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09
Jul 09

New CU & Meter

We’ve just had the electric board (or whatever they’re called these days) out to change our meter for a shiny new one. The request was actually to move the meter to a new location – a turn through 90 degrees and onto the wall above the back door. This will mean that we’re able to remove the old wall it was on. We’ve also had a new, much larger, consumer unit installed. This is not in use yet. It wasn’t easy to find a CU with enough slots for all the rings we are going to need – 18 in all. It seems that most stop at 12 or 14-way which isn’t enough for our future requirements. This unit came from TLC and seems to be a well made metal unit.

The first pic shows the new bits. In the second you can see the old location of the meter as well as the spaghetti which will need to be removed when the time comes.

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17
Jun 09

The last of the storage heaters

I’ve posted previously on storage heater removal. These were the last two. A little more detail this time. If you’ve never removed a storage heater then you won’t know what a right royal pain the backside it is.

Here is the offending heating device in an upstairs bedroom:

First job is to remove the front cover by removing many screws from all round the front edge:

This reveals the firebricks – heavy lumps. You can’t lift more than one of these in each hand!
Continue reading →

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31
May 09

Compost

The plan is to have vegetable beds by the shed. Therefore we’ll also need somewhere for all the garden waste/cuttings etc to go. Fortunately :0 I left a space for this behind/next to the shed.

Apologies for quality of the pics but you get the idea. Made from some old roof beams, wire mesh and left over log lap cladding;

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30
May 09

Spaghetti Junction

Being an old house the electrics are not particularly pretty. In fact they’re a complete mess and with need to be totally replaced at some stage.

The first step is to remove some of the consumer units that are dotted around the place!! I think there are 4 at the moment, ideally these will be consolidated into one. In the pics below you can see some of the mess. You’ll also notice some faded squares of wall where a meter has just been removed. This was the meter for night storage heaters which we’re no longer using.

This last picture shows the mounting position of the new meter and consumer unit. The position of this is above the current backdoor. Eventually this will be blocked up and a cupboard created to house the meter and also coats etc:

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27
May 09

Finished Shed

Now that it’s finally stopped raining I’ve managed to get outside and finish the shed.

I had to stain all of this log lap – I don’t recommend it, a very tedious job :(

With roof finished, log lap nailed on and sealant applied the shed is finished:

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16
May 09

Retained by the wet weather

It’s been raining – a lot!! :( So not much progress on the shed. It’s been sitting like this for much of the last couple of weeks:

I have managed to do a small bit of work on the opposite side of the same level as the shed. Whilst I’ve levelled out the majority of the space there is still a step between our garden and next door. I’ve left a gap of a couple of feet which will be planted with hedging in due course. For the moment I’ve fixed some retaining wood which keeps everything nice and tidy. Can be seen on the right hand side of pic 2:

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30
Apr 09

Rotten floorboard

A small job that I’ve been meaning to get to for ages.

One of the floorboards in the lounge was completely shot – rotten. None of the boards around it seem affected but we’ll get the whole floor (house :) ) treated for rot/woodworm etc in due course.

So rather than fall through the carpet each time we walk past I though I’d have it out and replace it. As is often the case I got some extra help. If only that digger was a big bigger . . . .would come in handy for the garden!

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26
Apr 09

Roof ‘n joints

The more observant out there will have wondered how the shed walls I built were going to stay up. 4inch screws into the base might hold the bottom but would soon fail if nothing was done at the top. To overcome this I installed M10 nuts, washers and thread in 3 locations at each corner and tightened. No chance of these walls coming apart now!

I’m afraid the pics kinda skip some of the next steps :( I cut the rafters, ridge etc for the roof and screwed on top of my walls. End result is this, you can also see that I’ve installed some of the noggins in the walls and made a start on boarding the inside with marine ply:

With base structure finished I screwed more exterior play to the roof and then covered with roofing paper:

The final roofing cover is going to be asphalt shingles from Wickes. In this pic I’ve made a start on installing the edging:

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17
Apr 09

Shed walls

I’m continuing the same principles for the walls as for the shed base. Namely using thicker materials than usual to ensure good structure. All of the frames and joints were pre-drilled and screwed.

I started each wall by building the frame on the shed base which I know is flat and level – makes checking for square etc much easier.

Once the basic wall frame is made it’s stacked out of the way:

I then put a couple of walls in place and used some clamps to hold them together at the corner. You’ll notice in the right hand side wall I’ve made an opening for a window – a double glazed unit recycled from the conservatory we took down a while back:

The frames for the front wall were much narrower to make room for door frame to be fitted. You’ll see them in progress on the floor here:

Here’s all the basic frames constructed and clamped together:

Final part here is to secure them to the base frame – achieved with lots of 4inch screws :)

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14
Apr 09

Shed base

Finally onto something constructive and interesting after lots and lots of demolition!

Having looked around at the sheds available from the large DIY stores I decided to make my own. It will probably cost about the same money and won’t blow away with the first gust of wind. I can also make it the exact size that I want.

First stage in making the shed was to lays some foundations – pics posted of the pads I made previously.

Next was a solid base for the shed to sit on. I made this out of 6×2 – much thicker than the balsa wood you get if you buy a shed.

This was filled with cross members and noggins to create a strong floor structure.

To finish the base it was covered by marine ply. The whole thing being glued and screwed together. Next time some walls.

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