CONSTRUCTION PROCESS .....

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS:

It helped as Harriet and I lived onsite in our caravan so I could readily liase with the building supervisor on construction details. This was important as I was supplying the horizontal beams, vertical posts and stone for the internal stone walls plus bricks on the interior concrete slab. It was probably an unorthodox approach but the whole building approach was unorthodox working with nature of the materials. It worked out as a very flexible arrangement for us the client and for the builder.

LOCATION AND HOUSE SITING: I set out the house area so as to be far enough in among the trees of the block so you couldn’t see the house from the road. It was also a question of positioning the house so we didn’t have to take any big trees an in addition minimising the cut and fill of the house site. I marked out the area to be cut with white lime.

HOUSE SITE LEVELLING AND PREPARATION: I hired a drott and cut and filled the site to minimise the cut banks behind the house. As soon as the area was cut, the following sequenced happened:I then hired a mobile crane and laid out all the horizontal beams in a big raft of beams laid out on a number of cross beams on the ground. This then meant that a chain could be thrown around each one and the beam could be singularly relocated.

All beams were sandblasted to remove any white paint or burn marks on the timber. I hired a compressor and bought some white beach sand for the actual blastingBearers were then relocated to the side of the cut so the builder could set the post layout.

POST CONSTRUCTION: The builder then laid out the house with set out of the posts. The builder then hired in a truck mounted posthole borer and dug holes to 2.00 metres down for all the fifteen vertical posts. Then the builder poured the concrete footings beneath the vertical posts. Then the builder allowed us to have our own separate subcontractor for cutting all the horizontal beam slots to the right height.

HORIZONTAL BEAMS: The builder hired a large crane and swung all the Rex Theatre horizontal beams in place. I was onsite directing what beam had to go where. During the construction, one of the beams wouldn’t quite fit in the cut slot so with the expensive crane waiting, I showed the carpenter how to trim 5 mm of the timber down on the bearer with an adze I had onsite. The beam then fitted.

ROOF CONSTRUCTION: The rafters were nailed onto the beams like a big sail settling over the house. Then undressed cypress pine lining was nailed down to the rafters (this had been obtained from Neil my demolition friend at a very good price). After the electrical wiring was completed, the roofing contractor nailed down corrugated iron sheeting over the cypress pine.

FLOOR CONSTRUCTION: The attic floor got nailed down as thick chipboard to eventually be covered with carpet on the top and old recycled fence palings on the underside. These were the looked at ceiling from down stairs in the kitchen, hall and office.

STONE WALL CONSTRUCTION: The builder allowed us to have our own separate landscape subcontractor called John for building the stone walls in the living room, kitchen wall and master bedroom wall. with the porphyry stone blocks from the Supreme Courthouse = 1879. He used an interesting method of bringing the stones in with a bobcat fitted with a set of forks before the glass went in the house. He would initially take a measurement of the space in the wall and go out into the paddock and measure up for a stone that which was of the right width. He would bring it in with the bobcat. The blocks were then drystacked with wooden wedges. These were stacked for grouting on another day. Grout was then pushed into the spaces between the blocks. When the grout hardened, the pegs were pulled out and filled with more grout.

In the master bedroom, he used two of the Boggo Rd. stones at the head of the bed so there was a 200 mm ledge for future books. Interior of the house showing the stone wall of the living room, the bricks on the floor, the big beams, the glass windows looking into the bush, the red cedar timber doors, vertical timber walling and undressed cypress pine ceiling.

INTERNAL WALL CONSTRUCTION: TIMBERS FROM THE WOOL SCOUR SHEDS AT STAFFORD: I scrounged also some timber floor joists (400*300 mm) as wall boarding from the late 1800’s Wool Scour Sheds at Stafford for $0.33 / metre We began a substitution of quoted materials with the builder.

INTERNAL BRICK PAVING: At the same time I scrounged from the Wool Scour Sheds at Stafford in additional to the timber floor joists, a truckload of old recycled bricks for $0.10 each. In 1920 they were originally in the boiler house of the Mt. Crosby Pumping Station then in 1940 they had been recycled into the Wool Scour Shed’s furnace house. Then forty years on in 1981 I recycled them again into the brick paving of our house. They were covered in soft lime cement which I chipped off with a tomahawk.

I was going to have them laid as brick paving in old bricks that flowed over the concrete floor slab in swirling shapes that eventually flowed outside with the future landscape paving. This was by John, the landscape subcontractor The future landscape paving extended the interior paving swirls. The builder supervisor allowed a brick depth recess in the final height of the concrete slab.

SANDBLASTING: The job was nearing completion ….. At the completion of the house, beams, stone and brick floor were sandblasted by another of my subcontractors to remove any dirt and paint left on the beams. One bonus was with the two doors I had used for the broom and linen cupboards facing the living room. I had originally bought these doors for $10.00 each covered in thick blue paint. When they were sandblasted there was beautiful red cedar timber behind the paint. Red cedar was a very prized rainforest timber in the 1800’s used for furniture. It was quickly cut out by the early 1900’s in South East Queensland and Northern NSW.

Another bonus were the old pine terrace doors I had used in the office cupboards (four doors) and the master bedroom cupboards (four doors as well). These had been sent down from the demolition of the Mareeba Hospital on the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns ….. about 1700 kms north of Brisbane. I bought these at the time for $10.00 each as well. When sandblasted, they came up as old hoop pine timber, another valuable rainforest timber of the time.

Sandblasting as a technique is a wonderful process you can use. You aim the thin blast of sand and air at anything it just wipes of the outer layer to give a beautifully picked grain in timber and bricks. Silica dust is a particularly dangerous substance because free silica can cause lung damage. The grit and dust particles must be removed by air blasting, brooming, pressurised water, or vacuum methods. At the end The fine film of sand had to blown out by air blasting.

GLASS WINDOW CONSTRUCTION: Light weight sliding glass doors and windows in bronze anodised frames were fitted in by the builder all around the house. Getting rid of heat is the main problem in S. E. Queensland versus not retaining heat as in other Australian States or overseas. Then the builder allowed us to have our own separate subcontractor to fit special cut glass into either /\ end of the house.

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