Day 1971: Not to diss-a-point

The Great Wall of Surbiton is nearly complete .. just some finishing touches such as capping off the chimneys and lots and lots of pointing. 

A good view of the floor steel joist at the front. They needed to 'tooth' these bricks in to the chimney.

And the finished product. 

A good perspective of the pointing. This is a very meticulous and labour intensive process. But it looks great. 

A great view of the finished wall. The white bits are efflorescence - salts in the brick that escape when exposed to moisture - they will eventually wash away. 

A view from the back .. just loving the little platforms that they guys make for themselves. This one was to cap off the rear chimney.

Another view of the parapet wall brickwork (and platform) 

It took well over a month to build but the walls are finally complete. We're happy that we went this route vs the typical tiling. 

Day 1964: A string, a string, what a beautiful thing

As I've pointed out in some previous posts, stairs are typically described in some parallel English language. Words like string, winder and Newell get thrown out like people have an idea what they mean. See this link for a good description, with the quick version in the photo below. 

Ever since I started working on the stairs downstairs (see here), I've developed a bit of a thing for stairs. 

Besides being a way to get and up and down between floors, they are often the focal pieces of a house and can really add a lot of character and style if done well. 

The vision that I had in mind for the loft stairs looks something like the photo below. 

Open (cut) string, white painted risers with dark wood stained treads.

MTL was happy to work with us on this one and we got a custom built staircase not to dissimilar to the the one above. 

Much nicer than the current view.

I didn't see this go up as it was so quick. Apparently it was largely pre-assembled and really, really heavy. The wood was white pine which isn't as hard wearing as hardwood such as oak, but this staircase will have much less traffic - especially as kids are only allowed on the grown up floor by invitation only. We'll likely cover the stairs with a runner (carpet down the middle - not intended to be used for running as this is dangerous on stairs)

From the bottom. This will be covered up so won't be visible in the future. 

The cut strings ..

The winding treads are done for easier access and to limit the overall steepness. It looks nice as well. 

Really happy with the result. I think it will look like it was built with the original house (except in much better shape). It's now inspired me to finish re-finishing the first set of stairs. Stay tuned ...

Day 1957: The wall in-between

With the wall nearly complete on the right of the house, it was time to look to the other side and build up the parapet (party) wall. The guys at MTL wanted to build this is brick as well which will look nicer and if our neighbours ever want to build into their loft, should make the work a bit easier than if we tiled / rendered. I've read about issues where dormers were built too close and left no room for maintenance. And the beauty of brick is that it doesn't need any maintenance. 

Here was the starting place. The top of the brick was the height of the original roof at the back. 

What I found most impressive about this work was how the guys built little platforms for themselves. I had no idea how they would do the outside but they managed to string something together which looks to be quite secure. 

The old bricks were taken back and staggered (toothed) to accommodate the new ones. You can see the double skin of the original in the photo below. 

A view from down the street. The wall again will be cement blocked on the inside and bricked on the outside to match the original. You can also get a feel for the additional height we've gained from the dormer. 

And a view from the inside. A bit like a jigsaw puzzle with the combination of bricks and blocks but it looks solid. This will be all covered by plasterboard so the inside handywork will never be seen again.

Next week the guys will come by to finish the second, outer skin of brick (the parts that people will see

Day 1953: Our new balcony .. well sort of

Now that the weather is getting a bit nicer, we found a great 2nd use for the scaffolding .. a garden balcony.

Had drinks up there on Friday night and I think we'll bring up the lawn chairs soon.

The only problem is the ladder coming back down .. not recommended in the dark after a few drinks.

But just look at the view. No rush to take this down.

If it wasn't for this @#%& covid, we could have a party up here. 

Day 1952: The wall continues

This week was all about the wall. The sun was shining, Cyndi Lauper was blaring and the guys were singing (just maybe not at the same time). I've gained some appreciation for bricklaying - it's a long meticulous process. But so glad we decided to do it. 

The guys at MTL had to order 1000 more bricks ... guessing that means they have already gone through 1000+ .. crazy. 

Here is the wall about 3/4 done. Really neat how they built a platform up as they went.

