prelims learning experience

from my last course we only did a light look at regulations and the building act but now in diploma we have gone in much deeper and i am learning a lot for example the new NZS 3604 is out and is quite smaller than before now that the goverment is understanding more the building indistry and what happend with the leaky homes incident this is good as it is now easyer to understand for new people to the indistry such as myself i am also enjoying learning about this indistry and how everything works together builders, the act and the goverment to ensure safe buildings.

prelims research

through reasearch of the building act and all regulations behind it i have learnt that they are in place to make sure all houses and other buildings are safe to live in as well as to stop the cutting of corners when construction of the house begins these rules are also enforced by the council when they send in inspectors at specpic times of construction to make sure the job is done correctly otherwise they are to tel the builder what they need to do in time for the next inspection. i have learnt through further research of this subject that it is important to follow all that is said in NZS 3604 and other standards because its better to spend a few hours making sure your up to code than spending money and more time waiting for an extra inspections. as long as builders work to their full potentional and not cut corners the council does not have to be the bad guy

prelims work experience

finished servey of land

in our group (me, CJ, andrew, jordan and lance) we marked out and serveyd an area of land. we used a dumpy and rod to write down points and all together these points will help read the land and in turn will help us find the FFL (finished floor level), pipe lines, house boundry etc. now on the site serveyers do this but it is also good for builders to know the basics to make sure the job thay are doing is correct and that the plans are correct. from doing this i have learnt the value of patience as this is a long job also comunication is important along with good teamwork.i have also learnt that serveying is very important for escivation and also drawing up the house plans. the building act is strict on all aspects of building as well as serveys of land as this will hold your foundations which hold your house and ofcourse is very important. i have also asked my lecturer what you need a servyer for and what a builder can do. i have learnt that only servyers can move and place boundry pegs, locate building locations as well as the offset line, sewer & manhole locations. these points will be important when exevating and profiling for the building. (note: if builder knocks out boundry peg they must have a servayer put it back in the builder CANNOT do it themselves)

structures learning experience

i have learnt quite a bit from building the unitec house such as in the slab work for the unitec model house as we worked on a parking lot there was no need for slabs, starters or concrete blocks. but for this house there is ant there are many steps involved and a few inspections. the concrete itself must be vibrated to removed air bubbles and coverd till dry to insure no extra moisture gets in. under that are cages made of steel rods strengthing the structure and are surrounded by cement blocks this is an interesting system and at the end of this i hope to know a lot more on the subject

structures research

when researching the calculations for the hip roof as showen in the earlyer post i learnt that actualy seeing the construct as u calculate is easyer for me as i learn more visualy than just having numbers and calculation sheets. by seeing where all the peices go as i calculate them i was able to make sure they will work and how all the peices fit together. in researching all the diffrent fixings and types of roofs i learnts the uses of each as well as the importance of safty on the worksite esp at heights. what i have learnt form this will help greatly towards my assignmet as well as down the line in carpentry.

structures work experience

as a group (me, tyrone, sylvester and william) we measured the base for our roof making exercise and with those measurements worked out the hip, common and jack rafter lengths, major and minor ridges an hip, broken hip lengths and with these calculations proceded to make a hip roof design in scale comparison to our model house roof as showen above.the calculations are important as any mistakes can translate to the work of cutting and measuring rafters etc and make all points uneven and make in a poor roof. this happend to us as one incorrect measurement of thw double top plate resulted in incorrect calculations and incorrect structure. but we have quicly fixed the problem and have constructed a correct roof. what i have learnt is to always double check everything and to always remember all tools and equipment

scaffolds gone

this week we dismantled the scaffolding but before that we installed the scribers for all openings they are finishing elements to make the openings its is every important to get right so there are no gaps and it all fits perfectly pictures are below to explain further.

first the timber is tackd up against the window/door and then it is measured how far it portrudes from the window/door edge this shows us what block to use to mark out the side of the timber where to cut. once that is done we cut out the marking as perfect as we can as well as the top to fit under the flashing and we check how it fits and cut accordingly to get rid of any gaps. once done the bottom is cut at a 45 degree angle 10mm down from the bottom of window/door and is nailed in at every 2nd weatherboard in line with nails.
next week will be the finishing lines

timber tacked in for marking

how scriber should fit

45 degree cut at bottom

side view of scriber

finished scriber

quick pictures

below are examples of penitrations through plasterboard and how it should look. also there are pictures of the installed shower and vanity

bath penitrations



close up of penitration



close up of penitration





installed shower

installed vanity with tools on top so on one trips on them

bathtime longitivity


this week got the bath installed which has quite a few steps you dont have to do this in its exzact order

