, a quick trip to the builders merchant to return the sand I had delivered last week - decided I didn't need this after all.  Well it wasn't such a quick trip in the end as the yard was a little manic with builders picking up trailer loads of sand and stuff.  So it took a little while to pickup my blue return ticket from the guy in the yard, before getting my refund.  All sorted and while I was there I picked up 4, 2" kerb edging slabs - for my concrete pour, more about that later...

I managed to get a good days work in on Saturday, firstly finishing off scraping out of mortar, which took longer than I thought as I found more areas in need of re-pointing.   I took out entire areas around the door lintel and brickwork - you could see daylight through - see piccies.

I did make a start on the re-pointing but it took me a little while to establish a good technique.  I'm not too worried about how the pointing looks, this is going to be well covered up firstly with the liquid moisture barrier and then my internal room construction.  I'm more concerned with the joints being solid at the end of the day and so far the mortar is setting very solidly.  Only managed to get about half way there on Saturday.  I had intended to carry on pointing on Sunday but it was looking to be a nice day so I took the family to the seaside (Southwold).  I might try and finish the job this week in the evenings - we'll see.

>>photos<<

Details

Published: 06 February 2013

I have started work on the conversion now having taken delivery of the bulkier items from the builders merchant this weekend.

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The first job was to add two additional roof supports before I build my internal timber framework.  These were a little difficult to get into position as the existing timbers were bowing down.  I came up with the cunning plan of using my drywall hoist to lift the roof up to aid the locating of the new timbers.  This proved very successful and the roof supports were quite easily positioned using a mallet.

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Next job was to do the preparation for re-pointing some of the brickwork inside.  There has been a degree of movement in the past which has left some gaps in the brickwork and there are some sections of mortar in need of replacing.  Still a bit more preparation to do next weekend before pointing/filling.