Meterbox Weatherboards

Today I worked on weatherboards as we still have little bits to do around the house that we haven't completed.  Rich had prepared the first part of it, as he had to fix some problems with the levels, but after that, it was good to go.  

Much like doing the rest of the boards on the house, except we were unable to hold a level in this area to check it was sitting correctly as the frame for the door disallowed this - for this reason, the marks up the wall had to be really accurate for us to work against.

Also did the section to the left of the meterbox (which joined to weatherboards running down  the house).  With this section I worked from the bottom upwards (which has been different to have we have done the boards for the rest of the house.

The level used was to match up against the already fixed boards on the wall, a piece of weatherboard was held level at these two points & then a ruler was held flush against the weatherboard it would be sitting on & this mark was then transferred to the weatherboard temporarily being marked out to fit.  A measurement was then taken from the other end to see how far the board protruded from the wall (this was the length that needed to be cut off when doing the corner cut so that it would fit good.

I hand cut this once it was all marked out & then held to the wall, the last part was to check out the top section which would allow for the board above that it would also sit against.

Before fixing on, I had to make sure that there was no large gaps in the corner section where the two boards sat on each other, as this would compromise weather tightness.  The corner joins are not too important as a corner mould would be put over these parts later.

Once it was ok, the same fixing patterns were used as the rest of the house, with the same procedures followed.

Scribers Again

We continued on with the scribers again today, as we didn't get to finish them off yesterday.  A few things I forgot to mention in yesterdays post was in regards to the fixing on of the scribers.  Before the holes are pre drilled in, the scriber actually has sealant put on the edge so that it gains weather protection. 

As the cut edges would have been recently stained to seal the timber, a good way to put the sealant on, is to hold the scriber up in the position it is going to be fixed & then marking out a faint line of its position with a pencil.  The sealant can then be applied to the inside of the line and the scriber can be positioned on top of this.

Also, with my second scriber that I cut, I used a jig saw.  Wish I had of discovered this yesterday - it made the job 1000 times easier, quicker & cleaner!  After today, I am not in any rush to do more scribers!

Scribers

Today we got started on doing the scribers for the first time.  Talk about a mission, kind of like doing the soffit moulds for the gable ends I guess (or atleast the cuts are a little the same).

The timber used for the scriber is 40x10mm and has a rounded finished edge for decoration.  It is temporarily attached hard up against the weatherboards & the flashing of the window opening using panel pins, so that it overhangs the flashing of the opening by about 20-30mm and below the window frame by about 100mm.  

From this point, a set square is used to measure from the face of the window frame to the scriber along the length, and is then adjusted so that it sits at the widest measurement taken (to make it parallel to the window frame).

Once this has been done, marks each point where the overlapped weatherboards sit along this scriber is marked out, along with the pitch of the weatherboard as well.  A quick way to do this, is to use a block that is the same thickness as the weatherboard & hold it hard up against the weatherboard & then transfer this to the scriber by marking it out (as pictured to the left).  This is done along the whole length of the scriber, so that it will later sit flush against the wall.

The next step is to cut these marked out sections.  When doing this it is important to undercut and leave the line on the piece of timber so we have something to work towards so it sits straight.  The back section (that is unseen) on the cut is angled lower than the front so that it will sit flush against the weatherboard.  

It is important to execute the cut correctly, as the front surface will be a finished surface and needs to be neat and tidy.

Once all of the sections have been checked out, a chisel &/or planer is used to smooth the face of the cut and make sure that it is angled ok & shave off any excess that needs to be taken away.  Once done, it can then be held against the wall to see if it sits flush, (and if it doesn't, these points are indicated so that the surface can be planed down more until it does).

Because of the thickness of the timber, it should be able to fit comfortably under the flashing without needing a bit of the finished edge to be checked out, however the angle that the flashing sits out needs to be cut.  An easy way to mark this, is to have the timber sit hard against the flashing in the position it will be fixed, & then hit it hard with the hammer.  This will indent the flashing mark onto the timber so that it can be cut off to this mark.

Once satisfied that it sits nicely on the wall, it can be fixed into position.  This is done by using 75mm rosehead angular grooved galvanised nails which are fixed on every second weatherboard that it runs along (in the same line as the weatherboard fixings are (45mm from bottom of weatherboard).

Signed, Stained & Delivered!

Is it not a thing of beauty?  Finally the back wall is finished!  After days of being stuck there, it is finally completed with second coat of stain on as well!  The only benefit of being on this section was that the sun was on this side of the house... but that was about it!  (Gets lonely on your own you know!!!).

As the scaffold system had been taken down along here, we put up temporary scaffolding up using planks spread out over saw horses (two planks thick for safety).

Today, also went round the house putting second coat of stain on boards that hadn't been done yet.  We only have a little bit of the wall to go (around the meter box) which should easily be done next week - as we have enough timber long enough to do this, but we still have long lengths to cover on the other side of the house.  As a result we have had to order more timber to complete.  

Why we fell short?  Who knows!

Oh Surprise... Lets Do More Weatherboards!

Today I was head down, bum up.  I was determined to get that back wall completed with weatherboards, if it was the last thing I did.  Alas, I fell short on the last run.  Bummer - but atleast it won't take long to get done tomorrow.

Worked with Ben today to try and get things sussed.  Found the chalk lines were slightly out in the middle of the house due to the way the lines were run, so Rich had said that these would sit slightly below here but would angle up at the ends of the house and be ok.

Had troubles with some of the joins sitting tight against each other, as we found that some of the timber we have left to use was slightly bowed, so when we put it on the drop saw, the cuts weren't straight.  To fix this, we used a planer to get it shaved down to the right consistency so it fit better.