You can also see the formerly leaning stack of Surbiton (see here) in it's new glory. There is a story on this but will save that for another post when I run out of things to write about. 

A close-up showing how the bricks follow the front pitched roofline. 

As these are reclaimed bricks, each one is unique and has a story. Some have been used more than once and many are bowed and slightly varied in sizes. What's great is the character they have. The guys will point and stain some of the more yellow ones to better blend in later on.

And the final wall from the front with the roof battens bedded in. You can see another mini-platform that the guys built to reach the top. Check out the blue skies!

Another view of the finished chimney .. not from an angle I'd be talking. I'm dizzy just looking at it. From here you can see the additional height of the chimney vs. our neighbours.

And's here's how it looked from the inside. The concrete blocks are more structural and will be hidden under plasterboard (dot and dab) so it's function over form here. 

And lastly the fished wall going all the way to the top. The support is holding up the steel joist at the moment but this will be removed to rest on the concrete block wall at some point. 

With the wall in place, the space is feeling more and more like a room. Exciting!

Next week they'll start on the other side.

Day 1945: Another Great Wall

Throughout history, many iconic walls have been erected which serve as a testament to the might and engineering capability of the civilisations that built them. 

The Great Wall of China (Qin's Wall, c. 221 BC)

The Great Wall of Scotland (Hadrian's Wall, c. 122 AD)

The Great Wall of Mexico (Trump's Wall, c.2017) 

Well .. now we're adding another landmark to this list ....

The Great Wall of Surbiton (Hare's Wall, c.2021)

Ok, it's not quite finished but it will be equally as spectacular as the walls that came before it. 

Now that the weather returned back to normal - cloudy and rainy but above zero - the brickies could get to work on the gable wall. The intent here was to make a new wall look like a 120 year old wall so it wouldn't be too obvious. The solution was to use reclaimed bricks taken from some unfortunate building or perhaps a not-so-great wall. The colour of bricks here are know as London Yellow Stock. They are common on many properties in the area and typically go on the side of buildings - the pretty facing bricks go on the front. 

A little about blockwork before showing the details. There are multiple different styles of brick courses the most popular shown in the photo below. 

The stretcher bond is the most basic that people will recognise and works well on a single row ("skin") brick wall. It has good vertical strength but not lateral and isn't typically used on house walls. 

The next 2 types are for double skin solid walls where the bricks are alternated length and width wise so that the two skins are physically connected and offering strength vertically and horizontally. The choice here is just a matter of taste. The Flemish Bond has a similar cousin the Surrey Bond which coincidently was used on our house. 

Below is an example of the Flemish Bond being used on our wall. Now building regs call for a cavity wall - air gap between the skins - so the alternating bricks can't be laid lengthwise and were instead chopped in half. 

The inner skin won't be visible on the inside or outside so the guys used cement blocks. Denser, bigger and less fiddly. The two skins are held together with metal ties that go into the mortar. These are placed throughout to keep everything solid. 

And the Leaning Stack of Surbiton is no longer leaning - we decided to rebuild this from the base. It also needed to be raised to meet building regs. Unfortunately, we'll also require a new longer stainless steel chimney lining (queue sound of money going down drain)

But on the bright side, the bricks look great. Most match, some don't. But the guys are going to go over with a stain to blend everything in a bit better. The unevenness of the bricks is intentional and provides some of the character - it will look great when it's fully pointed. 

And rest assured, while the bricks themselves aren't perfectly even, the wall is perfectly level as the guys are following a brick line across. 

There you go. The making of the Great Wall of Surbiton. Hopefully it be just as iconic and will last as long as some of it's predecessors. Just hoping it doesn't take as long to build.

Day 1938: A meshy Friday

It was a slow'ish week overall with most of the activity happening on internet tile sites .. 

But things picked up on Friday with the guys finishing off the prep work on the outside. This involved them first putting a breathable membrane over the ply and then nailing on a mesh to hold the cement render. 

Q: What's louder than a building hammering in nails

A: 4 builders hamming in nails

Yup, the mesh part involved a quartet of builders hammering away in symphony. We're definitely not getting nominated for this year's Neighbour of the Year Award. And yes.. there actually is an award for this -> see here

As you can see, there is a whole lot of nails and staples holding the mesh in place. Guess that is a good thing as it's going to be covered with a cement render which I can imagine will have a bit of weight to it. 

