Finishing Off Cavity Battens & Prepping Opening For Meter Box

Had to finish off the last of the vertical cavity battens today.  These run along the length of every full length stud on the building.  When attaching, these battens can be no greater than 600mm apart with their spacings.  Where full length studs fell further than 600mm in spacing, additional nogging had to be added to support another length of battens.

 When nailing the fixings on, it was important that these were put in a zig zag pattern with 300mm spacings - not only is this a requirement for passing the inspection, but it also helps in the future when you are attaching the weatherboards as it creates a clear space in the middle of the batten to drive nails into.  When attaching the battens, they need to run the length of the stud & sit inside the vermin trap along the boundary joist of the building.  In order to achieve this, a section is cut out at the end of the timber so it is the thickness of the vermin trap (otherwise it would bulge out).

On the corners, the battens need to be planed down thinner, in order to support a flashing.  If this wasn't done it would cause this section of the wall to no longer be flush with the rest of the battens.  This would result in the weatherboards not sitting properly when attached later on.
One of the final steps with the cavity battens, is to attach small blocks at the bottom of all of the openings.  These must be no less than 100mm in length and be a maximum of 50mm apart.  When fixed on they are put at an angle, which will act as an effective means as a water run off.


Today we also cut out a space in the wall for the meter box of the house.  Additional nogging had to be inserted in to support it, with a minimum clearance of 5mm calculated in.  This is to account for the metal flashing that will be inserted for the meter box.  Once done, the opening is prepped by cutting & stapling back the building wrap & then attaching alu band (as done with all the other openings.

Cavity Battens

A few people were finishing off the soffit lining today, and the rest of us made a start on doing the cavity battens.  These will form the fixing point for the wall cladding (weatherboards) that we will be attaching at a later date.  

Before attaching, we had to double check that the building wrap covered all of the appropriate areas, as this had to reach further enough to be able to sit under the battens.  

Timber used was a 18mm thickness, and our first step today was to attach around the boundary of the house (under the soffit).  This had to go hard up against the soffit (as this allows to keep the roof cavity as air tight as possible & to combat against moisture getting up into this area).  These had to be nailed on at even intervals of approximately 500mm spacings with 75mm galvanised flat heads.

Found it particularly hard to nail in the battens under the shorter eaves, as it didn't allow much swing space for the hammer (as you could possibly hit the finished fascia work that has been attached).

It is important to keep all of this area flush & the same thickness as otherwise it creates an uneven surface for attaching the weather boards on.  In some areas we had to rout out sections of the batten so it sat flush on the wall.  This was because some of the roof trusses protruded out a bit.

Openings Done With Alu Band & Vermin Strips

Some of the boys are still doing the soffit lining, so I concentrated on putting the Alu Band  Window Sealing Tape on to all of the opening's for the house.  This is used in order to create a moisture barrier to the openings (which are most likely to have issues with outside elements).  

Yesterday we had prepped these openings by cutting them out from the buidling wrap with trianglular cuts at 45 degree angles.  This building wrap was then stapled down on the inside of the opening framework & trimmed 

 accordingly.  The orange corner moulds were then stapled down along the bottoms of the openings (as pictured above left).

The Alu band was then cut to length for the opening.  Each top corner had to run at 200mm along top & length (400mm total length), with an additional 200mm half strip to seal the corners (as corner moulds are not present here.  Along the bottom, the alu band had to run the whole length of the opening & up 200mm on each side.  To attach the backing of the thermakraft sealing tape was removed & stuck down.  It is best for this tape to be warm so that sticky substance sticks better.  

Vermin strips were also added to the house today.  This was fixed on with clouts so that it was flush with the boundary joist of the house.  Where needed the vermin strip was cut to length using a coping saw.

Soffit Lining

Today we started on doing the soffit lining for the eaves of the house.  Firstly we measured from the facia through to the wall.  Off this measurement is approximately 70mm of other material such as 10mm cavity battens, 10-18mm for the weather board & additional 40mm for the soffit finishing.  As a result, the width of the soffit lining doesn't need to be exactly this amount and can be shortened by 20mm or so.  This will help later on as well, because it will give space to maneuver it into the fascia gap for this.

Once this width is marked out, it is cut out along the line.  It is important to handle this material as carefully as possible, as it is a finished surface. 

The cut edge is then sanded back to smooth.  When doing it is important to sand up (rather than down) as it will reduce the likelihood of the edge chipping away.  The ends of the soffit are also sanded back (& at an angle... so it can fit into the joiners, as they are angled down at the top).

