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

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 mortar parge coat on blockwork under wall plate