External Wall Cladding North and East Walls

June 2018

At this point we discovered that the next row of cladding on the north wall would be too difficult to put into place before it could be screwed, so we changed to working on the north wall. This was another easy start, where we put up a row of insulation, screwed the bottom wall cladding in place, and lifted the sheets into position and screwed them into place while standing on the ground.

The north side of the house is 10 metres long, so this used two sheets of cladding with an overlap in the middle.

Both of these sheets of Colorbond cladding were short enough to fit under the windows, so no cutting of metal sheets was required as yet. You can see in the photos that the insulation overlaps the bottom of the windows, but that was easy enough to cut back with a stanley knife, which we did at a later stage.

Then we realised that the next row on this wall required cutting to fit around the windows, so the east wall switched back to seeming like the easier option.

July 2018

On the east wall, the first two rows of cladding were able to be lifted it into place while standing on the ground and the ladder, but after that it got much trickier to be able to lift and hold the cladding in place while it was screwed in. I came up with a clever idea to drill holes in the top of the cladding, place strong hooks through which are threaded with rope, and then loop the rope over the top of the wall frame and pull it up into position.

Josh was dubious as to whether the hooks would hold the weight of the sheet without simply shearing through the metal, but after testing the system we discovered that four holes managed to distribute the weight evenly enough so that it was not a problem. This system meant that Josh was inside the house pulling the ropes, whilst I was on the outside guiding the sheet so that it did not scratch the previously installed sheet, and making sure that it was level and the correct height. Then I would put clamps on the sides, position the ladder, climb up and drill in the screws. Since we were shouting at each other through a wall, we devised a method of communication where we could specify which rope needed pulling at which time, with the ropes numbered 1 to 4. This was much easier than saying 'the rope closest to the creek' or 'the rope closest to the middle on the fence side'. Sometimes the most important part of building is good communication.

Before we could put up the next sheet of cladding, we had to put up the next row of insulation. I checked the instructions for the insulation which specified that there needed to be an overlap of 10cm for each sheet. Diligently we did so, and then when we tried to screw in the next sheet over the top of the two overlapped sheets of insulation, it created a problem. The combination of thicknesses was greater than the length of the screws with which we had been provided.

Luckily we had some leftover roofing screws which were a little thicker and a fair bit longer, and even though the colour of the screws are Woodland Grey instead of the Mountain Blue of the cladding, the colour difference does not stick out very much once you are looking at the wall from ground height. These roofing screws were also useful for the occasional times when we had to screw through bracing, or just had a very troublesome screw that just would not go in. So we learnt our lesson there - don't overlap the insulation because it does not suit this building situation.

Next we hit a tricky part where we would have to do some sheet cutting. The top of the east wall has a triangle to fit the gable roof. Josh had the genius idea of using the insulation sheet as a template for cutting the cladding to ensure he achieved the correct angle for the three sheets which needed to be trimmed back. It was all laid down on the verandah floor for a flat surface to be measured and marked out, and the insulation was stuck up.

Actually sticking up the insulation was a little trickier than it sounds. It requires one person to hold the 6 or 10 metre length up while the other person sticks it to the frame with insulation tape. This insulation tape is a cross between alfoil and gaffa tape, and while it is more expensive than gaffa tape, it has much better sticking power which is what was needed for this situation. We tried using gaffa tape but it quickly came unstuck in the wind. We luckily had borrowed a ladder, so it was possible for one of up to be up one on the outside and one of the inside at the same time. Otherwise it was have definitely been impossible. Thank you so much to Graham for the long-term borrowing of your ladder, without it we would not have been able to build our house. We owe you in return.

It was amazing what a difference it made to the inside of the house once the insulation went up and created a wall which suddenly blocked out the light, breeze and the view. I found it quite annoying, and often wished that I did not need to put the walls. I eventually discovered that the advantages of walls include keeping out a cold wind, keeping out the hot sun, and keeping out the unwanted creatures. These creatures included the swallows who thought that the roof frames would be a great place to build their nests. We wouldn't have such a problem with them except that they have a habit of pooing on EVERYTHING near where they are nesting, a lesson we had already learnt in the shed. Very messy and unhygienic.

