Wednesday 27 March 2024

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.

Tuesday 19 March 2024

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!

Wednesday 27 December 2023

2022 May

Winter was approaching and I was a little worried about the new water pipes under the house freezing and bursting. We bought special insulation tubes that are specially designed for this. It was a simple job but involved a lot of awkward angles crawling around under the house.


      The insulation tubes were easy to use, they could be cut with scissors, applied at angles and around corners, and I soon worked out some way to get them to stay up on their own.


      I was listening to podcasts as I crawled around under there to keep me entertained, constantly losing my scissors cos they were behind me. At some points it was a bit confusing because the copper pipes were a mixture of cold water, hot water, and gas. They were coming off and going to the hot water system, then coming back in, then one was going to the gas stove with gas, and then the water ones were going off to the shower, the basin, the laundry and the sink. The ones with green plastic around them are the hot water so at least that's easy to keep track of. The silver tape around the black insulation is special insulation tape which is extra sticky, so perfect for this situation.

     The hot water system has water in, gas in, and water out. I thought the gas pipe probly didn't need to be insulated. I used some zip ties to hold these tubes on.


     I was glad that I insulated the pipes when I did because the very next month the temperature went down to zero and everything was frozen. I was very happy with the peace of mind I achieved for a comparatively small cost and easy job.



Another job that needed doing was filling the gaps under the ridge cap where it sits on top of the corrugated iron. After perusing all the options the best solution seemed to be aluminium sheeting which we cut to size. We held a corro offcut against the aluminium and copied the wiggle with a permanent marker, then cut along the wiggly line by hand with a pair of tin snips. This was thin enough to cut and bend to the right size and shape but strong enough to keep out wind and fire embers. The bushfire rating for our house (BAL 29) required there to be no gaps smaller than 4mm anywhere around the outside of our house. We already had aluminium mesh inside the roof but wanted to have something that was better at keeping out wind and rain.

    Josh climbed up on the roof, unscrewed the ridge cap a little and slid our custom made gap filler underneath and re-attached the ridge cap. We were worried that the shiny aluminium would be unsightly on the roof compared to the grey, so bought the Colorbond matching grey paint and painted it after application. You can't even see it anymore.

Friday 1 December 2023

 2022 January

     Over a year since the stainless steel tank was delivered (November 2020), we finally got around to putting up the downpipes. The gutters on our house run along each side, a 10 metre length on the north side and a 10 metre length on the south side. The photo below shows the south side. On the left you can see the separate verandah roof gutter which has its own downpipe into a 100 litre plastic tank.


      This meant that the downpipes had to come down from each side separately and then join in the middle, and then go across the gap to go into the tank. This was quite tricky because you can't just put both sides into a central pipe at once - there is no plumbing part to suit this situation. I can only guess that's because the two flows of water will hit each other and slow down too much. This meant that one side had to come down at a different angle to the other side, but there is only so much wiggle room you can do when fitting one pipe to another pipe. The solution Josh came up with was to install a bit of a wiggle which you can almost see coming down from the gutter on the left hand side.

          The distance from the house to the tank was a bit too far for the downpipe to support itself without sagging, so Josh constructed a support pole to keep it staying upright and stable. First he made a metal box for the base, ready to fill with concrete.

Then he filled it with a concrete mix and attached some leftover metal framing to be the support pole.


          Below you can see the finished set-up.  We also installed a first flush diverter to try and keep the water going into the tank a bit more clean.


          The first flush diverter is the grey pipe which comes straight down along the house wall below the white pipes. It is designed to fill up with water when it starts raining, and has a round empty plastic ball the same width as the pipe inside it. When the ball floats to the top, it hits a seal so that the rest of the rain goes straight into the tank. This means that any leaves, dirt, bird poo or other nasty stuff gets washed off into the diverter, and the rest of the rainwater is much cleaner and goes into the tank. The diverter has a small hole at the bottom so that it slowly drains away and is ready to repeat the process the next time it rains.

     The diverter is designed to drain into a garden hose, so you can direct it away from your house. Unfortunately the bottom seal always leaks so I had to put a container underneath to catch both the drips and the intended leakage, and then another hose coming from the bottom of the container which goes down into a garden bed. Below is the tiny hole it is designed to slowly leak from.

         The pic below shows the ball and the filter just before I reassemble after cleaning. This kit was available from Bunnings for about 20 bucks, and then you supply your own pipe, and adjust the length to suit the size of your roof.

          We also added an outlet pipe for when the tank overflows as you can kinda see on the right of the below pic. The pipe comes out just below the top of the tank, turns a corner and goes down the side of the the tank, turns another corner and the pipe continues a couple of metres away from the tank.

          We painted the pipes with grey paint which is tinted to exactly match the Colorbond grey on the trim of the house. This both changes it from looking horrible ugly to quite classy, and also protects the plastic pipes from degrading as quickly in the sun. Unfortunately plastic hates being painted and it peels off with the slightest bump, but a few coats mostly did a decent job.


          I will admit that these downpipes have blown down a couple of times when we have had big strong winds come through with storms, but a quick repair job and they have been faithfully putting water into our fancy tank every time it rains. It was even overflowing after the heavy rains we have had over the last month. Very happy!

Tuesday 28 November 2023

 2021 December

          At this point we started trying to nail down details of how the kitchen layout would go exactly. This is the suggested kitchen layout from the kit home company, which has the stove on the internal wall adjoining the bathroom, the sink along the window and the fridge in the other corner.


           Here's one experiment with the difficult space available.

