Day 879: Going Overboard

After a few weeks of procrastination it was finally time to tackle the overboarding and insulation. My new ladder would get a real test with 420 kg of wood plus many more of junk going up it over the next few weeks. Try this yourself and you'll see why I don't need a gym membership.

But shortly into the process, I found my first obstacle, a hornets nest. And of course this was in a fairly difficult area to get to - right in the corner. As it was still winter, I was fairly confident that the nest was dormant and that I wasn't about to wake up hundreds of angry mini beasts. Well hopefully.

Still, I took precaution. I had a flat board underneath to catch the debris and used a long, long pole to knock it down. And thankfully I managed to carry out the task unharmed. Still, I wasted little time to put the nest into a rubbish bag and get it outside in the bin.

Coincidentally, the next day when I was up in the loft I found what looked like an angry queen hornet looking for a new home. But she was quickly reacquainted with her former accommodation back in the bin.

With the adventures hopefully over, it was time to get back to the job at hand - insulating and boarding over the loft.

This is a fairly easy weekend job for the average DIY'er .. but since I really like to over-do things, it actually took me 2 weekends.

The first step was to run "proper" 2x4's perpendicular to the original ceiling joists to provide some additional structural support. I say proper as these ones had to be a full 100mm high to match the existing cross beams - versus the typical CLS wall studs you get which are actually 83mm. These beams were fixed with many, many heavy duty angle brackets and a generous helping of 50mm #5 woodscrews

I ran the new studs at 600mm centres to minimise the amount of timber that I'd need - I was still short however. The wider centres will mean more flex in the floor but seeing that we don't plan on hosting any break dance competitions in the loft, the wider centres should be ok. The loft boards are 1220mm so this worked out well.

The only hickup - there is always one - was that the existing cross beams were at neither 400mm nor 600mm centres and they weren't made with the same precision that we find today. What this all meant was that the original 2x4's would stick up in the middle of the loft boards and it would be next to impossible to fit the tongue and groove floorboards property.

Two solutions came to mind 1. Plane off some of the old timbers or 2. Groove the loft boards to accommodate.

As the 2nd option would allow me to use my router (yeah power tools!) and also make for a better story, I decided to go for it.

In theory this was easy. Just measure out where to cut, fix some guide rails and router away. In practice however, it's slightly more difficult. The challenge is that chipboard isn't really wood and probably something closer to Adamentium (see here). As the smoke from burning wood and melting router bit was appearing before my eyes, I finally realised my predicament. For reference, chipboard contains wood chips, glue and likely anything else they swept from the mill floor including bits of metal. I ordered a coupe of spare router bits from Amazon to manage all the melting. I also went a bit shallower with my cuts to just shave a bit off at a time.

The loft boards are really easy to lay down (routering aside). The other point to make is that they are 1220mm long, so they can overhang or fit flush with joists. For 600mm centres, the extra 20mm needed to be cut from each board. This is best done in one go for all the boards. I just set the guide on the circular saw and cut away.

Now the loft was starting to look like a useable storage space. Notice my trusty Karcher vacuum .. it got a really good workout on this task. I think I ended up hoovering up about 10 bags of nastiness.

At the entrance to the main part of the loft, I left the floor at its original height so that I could get in without overly contorting myself and to make sure larger items could fit through the smallish opening.

The nearly finished product. You'll notice that I had to notch out the boards for the roof rafters and supports. I found it easiest to bring my jigsaw up into the loft with an extension cord so that I could just do the cuts in place. Lots of sawdust, but I had my vacuum up there anyway.

So there you go. A finished, unfinished loft ready for storing all our junk. All in all, a good project. I think I spent way too much time up there - to the point that I was getting quite at home with my surroundings. Anyway, the last couple of weekends has been all about putting our junk up there - don't worry, it was actually to dull to write a post about.

Day 872: Let there be light

Now that we had an easier way to get up into the loft, it was time to shine a bit more light on the other section so I could eventually get to the task of boarding things over. However, part of me wondered if I'd really want to see what I was getting into given how bad the other side was when I first got up there (see here). But hey, maybe I'd find some more archaeological treasures. 

I elected to go with the same Philips directional LED lights that I used on the other part of the loft. Not because they were particularly good or cheap, just because I like things matchy-matchy. Besides., the whole world will see my work on the Interweb and I can't exactly have non-coordinated lighting.. how embarrassing. 

