Monday 4/1/21
It was wet and overcast all day today so no work was done outside on the slab. However, it would have been a work day if we still had tent cover. We hope to have the tent back in place over the next couple of days (see below). So today was allotted to catching up with background tasks.
Broken tent pole fixings replaced
When the tent blew down, many of the nipple fixings inside the poles broke. But I was able to find these online:
They fit the 40mm poles of the tent perfectly. Today I made sure all poles had working fixings. Jane has completed the repair of the canvas and Ben is working on repairing the broken connectors. So we should have the tent back up in the next couple of days.
End wall plate support acquired
We hit a problem implementing our decision to flip the end wall plates through 90 degrees. Doing this means that the underside of the wall plate is only 125mm wide or 75mm narrower than the post it is sat on.
This is OK for the end wall plate on the right of the building where the braces are set towards the outside of the post but it doesn’t work the lefthand end wall where the braces are set towards the inside of the building. This is because there is nowhere on the underside of the wall plate to land. So, we are going to keep the righthand end wall plate on its 125mm side but at the other end we are going to put the wall plate back to its original position, laying on its 200mm side.
With this decision reversal our anxiety returns about the span of this wall plate in this orientation. So, yesterday, we decided to incorporate a mid-post in this end wall. Today I set about trying to find a piece of 150mm x 150mm green oak that was 1.5m long. I called Clemsfold Sawmill and they had the perfect piece.
Softwood ordered for the roof
In a week or so we should be laying up the green oak trusses. In anticipation of this I ordered the softwood for the roof from Chandlers who have kindly set me up with an account for this project. This order is slightly premature but it will help to have the actual timber we are going use for the rafters on-site when we come to lay-up the trusses.
Note that the above design has changed slightly since this drawing was done: the end wall plate will now sitting on its 125mm side and we’ve increased the size of our rafters to 150mm x 47mm based on these span tables from Eden District Council.
Looking forward to starting work on the slab again tomorrow (hopefully).