Week 10, Day 5

Week 10, Day 5:

  • Site meeting #2 with the Architects.
  • More progress on the walls. Now some of the first-floor joists are installed the blockwork can be built up over those. The joists are about 5mm less than one block high so it’s fairly easy to build around them.
Week 10, Day 5

Week 10, Day 5

From an airtightness standpoint it’s important to pay attention to how the wooden floor joists are fixed to the exterior walls. They can’t simply be built-in since the timber is bound to shrink slightly, and they’re fiddly to seal using airtightness tape. The approach used here is:

  • Wolf System easi-joist® attached to galvanized steel joist hanger
  • Joist hanger attached to a timber wall plate
  • Wall plate bolted to blockwork wall using resin anchor fixings
  • Mortar parge coat applied to blockwork (to seal it) before installing the wall plate
    • Concrete blocks are not airtight!
Joists installed on galvanized steel joist hangers on wall plate - note parge coat on blockwork

Joists installed on galvanized steel joist hangers on wall plate – note mortar parge coat on blockwork under wall plate

 

Week 10, Day 4

Week 10, Day 4:

  • More blockwork and steelwork, mostly on the southern elevation
  • Because of the long spans over the lift-and-slide door openings, the lintels for the outer cavity walls are Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) steel rather than concrete as used for the smaller openings
  • There’s another steel joist over the open-plan room on the south side, to support the wall between the bedrooms on that side
Week 10, Day 4

Week 10, Day 4

Steel joist over kitchen doorway

Steel joists over kitchen doorway