We are getting really low on lengths of timber, so we have had to stop doing one of the walls so that the rest can be completed first.  This has meant that on some runs along the length of the back wall there are around 3 joins, which isn't really ideal.  

This really had us thinking about the layout as we couldn't have joins fixed within 2 cavity battens of each other, and when a join was eventually due to be on a cavity batten that already had a join on it - we had to make sure there was atleast two runs of boards between them (but ideally three).  Like a game of tetris!  The only problem being that it was difficult, because it also had to fit in with lengths of timber we had available... nightmare!

Weatherboards & Rain

Back onto the weatherboard buzz today.  We are slowly getting there, but are quite behind on our schedule so we really have to go hard to get it done.

Only got to put up 3 rows of boards on the back wall (but got rained out a lot, so it really slowed down our progress).  The chalk lines are a bit out on this wall, so Rich is talking about doing different levels so that the board bow a bit in the middle.  Bit confusing, but will suss it out tomorrow as we are out on site all day tomorrow.

Doing pretty well otherwise, we have kind of got one wall done, but there is a 30mm section at the bottom of the house that isn't covered, as we were supposed to be having a rip cut weatherboard at the bottom.  Plans have since changed, so I'm not sure what is happening there now, I think it depends on how much weatherboards we have left at the end.

Odd's & Ends On Site

Today we concentrated on putting the second coat of stain on the weatherboards on the higher parts of the house, so that we could pull the scaffolding down.  

Whilst I painted around, some of the other boys put up the last of the soffit moulds around the boundary & broke down the scaffold.  

Didn't get much done today, as only a few people on the house, but got to put up some more weatherboards as well... we are slowly getting there!  As some parts of the walls are still quite high, we have errected some temporary work platforms using saw horses & planks.  Hopefully we'll get lots of the weatherboards done next week, bring it on!

House going good though, and we have one wall almost done... thank god for that!!!  (It was starting to get me down!).

More Soffit Moulds

Did more of the soffit moulds today, but was the ones along the length of the house (not the gable end).  A lot more simpler to execute as it didn't need area's being checked out so that it fit hard up against the weatherboard and soffit lining.

These were just run along the building and fixed with spacings no greater than 600mm spacings.  The lines of the fixing for the weatherboards could be used to make a neater effect, or they could be attached at points where it needed to close a gap that was larger than should be (against the soffit lining).

At points where joins were going to be present, a 45degree cut was made (like with the weatherboards), and it was important that cut area's were sealed with stain to help provide further protection from any water that might get at these sections over time.

Finishing the gable end soffit mould

Continued on with the soffit mould today, as we had to make a few adjustments using the hand plane and chisel to get it sitting correctly against the weatherboard.

In order to do this, we had to use a hand plane & sometimes a chisel to cut down into the area, so the back section of the mould was lower cut than the front.

We double checked that this was the case by placing a set square against the front edge & making sure that the timber sloped down towards the back of the cut (against the square edge).

Once this had been done, we re- checked it sat ok by putting it up against the gable end of the house again.  

Once it was good, we were ready to fix it into place.  We did this by drilling holes straight up from the soffit mould through to the lining, & then used the rosehead angular 75mm nails to fix into place.  There were several fixing patterns that we could have used for the soffit mould, the first is to put them in line with the nailing lines of the weatherboard, and the other option was to place on nail at every weatherboard overlap (which is what we did).

Soffit moulds for gable ends

Today we started on the soffit moulds for the gable ends of the house.  First we started off by temporarily tacking the length of timber being used for the mould to the gable end.  From here we marked off mitre cut at the ridge line, so that it will sit at the correct angle for when the other side of the gable soffit mould is attached. 

The other marks which are done, is at every point where the soffit mould crosses a weatherboard join.  This was done by using the set square to mark out this point (as pictured in the photo's to the right).  At the end of the soffit mould, a temporary piece of timber that is the same as the mould is used to run along the side of the house that this gable end mould will sit against, where it's position is marked out on the soffit lining.  This mark is then transfered down to the gable end soffit mould so a mitre cut can be made at this point.  In doing this, it will sit flush against each other when all the moulds around the house are attached.

Once all the markings have been done along the timber being used for the soffit mould, it is removed from the gable end & further markings are done, to show where to check out so that it will sit flat against the soffit lining & weatherboards.

A straight edge is used to run from the previously scribed marks (when it was temporarily tacked) to the next mark along the mould that is set at the thickness of the weatherboard. 

Once done, along the whole length of the mould, a hand saw was used to cut out along these lines.  It was important to stay within the lines as it will be the finished edge showing once attached, so it needs to be neat and tidy.  

A skill saw can also be used to do the same cuts, which although is finicky to set up, creates straighter lines that don't require as much fixing up with a planer. 

Cutting out was carried out along the whole length of the mould & then held up against the gable end to make sure that it was fitting ok.  At the points where it wasn't sitting well, markings were made, so we knew where to go back and plane down so it sat right.

Weatherboards for the gable ends

Attaching the gable end weatherboards required cutting the boards at each end at an angle that matched the pitch of the roof.

In order to do this, we worked up from the boundary weatherboard, using a set square set at 159mm which we run along the bottom of the boundary board until it hit the soffit lining & was then marked out.  This was done at each end of the boundary board, where the measurement between the two points indicated the length that the board was to be cut to.

The pitch the board was to be cut by was calculated by running taking a measurement running length ways from the end of the board, to the first point where the full thickness of the weatherboard is at.  This measurement is then marked out on the board to be fixed on and a diagonal line is scribed out.  

The board should fit as hard up to the soffit lining as possible, and is fixed at each cavity batten that it crosses.  

To align it correctly, we measured 159mm from the board below and a chalk line is then run on this marking.  This gave a  level for us to keep correcting the positioning of the weatherboard as we were fixing it down.