1) is to actualy get the tub and see if it fits into the space you have provided for it ours fit perfectly and required no noging except for the aluband (a later step)



bath tub

2) mark out the waste hole and with the circular saw plunge cut out a hole as done with the shower bace earlyer make sure to do this before installing the bath or your gona be in for a lot of torment in the future



cut out waste hole for bathtub

 3) mark out where nogs will be placed around where the bath will be placed this allows for the aluband seal to be placed to provent access water geting to framework the studs are then chizeld out to be in line with the nogs for a flush surface

example of nog placement

chizeled out stud

4) next the tubs cradle is made this makes the tub level and sturdy so it does not rock while you are in it. it runs under the tubs edge like in the drawing below and runs along the whole length of the bath on the other side is a peice of timber paralel that with the cradle holds up the bath also showen   

diagram of how cradle fits under bath



bath placed in on top of cradle



5) the silicon is glued onto the floor where the baths feet will be placed and a length of aluban is run along the edge of the bath that touches the wall and the bath is placed in



aluban run along bath edge

6) another strip of aluband runs along with the strip and conects with the wall makin a seal that does not let water past the picture below will help show what i mean the end result is in  the next picture

showing of how seal works



bath fully installed with aluband seal on nogs

and that is how the bath was installed.

shower bases

just before the holidays i was able to install the shower base in the bathroom all that needs to be done in preperation is to cut out the waste hole this is done with the circular saw to make a square as showen below next is that the glue is applyed to the bace of the shower bace at 50mm spacings then pushed into corner then silicon is applyed at the joint to the base and wall to set in a seal then weights r placed on top to make sure the glue is at full strength.

waste hole cut with circular saw

glue on base of shower base

silicon on shower base

weights

gib, plasterboard, drywall, elephant board = stuff that the walls are made of part 2

when gib is placed on walls they can be ither placed verticaly or horizontaly both have pros and cons
vertically = requires more joints and bore boards but on some walls they so save on waste
horizontaly = requires less joints and less boards but depending on the wall can leave with alot of waste

for my room (the bathroom) i am using the horizontal method as it uses less boards and off cuts can be used for other parts
when doors are being cut out the easyst thing to do is place a full board over and fix then cut out the door afterwards as showen below as for penitrations they are better left measured and then cut out before fixing this also goes for windows

when cuting gib board what you need is a craft knife and a blunt saw (because plasterboards bulnt blades easly) for window and door openings and for penitrations a gib saw the craft knife cuts on the face side and fermly as well next you snap the gib and cut paper on the other side and your done

temp blocks placed to allow glue to fix better

hole cut for light switch

hole cut for shower penitration

how door opening is cut open

door opening finished

gib, plasterboard, drywall, elephant board = stuff that the walls are made of

for the next few days after insulation we install the plasterboard its is very important to be carefull because if you place fixings in too deep there will be no hold and you will damage the plasterboards.
there are many types we used 3 on out houses standard, aqualine and braceline each have theyer own speical uses
standard = is the normal plasterboard and can go in most places
aqualine = goes in wet areas bathroom etc
braceline = are extra strong for load bearing areas of house such as corners

fixings are also diffrent depending on the type and where the board is going
standard = fixings at every 300mm along the edges and in line with ceiling batterns when applying to ceilings it is also important not to place glue where the screws will be placed

aqualine = this is for tiles like in the bathroom where i am working they are at every 100mm and no glue is required also it is important to screw along nogs that go along the whole length and to mark out where pipes are and avoid screwing there

braceline = on walls nailing pattern is 50mm from edge after a few it is 150mm then at other end 50mm again this alows for the extra weight of the gib

when fixing to ceiling if the room requires more than 3 boards back blockers must be used they allow for extra grip also gib can come with difrent edges T/E(tapered edge) and S/E (straight edge) what is important to remember is that to the wall is S/E and at joints are T/E this allows the plasterer for easy work and the builder pays less pictures showen below

back blocker screwed in

gib aqualine

glueing pattern for plasterboard

gib braceline

gib standard on ceiling

nailing pattern for braceline

screwing pattern for tiles

apple candy floss insulation

one of the 1st steps in interior is insulation and for our house we used greenstuff that does not irritate the skin but is harder to cut than pink batts. insulation is simple to install all you need to do is cut and fit into the outer walls and above the ceiling batterns it is important to also make room for pipes, wires and other pertrudions through the walls also its important no to pack it in too much or the insulation will not be as affective and have less air which is important for insulation. other steps involve straightening studs and planing down lintels for the insulation of plasterboard when doin this remember to remove near by insulation other wise it can jamb the planer. pictures are showen below.