This job was actually pretty straightforward as the switched lighting circuit was already hooked up in the other section - I just needed to run a new 1.5mm cable to the new lights. The only difficult part was installing the lights. I wanted them mounted up fairly high which meant that I had to stand up on the ceiling joists to drill the holes to fix them. At the time, I had no idea how much weight the joists were meant to support and I didn't want to have a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation moment (see here). Needless to say, as the comedic value wouldn't have justified the pain and damage, I was a bit more careful.

I also brought up my trusty work light stand to provide some additional lighting while I was working up there. This once again came in handy. The legs were wide enough to straddle the joists and it was invaluable to be able to position the light on the area that I was working on.

And you see those pipes running up and down the photos? A little piece of history. They were the original gas lighting runs which were common in houses before electricity became popular around WW1 (see here). A lot of respect to the people hand cutting and threading these things on site long before power tools. I don't think I'd like to be doing DIY back then (no power tools, no cars, no Amazon) ... It sounded like real work.

I'm sure the loft was a one way route. Things seemed to go up there but nothing ever came back down. Hence the old pipes, old wires, old slate and a bunch of other rubbish. Unfortunately, no antiques or other valuable archaeological finds. I don't know why I keep hoping to find some ...

Anyway, now with the monster gone, the steps secure and the lights on, I was fully out of excuses from having to lug all those boards up into the attic. Not looking forward to that.

Day 865:Getting on the housing ladder

Seeing that I was about to lift about 29 square meters of chipboard and about 18 2x4's up into the attic (about 420kg of wood) not to mention all the junk we were going to hide up there afterwards, my little leaning telescopic ladder thing wasn't going to cut it. I'm also sure it would have probably ended up with a hospital visit at some point.

So it was time to invest in a proper loft ladder. Luckily ScrewFix read my mind and put one on sale for me :). The one that we bought was the 3 piece aluminum extension type made for "light use" with a capacity of 150kg. I don't weight that much so I'm guessing heavy use with a light person maybe also counts. Regardless, this ladder would be at least fixed to the building so less chance of getting frequent flyer miles at the A&E.

These ladders are super easy to install. The kit came with hatch door hardware as well - but I already too care of that earlier (here). The idea is that they fold in 3 and collapse into an open area of the loft. The only difficulty was that the area of the loft where we have access doesn't provide for a whole lot of room. I measured the length and the height but the round arc was the issue. Will have to just test it out.

The other challenge with installing the ladder was that you still need a second ladder to get up there to fix everything. Or a really trusting friend (that you won't just leave them up there).

I used 60mm screws to hold it in place and make sure that I was screwing down to something more than just chipboard. The ladder is on hinges and slides down into place. It was adjustable to 3m so lots of height as well - think we are at about 2.8m extended.

And there you have it - a much better and safer way of getting up into the loft. Now I just need to carry my 400+ kg of materials up the ladder. Gasp!

Day 862: Lofty ambitions

Now that the Monster in the Attic has been beaten, we can finally venture out into the rest of the loft area. Our intent was to board it over to provide some storage space until which time as we can finally build into the loft (on Day 14,684 at the rate we're going). Generally, boarding over the loft is quite a simple task (see my previous post here), however as usual, I got a bit carried away.

But like any good Brit, I'll blame everything on the weather. 

Last week, the UK got hit by the Beast from the East - a cold front from Siberia that dropped treacherous snow and cold across the country bringing it to its knees.

• UK storm death toll reaches 10 as ice warnings follow snow chaos
• Storm Emma, ice and snow paralyses transport across UK
• UK crippled by snow, freezing temperatures

Canadians have a name for this kind of weather, "a normal winter's day"

But hey, I'm in the UK now so I felt it was my patriotic duty here to overreact just like everyone else. This unwarranted response manifested itself in my completely over-engineering the loft boarding exercise. 

OK, granted houses in this country are not exactly built to withstand sub-zero temperatures very well and our place wasn't exactly the tropics during this recent cold snap. But, this weather only happens once every 5 or so years. 

Regardless, on impulse I decided we were not only going to board over the loft .. we were also going to insulate. So the order went in, and it arrived today.

As you can see, there is a lot of stuff ...

Basically, the idea is to top-up the 100mm insulation currently in place with another 100mm and then board over that. The building regs recommend another 170mm; but the loft board will provide some insulation and this way I can use 2x4's (or whatever the metric equivalent is) running perpendicular to the current joists vs having to use plastic stilts (see here). Besides, I didn't want to get too carried away with my overreaction.

