One photo shows the silver insulation ("sisalation") that I installed on the inside of the walls in my house extension in the late 70's. Another shows the how my external plumbing of that era has been moved to the inside of the wall cavity.
I had warned Clint that the NW corner of the house might need some remedial work on the wall studs. This is the only part of the house where the wood sits directly on the ground, and I had recalled doing some work in the 70's to shore up the wall studs. We had a look at the wall structure after the external cladding had been removed and the workmen declared it to be OK. I had fitted heavy galvanized brackets to join two of the studs to the horizontal base timber and all was still in place and in good order. The brackets were still bright and shiny, and one would not have thought that more than 35 years had passed. The outer 25 percent of part of a base timber had deteriorated due to constant exposure to moisture, but the rest of it was intact and declared strong enough. That was a good example of the redundancy and resiliency of the house. There is redundancy because there are plenty of wall studs and noggins (ie short horizontal timbers between studs) fairly close together so that if one fails the next one can take the extra load. The resiliency is from the use of Jarrah, a super hard and very strong wood that stands up well to stress, moisture, and insects, in particular white ants (termites), as well as the old fashioned building method where everything was well nailed and walls were braced with diagonal pieces of 2x1" jarrah. (These days wall are made of either metal or treated pine, with metal straps used for diagonal bracing.)
None of the timber had been affected by white ants, and I could see the staining in the lower part of the walls where in the 70's I had saturated them with an evil brew if diesel fuel and Dieldrin, an organochlorine pesticide that is now banned from general use in Australia. Nevertheless I took the opportunity to saturate this lower section of wall with generous amounts of creosote, which is now frowned upon as being environmentally toxic and therefore difficult to find. Fortunately I had a medium sized can of it in the garage. Two days after the application I could still smell the creosote from the garage, but I didn't care, if it was going to protect the walls. The whole idea is to taint the timber and ground below it such that termites will be repelled.
 |
| Silver Sisalation Insulation |
 |
| Plumbing Now Hidden in Wall Cavity |
The building team has been great. They are mature, experienced, professional, work very well together, and are easy to talk with. The unbelievably autumn weather has been the icing on the cake. I couldn't ask for better.
They know that I am doing what I can to help out. They appreciate the use of my garage to store their equipment, which saves them a lot of time since they do not have to pack and unpack the gear every day. I've also handed over the driveway and the trailer half of the carport to them, and I keep one of the cars parked at the school next door so that I can go for a drive without disrupting them. They enjoy their tea and lunch breaks on the verandah, seated at a proper table and chairs and enjoying the fresh air and splendid view.
No comments:
Post a Comment