          We have two corners and corners are annoying. You can't put your stove in a corner as then it's too hard to get things out of the oven. Cupboards in the corner are always awkward as it is difficult to access the space. You can get fancy solutions to access that corner but they are EXPENSIVE. We didn't want to put the sink or the stove along the side walls as it meant running the pipes further and creating potential problems in the future if there was a leak. We definitely wanted the sink at the window so you can get a cool breeze on your face while washing up, and a nice view out the window. The giant walk-in pantry seemed pretty cool - like a secret room inside your house - but it cost $2000 just on its own. Ouch.

        Josh's cousin designed this fancy kitchen for us, which looks great but has the stove on the internal wall and the fridge kind of blocks off the room. Another problem with having the stove on the internal wall is that the range hood would have to vent out the ceiling instead of just venting straight out the external wall, much more difficult and expensive installation. Probly not the best to have the stove next to the fridge either cos the poor fridge would get hot whenever you cook something. It's such a tricky space cos it's just a little bit small. But thanks Mel for the design! (Also just imagine the sink is under the window).



          The Bunnings Kaboodle website has a great section where you can put in the measurements of your specific space and build your own digital kitchen with their cabinets. Very easy to use and then it gives you a list of all the stuff you need to buy and how much it will cost. All I heard was Oh Kaboodle is so much cheaper than any other kitchen options, I don't know how much other kitchen options cost though. The below design has the stove against the side wall which wasn't really what we wanted. Also having the fridge in this spot kind of cuts off the kitchen from the rest of the L shaped Kitchen Dining Living area which could make it feel cramped.

          The below design has the stove on the left of the sink and the fridge on the right of the sink, with a kitchen island in the middle of the room. We are thinking that if we put the kitchen island on wheels then we can move it around as desired, over to the side of the kitchen if we want the central area clear. We would also love to have the island bench overhanging on one side so it can be sat at like a breakfast bar. The cupboard on the wall above the stove is designed to have a rangehood inserted in to the bottom so that it's hidden from sight.


          The below kitchen design is basically the same but with black doors and a few other additions. This design ended up costing about $3000.

        As we are off-grid the only viable option for a stove is a stand-alone gas stove, which we purchased from a local store. I have heard rumours about the government banning gas ovens for some reason, but still allowing gas cooktops, but these units are still available in certain stores (not Bunnings) so not sure what the real deal is there.


          We got the stove connected and were able to use it even though the rest of the kitchen wasn't ready. It made a lovely warm place to sit next to on a cold day - the closest thing we had to a heater!

Monday 23 October 2023

 2021 November

Ok let's go back in the time machine - and remember when the plumber Steve came out for a day of work from Lismore and installed our plumbing rough-in. The photo below shows the kitchen - on the left is the gas pipe coming up ready to join to the gas stove, and on the right is the hot and cold water pipes coming up ready to join the kitchen sink. They are all copper pipes, and the green side is the hot water which is covered with a plastic layer which helps keep in insulated , the heat stays in while it travels from the hot water system.

The below photo shows the bathroom. On the left is the hot and cold pipes for the laundry tub, and hot and cold pipes for the washing machine. In the middle is the hot and cold pipes for the bathroom basin. On the right is the hot and cold pipes for the shower/bath. You can see they come in to the middle to a central mixer, then one goes up for the shower head and one goes down for the bath tap.

The below photo shows the copper pipes which run under the house. Sorry it's at such a crazy angle but it turns out it's really hard to take photos while lying under the house! You can see the green covered pipes from the hot water, and the copper pipes for the cold water and the gas.

We also got a tap put on the outside of the house, to attach a hose onto. Great for watering the garden!

An electric water pump was placed under the house, connecting the water from the stainless steel tank to all of these copper pipes. This pump is connected to the solar power. It was placed on a concrete slab that the plumber brought with him, put on top of a bed of gravel. The gravel was stuff we had left-over from the truckload we had delivered for the tank stand.


Below is the instant gas hot water system. We had to specify to the plumber that we needed an off-grid system, as he had only previously installed on-grid systems which need to be plugged into electricity to work. This one has a clever design with an inbuilt hydro-electric generator that lights the gas as soon as the hot water tap is turned on. Amazing! This saved us from having to get a special outdoor power point installed just for operating the gas hot water system. This hot water runs to the kitchen sink, bathroom basin, bathroom shower-bath combo, laundry tub and washing machine.

In the below photo you can see the two large gas bottles which have been installed, connected to the copper pipes for the gas. These bottles supply gas to both the gas hot water system and to the gas stove. They were placed onto pre-made concrete slabs which the plumber brought with him, settled onto a gravel base. The gas bottles were delivered by the local rural supply store at Tabulam. Thanks Mark!


In the below photo you see the gas stove connected to the gas, in the spot where it will live when the kitchen is finished. You can't see it in the pic as it's behind that cardboard, but there is also a drain outlet for the kitchen sink in the floor.

Below you can see the washing machine which is temporarily hooked up to the water inlet, which is behind it where you can't see. Also behind it is the outlet pipe which the waste water goes into, then into a drain pipe which takes the water away from the house.  We can wash laundry plugged into the solar power when it's a nice sunny day no problem, don't have to run the generator for that anymore! 
     On the right side of the pic you can see the drain outlet which will be used for the basin drain in the future. At this point the drain outlet for the bath/shower was not placed, as we needed to know exactly which bath we were getting before it could be put precisely in the right place. You can't quite see it in this pic but there is also a floor drain placed right in the  middle of the floor. 
     We did have a bit of problem for a while when the antechinus figured that it could climb up into the house by scampering up this drain hose, but we fixed it by shoving some aluminium mesh into the hole and that managed to keep it out. Naughty creatures!

          I can't remember exactly but I think the plumber cost around $4000, and the gas bottles were about $250 delivered.