planer jambed with insulation

ceiling insulation cut out for pertrudion

wall insulation

ceiling insulation

we are finaly indoors just in time for winter 2

once the weatherboards are up we put in the finishing touches to them such as the corner soukers and sofit liners showen below 





sofit liner marked out for weatherboard with use of scriber




how apex should look with sofit liner





sofit liner marked out for sofit jointer



corner soaker being applyed

corner soaker cut to allow for the top

the first thing to do is to cut the sofit liners to fit in the corner between the top of the weatherboards and the sofit to stop air flowing through we do this my simply marking out and cuting the wood to fit for jointing we use bevel cuts just like the weatherboards and apply by drilling then using rosehead nails. but for the gable ends they are marked using a scriber to fit with the weatherboards shape also with all liners they need to be cut out (with craft knife or chizel) to fit the sofit conectors.

the next part is to nail in the corner soakers it is best to start from the top down an they fit uner eachother it is also important to press the soaker down before nailing and to make sure not to damage the soaker with your hammer

we are finaly indoors just in time for winter

we finished the weatherboards about 2 weeks ago and this week have done insulation and are geting into the gib work

but first the weatherboards. we start to create a datum point for the story rod which helps mark the places where the weatherboards will be placed first we get any small piece of weather board that can reach the length of the flashing and place it on top and measure 5mm above this is done by placing an engendering rule under the weatherboard at each end of flashing we then mark on the top of the weatherboard on each cavity battern we then run a string line across the marks and this becomes the datum point

Next we mark out a story rod which will show every point where the top of the weatherboards will go once the rod is marked we line it up with the datum point we mark down the cavity batterns and square the mark off. This is continued around the house

We now begin on placing the weatherboards on the house starting from the bottom we cut a bevel cut (open cut 1^st) on one end (if starting from a corner the other side is cut) an then line the top up to the line on the cavity batterns and mark off other end to be cut accordingly once cut we line it up to line again, (if corner is cut a mock weatherboard is placed so that corner is cut correctly and square) paint the cut ends and tack it on the top we use a level or string line to check the straightness of the board and to let it be adjusted accordingly once this is done a hole is drilled within 10mm of the weatherboards 23mm lap this is easily done with the use of the protector (showed below) that is lined up with the cavity battern and the bottom of the weatherboard then a rose head nail is nailed into the hole and tacks are removed this step is repeated up the house.

some weatherboards have to be cut to fit around a window opening this is done with the jigsaw we measure the weatherboard starting from the joint to both ends of the opening adding and minus 10mm on each end of opening once cut with jigsaw it is fitted like the other weatherboards except no nails are to be under the opening.

Other weatherboards are cut for flashing all that is done is the weatherboard is marked to fit around flashing and then cut with jigsaw.

all photos of this are showen in the previous post

all that painting leads up to this






the last two weeks and the next few weeks onwards are all about the weatherboards from making the story rod for marking cavity battons to nailing on the weatherboards but we also did a few things before that which will be showen below. these photos show the instalation ot the sofit that runs under the rafters that overhang the house alowing no entry of noisture or vermen they are inserted into the sofit mold and conected together with the sofit connector then they are nailed at the edge with clouts and drilled onto the rafter alowing the christmas tree to fasten the sofit to the rafter.



sofit inside sofit mold that is part of fasia board



sofit connector





sofit cutter in use



sofit running along the front of house





example of a rake sofit




sofit in sofit mold



christmas tree



after they are installed we then prepare for inspection where we double check all cavity batterns are straight and to length we also install the flashings for windows all showen below.

first the flashing are cut to size to fit over the window with a few mm to over hang each side (my window is 50mm each side) we then fit alluban to it and fermly press the flashing on the wall so that its flat against the wall and sits neatly on the window we then staple the vermin strip over the flashing as showen in the photo lastly we use silicon to stick stoppers on the ends of the flashing which i forgot to take a photo of.

vermin strip over flashing

flashing installed with alluban

pencil mark showing ends of window

battern chizeld out for stoppers

corner cavity batterns for corner flashings

side view of window flashing

what comes after that is the instalation of the wetherboards where a lot can go wrong there are many steps as seen in the photos below.
i still need to know more so i will explain the process next week

using wetherboard to find datim line

string line showing datem

use of story rod

squaring off lines for wetherboard placement

before

after

tacked in weatherboard

mock weatherboard used for instalation of weatherboard around corner

weatherboards runing under window opening

jigsaw cutting weatherboard

cut weatherboard for placement under window opening

protector used so no damage comes to whearerboard when nailing and drilling

protector in use