Filling Gaps

2022 August

As part of the building requirements for our house, we had to meet bushfire standards. We fulfilled most of these simply by having metal cladding on the outside of the house, but another rule to meet Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) 29 was that there is not allowed to be any gaps smaller than 2mm. This is so that in the event of a bushfire, embers blown by the wind won't be able to get into the house and start a fire. It's a great rule! Many houses burn down because of accumulated dried leaves which are lit by flying embers, so it's best to keep them all out as much as possible.

     We have had to be very inventive as there are very few products available to fill some of the trickier gaps, such as the gap under every single wave of the corrugated iron. This is where the roofing sheets are screwed to the battens. This is a very difficult area to access as you cannot get to it from the outside due to the gutter being in the way. From the inside it's also very difficult to get to as the roof finishes around 400mm from the edge of the house. The best solution we came up with was using roofing silicone to fill all those pesky holes. It was tricky to convince this somewhat runny product to stay upright enough to fill these gaps, but I figured out a few techniques to get it done. So I climbed up the ladder with the caulking gun loaded, stuck my arms into the gaps and did the best I could.

     It was a very time consuming job, and my hands got tired from squeezing the caulking gun at an awkward angle so I could only do a section at a time. The gap was so narrow that my elbow would get stuck if I didn't have it bent exactly the right way to be able to pull it out again! I had to remind my claustrophobia not to panic, especially while balanced on a ladder lol.

     I tested out all the different types of silicone and found that the clear one was the best. Something about the white one made it a completely different texture. Hopefully these will last quite a while, as they are meant to be UV resistant. This will also keep leaves, dust and rain from going inside our eaves, not to mention any birds or insects which might want to make nests in there.

     Unfortunately the gaps above the windows could not be accessed from inside, and could not be siliconed from outside, so I had to come up with another solution.

     We purchased aluminium flashing from Bunnings, and I placed a sheet of Colorbond on it and drew a line with a permanent marker. Then I cut out this line with a pair of tin snips.

     This aluminium flashing is very easy to work with, basically like alfoil but thicker. It wasn't the most perfect fit when I shoved it in, as I literally could not see what I was doing but oh well, better than nothing.

     Also this month was our council building inspection for the frames of the house. This was our first inspection since the holes for the footings. Our council inspector is very nice, and helpfully pointed out a couple of things that we should do, but overall was very happy with our work. What a relief after all the effort we've put in to do things right!

     One problem we had to fix was that the copper pipes for the plumbing was directly touching our metal floor supports and metal cladding The plumber was so used to working with houses which have wooden support beams and cladding that he didn't realise that the two metals touching together would create a reaction that leads to corrosion. In fact the corrosion had already started happening in one place! It was an easy enough fix, I just got an old bicycle tube and chopped it into pieces, unscrewed each screw enough to fit it under, and shoved the rubber in and then screwed the screw back in. 

     It meant another day of grubbing around under the house, and sore muscles in very strange places. It's funny how used we get to gravity being a certain way up!

     The building inspector also wanted some more screws WITH A WASHER (apparently makes all the difference) in the edges of the walls where it met the floor, and near doorways, so that was another easy fix.

He also said that the internal framing needed one more bracket for support as per the plans, so Josh bought something suitable from Bunnings and screwed it up.

     Next month - figuring out how to attach the ends of the ceiling battens, and delivery of the insulation and plywood internal cladding.

More Solar Panels and Electrician Rough-In

 2022 May

     Finally we were ready to attach the second row of solar panels to the roof. Josh had constructed special racks to the right size and placement and with little screw-on holder things. 

     We only had to get the panels onto the roof.

     Each panel measured 1070 by 840 mm and weighed about 10kg. 'Only' 10kg says Josh. Well I think that 10 kg is pretty heavy! Anyway between Josh on the roof and me at the bottom of the ladder we got them up there, and I only blew out my knee once (still ruined 2 years later as I write this). A reminder to everyone to try and do things the easy way and don't push your body too far no matter what other people say.

     Josh installed all those proper electricity things like breaker switches and whatnot, not my area of expertise! With double the solar panels we now had extra electricity production.

     Then in June we had the electrician come and do the wiring rough-in for the house. This meant running all the wires inside the walls ready for lights, light switches, fans, smoke alarm and power points. First we had to decide how many power points we wanted, and where they were going to go exactly. I didn't want them low down on the wall so that I would have to bend over every time I wanted to plug something in, so we decided to have them about 900mm high. Of course we wanted lots of power points but keeping in mind the cost we didn't want to spend a stupid amount of money, because the electrician was charging us a certain amount for each one.

     We also decided to get BLACK light switches and power points. The electrician wasn't actually sure if they were available but he looked it up and yep, only slightly more expensive but so classy. It would go with all the other black design elements that we wanted to incorporate. White, or even worse beige, now seems so ugly to think about! The electrician brought his teenage son who is his apprentice, and they listened to what we wanted and we made a plan for the circuits. At the end of it all there was a spaghetti of wire going in and out of random holes all over the house.

     It was all a lot more complicated than it seems at first thought.

     With all the wire in place that now means the insulation could be put in the walls, and the plywood internal cladding screwed up. The electrician said Josh could cut the holes in the plywood for the plugs and switches, and then he could just screw the powerpoints straight onto the plywood. He was a bit confused because most houses have gyprock walls which require a metal frame to be screwed to the wall first before the powerpoint can be attached. We are certainly doing things a bit differently!