Josh diligently went down to the house every day and knocked down the mud nests, but they kept rebuilding. We didn't want them to get to the stage where they had laid eggs, because then we wouldn't have the heart to destroy the little babies. The swallows kept coming back despite the destruction of their nest attempts, so Josh came up with a new plan - wait a couple of days for them to get some significant mud building done, and THEN go and knock it down. Well, this certainly worked because after doing that once, they have never come back and built there again.

Started External Wall Cladding

     Finally time permits me to be able to give you guys an update on the building.We have been working hard, sometimes on other things than the house, but progress has been made nevertheless. My employment has finished after a busy harvest season and suddenly things are happening at a much quicker rate. It has taken days to write down what we've done, so I will be posting the progress in installments.

     In May of last year we finished installing the windows and glass sliding door, so we moved on to putting up the external cladding. We started on the east wall as it seemed easiest. This was because it has no windows, and this means no cutting of sheets. The 6 metre width of the house matched exactly the 6 metre lengths of cladding we were provided with. It sounds very simple!

This involved first putting up a length of insulation, then screwing the bottom wall channel over the top of it. This bottom channel is what the bottom sheet of cladding sits in. The plans which the kit home gave us did not specify at exactly what height this is supposed to sit, so we just had to figure out what might be best using our own wits.

     Then we lifted the first row of cladding into the channel, and then screwed the cladding into the wall frame studs. We have been provided with tech-head screws which drill their way through the metal cladding, insulation and metal studs, so this means no predrilling holes. We did need to know where the studs were though, so we at first estimated this by looking upwards to where the studs were visible above the insulation. Sometimes this worked fine, sometimes we were a little off. The studs are around 5cm wide so there is a bit of wiggle room - as long as you don't miss the stud entirely the wall will stay on!

     We then came up with a couple of different systems to try and keep the screws lined up correctly to hit the studs, such as using the plumb bob on a string down from the drill to the screw below it, and creating our own plumb bobs from screws which have been tied to string and then wrapped in gaffa tape so they don't scratch the wall. These were attached to the top of the wall frames, and hung down to mark the studs. Halfway up this wall the studs all changed to different places, so we had to place our plumb bobs all over again. And then again for the triangle part at the very top of the wall. A lot of trouble to go to, but better than missing the studs.

     The next day of work we put up another row of insulation, and then another row of cladding. Once we put up the insulation, we had to work fairly fast to get the cladding on before it blew away in the wind. The cladding was lifted into place and then held there with clamps on the wall frames until we got the screws in. We discovered that the corrugated cladding was a lot more flexible than you might think, as it bowed in and out of the wall significantly, bent up and down the wall surprisingly, and also the corrugations changed the height of the sheet depending on how much each corrugation was pushed down. All of these factors meant that it was quite difficult to make each sheet screw on straight.

     Sometimes one screw would be slighly off and then this would completely change the tension of the sheet and put it askew. The only thing to fix that would be to try and toe it in the right direction, or just to start again with another screw hole, leaving a hole in the wall to be sealed with silicone. We discovered that it was not really feasible to quickly put a screw in the middle and each side and then come back and fill in the gaps once it was secure, as this led to too much bowing of the sheet. Instead the longer method of starting in the middle and taking turns left and right to work out to the sides stud by stud, gave much better end results. This meant moving the ladder back and forth for almost every screw, which was very tiring to move it and to climb back up and down it every time. I tried to count the rungs every time I went up and down but kept losing count when I got over 10!

     We took every due diligence for working safely with ladders, as we certainly could not afford the time or money which would be involved with an injury. The top of the ladder was chained to the wall, the ground was dug with the shovel every time we moved to a new spot to ensure it was level, and I always kept in mind a great piece of advice which I learned from one of my Rural Fire Service buddies. Ted told me whenever climbing in and out of the RFS truck 'always have three points of contact', which means that out of your two hands and two feet, only one of them isn't firmly planted at a time. It is something which I believe has saved me many times, and well worth passing on to others.

     The time taken to screw in each sheet stretched to an entire day of work, by the time we set everything up, made sure the sheet was straight, adjusted the clamps after each screw, and moved the ladder at least 10 times for each sheet. There were many times when we finished work at dusk and were unable to take a photo of our progress because it was too dark!