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.