Biography of a Build CH.10/NOVEMBER 9, 2021
What a month it was! Floors in, Walls continue to take shape and the spaces feel more and more complete.
We used 63mm x 20mm spotted gum floor boards and they look beautiful. They are the same boards used in basketball courts and sports halls. Many architects like to specify ‘select’ grade which is all the best bits of timber. Our floor boards are ‘feature’ grade which means you get knots and gunky bits and tonnes of character, and cheaper… we dig it! We sourced the boards from Boral, they are PEFC certified which, as far as we could tell is sort of like an industry sustainable forestry certification that may or may not be effective…
We secret nailed the boards which involves using that wild looking machine that punches staples at 45 degrees into the middle of the board. BAM, BOOF!! Thanks Josh for letting us borrow!
Michael has gotten a new title as the “Jig-master” for both his terrific Irish jig prowess and his ability to make a jig for any situation. You can see his jig made to pull the floor boards tight and still fit the secret nailer machine in the right position! Good work jig-master!
We got some custom steel brackets to connect our recycled timber posts to our floor joists. These will be exposed through the house! Yummo! The posts then stood up down the hallway to hold up our site milled Ridge beam!!
We did some sexy arse Lintels (the bits above the doors) which was a detail we were inspired by from Glenn Murcutt’s Kempsey House we were lucky enough to see earlier this year. The story goes that Glenn was trying to figure out how to join his rafters to his wall and Rick Leplastrier came up for a visit and suggested he join it like the bow of a ship (or something nautical). You can see the Murcutt detail in the photo and our interpretation as well! What legends!
As always we have drawn the month’s progress including the perpetual cake and our guardian angels Josh and Rolley (local builders who have been helping us with advice and tools). Big thanks to Chriss for coming along to help with the floor as well!!
Onwards and structurally upwards!
Love,
Dusty & Thirsty
We are taking note from The Grand Section on the value of documenting the journey whilst you’re in it by hand rather than just the final result by photograph.
At the end of each month we sit down and visually document the build journey of ‘Can’t Break Your Hip House’ up in Blackheath and the people who have been a part of that chapter. A great way to reflect on going-ons, small wins and lots of learnings
Our September biography of a build out now.
You can find further photographs on The Grand Section social media - instagram and facebook!