Anyway, I've once again got a house full of building materials that I need to put somewhere. Stay tuned over the next week(s) as I start moving all this material up into the loft area. I've got my work cut out for me. 

Day 841: Turning 10,000

The Suburbiton Project turned 10,000 yesterday! Thank you to all my loyal followers for tuning into insightful posts on interesting topics such as paint drying, cement pouring and filling up a skip. With exciting and topical subjects like these, I'm actually surprised the number is only 10,000.

And yes, I know the number sounds impressive until you compare it against:

• Google - 6,572,041 hits per day
• YouTube - 6,035,153 hits per day
• Facebook - 4,480,024 hits per day
• WaitButWhy - 50,000 hits per day (a blog on procrastination, imagine if people actually got around to visiting this site)

It still may be a couple of years before we're able to displace these sites, but I don't think it's out of reach. However, it's great to see how a site we created 2 years ago to document our adventures in refurbishing an old house has progressed.

What's been most inspiring has been comments from people that randomly came across the site on the Internet. I've apparently inspired a few people to tear apart their houses and gardens (and hopefully put them back together again).

For those interested, I've pasted some of key site statistics below:

Canada just edges the UK in this regard (thanks Joan!). 

So apparently, pouring concrete is the 3rd most popular topic in home renovation - who knew?

The house is nowhere near finished so lots more exciting topics to come in the year ahead. But in the meantime, thanks for supporting us and helping us achieve this truly monumental milestone.

Day 831: The monster in the attic

Once, a long, long time ago .. before many of us would ever remember, a deep, dark secret was

hidden away never to see daylight ever again .. or so it was thought, until this weekend when Scott battled The Monster in the Attic

This beast was as ghastly as you would imagine, large, scary, hideously deformed .. it was a challenge unlike any other that I had ever faced.

The monster that I'm referring to is the old galvanised steel water tank in the loft. My guess is that it's been residing in it's current home for over 50 years. For those unfamiliar with Victorian (i.e. antique) plumbing, this was installed to provide water pressure (head) back in the day. The tank would be filled by the mains until it reached the top and gravity would provide pressure for showers and toilets. The water wasn't drinkable, so the kitchen had a mains feed. For those wanting to learn more, click here (vented system).

Like the lead pipes, wood paneling or psychedelic wallpaper, this was part of the "original charm" of the house that we chose not to keep. Before we moved in, Tom disconnected this water box and hooked up everything to the mains pressure. The shower is much stronger and even the water in our toilet is drinkable (theoretically).

But the monster still remained ... just waiting for it's moment. Being massive and well over 30kg, this makes sense.

So why tackle the sleeping beast. Bascially, it would have had to go at some point. I'd like to use the loft for extra storage and this monster was guarding the way to the main loft area (and of course because it makes for a good story).

So how do you get something this massive and heavy out of a loft hatch? The Interweb has many answers and many of these were shot down. Some propose chopping it to bits with an angle grinder, but this gives off sparks and becomes a fire hazard. Some mention chopping it up with a jigsaw, but this apparently is noisy, slow and goes through multiple blades. A reciprocating, multi-saw would have worked, but I don't have one. So my plan was to tackle this beast whole hog.

Clearly this was no easy task so lots of planning was involved. My weapon of choice was a pulley system. This was good for 180kg, so enough for even the gnarliest of beasts. But how to mount it? I opted to mount a hook from the roof joists. But having no idea what the vertical strength of these joists are, and the fact that none spanned over the centre of the loft hatch, I ran a couple of 2x4's across the span and shot in lots of 4" screws to fasten them together and to the joists.

Next I purchased a heavy duty hook to which I'd mount the pulley system. All this under the watchful eye of the monster - it didn't seem the slightest bit concerned. Was there something that I was missing?

So that was enough for a day, and because I was also busy pouring cement (see previous blog post)

The next weekend, I built up the courage to once again face the attic monster. First was to move it from it's home for the past 50 years. I had to slide it over the loft opening, so I cut 3 - 2x4's to cover the span, screwed them down and just slid it across.

Then, and only then, did the true magnitude of the battle I was about to face truly show itself. What I had guessed was a square tank was actually a rectangular tank - 80cm wide vs the 60cm I had been expecting. This was a problem because the loft hatch is also just over 80cm wide. And to top that, there were still pipe fixings and valves sticking out of the sides. Out came the hacksaw and the first battle began.

It took a couple of hours of intense fighting before  it was clear that I was going to win this fight. The monster was injured but far from beaten.