With the exterior all framed up, we can get a great idea of what the structure will look like from the outside now.

Next week will be fairly busy with the brick gable wall finally getting built and possibly even the rendering. After a week below zero, we're expecting weather to hit the low to mid teens next week... Finally.

Day 1936: Just too many choices

With the Beast from the East - Part 2 wreaking havoc on the UK this week (we got down to -8 C which is $%@#'n cold here), there was understandably a little less activity going on atop our house. The guys did some work but I felt bad for them being outside. I had a heater and was wearing my coat in the cabin and I was still shivering.

The brickwork doesn't work when it's that cold. Apparently anything under 4 degrees C is a non-starter as the mortar won't set properly and could freeze. 

Making the most of the quiet time, we set off to determining the finishing and fixtures. This is the part that I enjoy the least - I'm good at smashing and putting back together but don't ask me what colour of tile complements an accent wall. My answer will usually be "the one on sale".

Care however was armed with a pile of home magazines to determine the "perfect look". First the bathroom, I'm told we'll go with something like the picture below with a pattern tile on the floor, light metro tiles and a colourful wall pattern. The basin will be a vanity unit in a light grey with round mirror. To which I said "OK!"

The architect's drawings didn't have the fixtures put in place to scale so Care took it upon herself to show a hidden talent for both PowerPoint and for architecture. I have to admit - it was pretty good. 

We had initially intended on a free standing bath but seeing as we're not in a massive mansion with cavernous space, it would have looked out of place. It was key however to have both a walk in shower (which we'll use all the time) and a separate bath (which we'll never use). Given the large'ish size of the bathroom footprint, we'd have room for both (just). 

A lot of thinking has gone into this design - use of natural light, easy access to all the features, visual appeal on entry, routing of waste pipes. It's great when you can start from a relatively blank canvas. We opted for 2 windows with the vanity in the middle to allow a mirror to be above the sink yet maximizing window area. The kids and I saw a Bluetooth enabled, 36 colour led/speaker/mirror for the vanity unit which we thought was super cool .... this was vetoed unfortunately. 👎

And of course the other choices to make were on tiles .. for anyone following this blog, you'll realise 2 things 1) I've spent a lot of time tiling and quite enjoy it and 2) I absolutely hate picking tiles out.

When a while tile is not really a white tile and you're starting to debate texture, edges and gloss it all becomes a bit too much .. and don't get me started on colour. choices for grout, which then takes you back to tile re-selection. For someone that's colour blind, this is my definition of cruel punishment. For bathroom part 1 - we had a mountain of tile samples to work through. I can't believe I never posted a picture of this for comedy value; there was over 100 individual samples in all.

Here we are starting again. The boxes are arriving daily and the mountain is once again growing. And because the showrooms are all closed at the moment, we need to order samples to see them. Help me. 

And if this wasn't too many choices for one week, MTL has come back to us with more things we need to decide on - fascia board colour, newel/spindle design, stair tread colour .... luckily these were much quicker decisions. 

We made some choices this week but there are still many, many more to come over the next month. And the tile mountain will continue to grow. 

Day 1931: The latest and greatest

The loft really started to feel like a loft this week. With the addition of stud walls and window and door frames you could get a feel for how the rooms will look when finished. 

 

And I had to take an obligatory selfie from the top of the scaffolding.

A view from the inside with the 2 - 1.2m by 1.2 m Velux windows - we wanted lots and lots of natural light. 

At the back is a 1m wall with eves storage in behind. We're losing quite a bit of storage overall but getting a whole lot of useable room in return. However, my LBS books may finally have to go 😢

Carolyn scoping out the new bathroom. Look at the height!

This will be our new closet - it's quire deep so we're debating whether we should do a mini walk-in or pull outs.

The box in the corner has the skylight that is going above the staircase. 

And the staircase will go behind this wall (where the ladder is at the moment). Stairs are apparently coming soon - they got measured up this week.

And a view from the gable end wall looking towards the door and bathroom.

Lots going on and getting very exciting ... looking forward to getting walls and a roof up soon.