External cladding

Wall frames are completed with windows fitted. Roof sheeting is also fitted. Next job is the external Travetine tiles.

External wall tiles to bedroom wall. Tiles are imported from china by WestChina Trading.

Finished wall tiles.

Tiles being fitted to front wall over two layers of firbe cement sheeting.

Finished front wall.

timber wall frames

next job after the concrete was poured in March was the timber wall frames and aluminum windows. The windows have been in storage for a few months, so was good to start fitting them .

the windows are double glazed to help with our 6.5 star energy rating and were imported form china by WestChina Trading.

90 x 35 treated pine was used for the timber wall frames.

Note the electrical cables coming up through concrete slab. These are the main power supply, telephone line and data line ( to monitor the solar power system) 

Looks like timber frames are everywhere. In fact there is not a huge number of walls. We managed to make and fit all the frames in a few days. 

Photo shows front door and windows are fitted. Builders construction paper is also fitted to help with insulation. 

                      

Corner window to bedroom, both doors slide with no corner posts.

Same window showing view to the outside.

Roof sheeting being fitted, using concealed fixing clips so that there are now fixing screws through the roof sheeting to minimise the chance of the roof leaking.

Concrete slab and walls

.the structural steel was completed in october and many months were spent getting the steel formwork done to take the concrete slab

Steel roof sheeting was used as formwork for the concrete deck.

Steel formwork is in place along with the top steel ring beam. Z200 steel purlins have been bolted in place. Just needs steel mesh for the concrete and the plumbing pipes fitted prior to concrete.

A great team pouring the concrete slab.

Concrete is finished , the verandah areas down each side and the alfesco area ( closest to photograper) will be honed finish using concrete polishing machine.

Honed finish on concrete took three days to complete. ( most of the time was spent on cleaning up the mess).

Structural steel continues

 The slow process of completing the structural steel sub floor continues. Now being June we are losing some production with wet days.  Photos show the completed sub floor steel with the much larger ( PFC230) welded to the outer perimeter of the building. Steel columns are also welded in place, twin posts at the front and single at the rear edge. Another channel will be fitted on top of these posts. Getting up there will be a challenge at 4 metres above ground and weighing about 140 kgs.

Part of the steel formwork in place for the concrete floor.

In between welding the steel frame, the concrete leech drains are put in place. Note the drainage stone being used is from recycled concrete, a very inexpensive product. 

A DIY 12volt electric winch being used to lift the top beams into place were they are then welded to the columns. The winch is from a quad bike and worked a treat! One beam is inplace and another ready for lifting.  Note the treated pine timber fixed to the top of the beam is to fit the gutter to, much easier than trying to fix to 10 mm thick steel .

Once the beams are fitted the z200 purlins will be bolted to the ring beam .

Arriving in two weeks are all the aluminium windows and doors from China, purchased through WestChina Trading 

www.westchina.biz

Gardens

While i' m busy welding the steel structure christine has been establishing our new garden . With the recent rains the plants should be well established over winter and will look great when we move in.

Structural steel

To acheive a similar appearance to Mies van de Rohe's farnworth house it was necessary to construct a steel subfloor upon which the concrete floor can sit. This will give the appearance of the house seemingly floating.

Gabian walls

A huge amount of rock was excavated on site and the problem of how to use it or dispose of it. It was decided to make gabian retaining walls. First a concrete footing was laid with steel supports for the mesh placed into the concrete. Next the 75mm x 50mm galvanised mesh was fitted. Then all the larger rocks needed to be broken up into smaller pieces with a jack hammer. In total about 100 metres of gabian wall need to be done.

Wall on western side of house site were the first to go in, then after backfilling

behind the concrete walls we started on the walls facing east. The last gabian

walls are around the steps near the container. 

The gabian wall on the eastern site boundary was constructed with the help of many " volunteers".

Karl, nigel & linda, darryl & cath, lilly, louie, jordan all supervised by our grand daughters bailee,sharlot & rylee.