Next came the real scary part, trying to hoist this thing down with the pulley system.

I drilled out six holes in the frame to run some rope through. I took some high strength nylon rope and tied it in a double figure 8 pattern with knots at the ends. According to many websites (like here), this is the strongest way to tie 2 pieces of rope together. I wasn't going to take any chances.

Everything should hold now .. all spec'd for >150kg. But there is always that niggling concern in the back of the mind. Well time to test it out. Monster, it's just you and me.

It was actually easier than I had expected. Whew. The monster gave a few fighting kicks here and there - like almost not getting out of the hatch - but it was clear that it had met its match.

Once it was out of the loft, it lost some of its fierceness. I was able to navigate it down the stairs and using a hand truck, out the front door to it's new home in the bottom of the garden. I've heard that these things are worth something for scrap metal, so it may end up out front next. Let's see.

Either way, the monster is no longer gaurding the entrance to the loft and terrorising the house. Over subsequent blogs, you'll see me put in some loft lights and board over the loft joists to turn this into usable storage space. But that's another story.

In hindsight, this was probably a bit pointless, a bit dangerous and I should have left it in situ. For those ever tackling this kind of task, I'd assume that this should always be the first choice. Leave sleeping beasts where they lie. But if you feel the need to attack one, choose your weapons wisely. I'd go with the reciprocating saw as my first choice, the pulley system as a backup if all else fails.

But there you go, the end to this chapter in the scary story. And yes, it had a happy ending.

Day 827: Plugging a gap

The front room was starting to look half decent. The only problem was the gap in the middle of it. Cold air was getting in and it looked pretty unsightly. We needed to find something to fill the space.

Luckily the guys at Galleon Fireplaces had the perfect solution. Plug the gap with a new log burning stove. We went with a 5kw version made by Capital Fireplaces - mostly because anything bigger and we'd be able to start drying clay pottery in there. Nope, it was just the aesthetics of having something intentionally burning in the room and maybe a little extra coziness on winter nights.

We knew the chimney worked as there was a gas stove in there when we first moved in. We had the chimney swept and inspected first before confirming this particular job - required by code.

Also, the chimney needed to be lined so that the fire is what's putting the grin on our face - not the carbon monoxide leaking out into the house. The guys spent a lot more time than expected running the pipe down the chimney. I did confirm with them that this was both approved for woodstoves and convenient passage of jolly old men. They also needed to put a new cap on top of the chimney suitable for wood burners. And of course, it being London and us needing to do work outside, it rained ....

Next once the liner was installed, next came the register plate which is just the metal bit that goes on the top and connects in with the pipe.

The guys also worked on the hearth which is honed black granite. Black granite was chosen vs slate or limestone as it was the hardest wearing material and avoided scuffs and scratches well. With a fire and a couple of kids, felt this was a good option to go with. Also, all my hard work on getting the floor level (see here) was probably a but unnecessary - they put down new mortar under the hearth and re-leveled the entire thing. Well hopefully my work made this a little bit easier - or at least an entertaining blog entry :) 

Nice of them to put down covering so as not to wreck our "lovely" floor. They were super considerate, although in this case, anything they did to the floor would likely improve its current state.

Next came all the pretty stuff, namely the limestone surround. I think this may have been the first time that Care and I have agreed on something completely without the need for 10,000 samples first. Progress maybe? No, unfortunately the 10,000 flooring samples sitting in the room would suggest otherwise.

And that was the end of Day 1. They were doing a great job so I wasn't going to rush them. 

So Day 2, I was back at work so Care had to double as photographer. It took them a few more hours to install the rest of the surround, wood burner, insert and calking/finishing. It seemed a bit comical that we covered the original rustic bricks with faux "rustic" bricks but that is apparently what you do. Don't ask.

And there you go, the guys from Galleon standing proudly by their work. Nice job!

And the stove in action with a nice oak log. I learned by trial and error that logs are both heavy to carry home from the store and $&£@!!!! difficult to get burning. My recommendation is going for a softer wood like ash, unless you have a massive incinerator wood stove.

Now that the stove is installed, we can finish off the flooring - after of course deciding which of the 10,000 shades of wood we prefer. Arrgh!

Well at least the unsightly gap in the wall is now plugged with something a bit more pleasant to the eye (and warm on the toes),

Always good to have some before / after pictures to show progress. Technically this is a during / during picture, but you get the idea. Whenever we finish, we'll do a proper before/during/after comparison - but that is still a long, long way away.