Joiners are then cut to length, and will act as the mechanism so that the following soffit lining can be inserted up against it.  It is a good idea to make sure it is clean (by using alcohol) before attaching under the eave as easier to clean.

When attaching it is slid up into the recess present in the fascia for it.  It is run from the middle of the eave down, & clouts are then put in to hold it in place.  Before putting this up, the location & thickness of the nogs are marked out on the wall for 'christmas tree' fastenings (which are plastic screw like nails that are secured into the nogs to add additional fixing.  These are spaced around the middle of eave.  

The following lining is then inserted into the joiner for the previously fixed soffit lining & of course under the fascia & so on.  

Finishing Weatherboards & Putting Up Building Wrap

Today we put our heads down, so that we could get the weatherboards all painted & finished so that they would be dry and ready when we get back from break.

Had to do a bit of re-shuffling, as one of the frames collapsed under the weight - important to keep an eye on that in the future. 

Whilst doing this, some of the team started on the building wrap & by the end of day we were all out doing this to get the job done.  We stayed back till all the wrap was on the building, so that it was all covered up over the break.  As the floor board has been exposed for quite a period of time, it was a priority to get this done, to give them a bit of protection from the elements.

To put on the building wrap, the roll was run horizontally along the building & pulled as taunt as possible.  Once tight enough, it was secured using a staple gun to all frame work that it was sitting on. 

For areas that were irregular shapes (eg. the gable end roof truss) a craft knife was used to cut away to match the edge.  Blue strapping was then run around the outside of this building wrap to hold it in place (which again, was secured with a staple gun). 

Not openings were cut out except for the main door entry, the rest of the building is fully enclosed.

Weatherboard Painting - Oh Yeah.

 After finishing off the ceiling battens, we cleared out the 'living room' space of the house to prepare the area to paint the weatherboards under cover. 
At this stage, we also got rid of all of the temporary braces within the house (except for the ones up against the walls).

Once the floor area was clear, it was covered by building paper & stapled down (to provide an extra measure to decrease the amount of stain getting on to the floor sheets.  

A frames were then stood up & braced with a length of timber down the bottom to make the structure more stable.  The frames were also attached to the wall frame for extra support.The frames were then stacked up with weatherboards ready to be painted.

It is important to do this as it primes the weatherboard & helps to protect it from elements such as water.  The most important area to cover with the stain is the edges & grooved section where the boards butt up against each other.  This is because

the edges are most likely to be exposed to outside elements & the grooved section is subject to capilary action.  Once a weatherboard was fully painted on both sides, it was stacked up on the rack, with small wooden spacer blocks placed between each board so that it allowed them to dry better & so as not to disturb the paint on each board as well. 

Whilst we were doing this, some of the crew started putting the building wrap up around the house. 

As we are off on break after tomorrow, this is a good thing to doto try and help protect the particle & ply board on the floor of the building as it will stop the outside elements from getting in & sitting on the floor for long periods of time whilst we are not there. 

Roof Done... On To Ceiling Battens

Arrived on site today to see the roofs are finally up on the houses, pretty awesome to see.  Outside cladding on & from interior of building you can see the building wrap that they laid down before putting it on!

On to ceiling battens today.  Has been a pretty long process & still a little bit left to do tomorrow.  Basically started off day by nailing off battens already laid out on previous days.  75's used with the battens, where two needed to be secured in where ever it crossed under the bottom chord of the trusses.  Once done, we carried on with laying out the rest of the battens.  

To do, the spacings were marked out on the opposite sides of the room that it will be spanning.  A chalk line was used to mark this same measurement on all the bottom chords.  This is a good thing to do, as it means that aligning the batten is a lot easier as you have a mark to follow (rather than doing just by the 'eye').  

Once all marked out, the battens were cut to length.  They had to be cut so that the no two joins were adjacent to each other.  

Where there was a join on the truss, the batten had to be cut so that it fell mid way through the thickness of the bottom chord & then was nailed in with two skewed nails.   

When nailing in the battens, a helpful trick was to pre nail the fixings partially so that when it was held in place, it was easier to drive in. 

Another way to reduce work load was to secure an additional nogging on top of the double top plate, so that there was  surface to nail from the bottom upwards (rather than skewed from the side).  

The ceiling battens were laid out at 400mm spacings and varied from room to room where they fell (so they do not run in one line throughout the house as a result).