Found 11 results tagged with 'Construction'

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Arbour Construction

Arbour Construction

After hand milling macrocarpa tree with electric chainsaw I was looking for a project to utilise the rugged timber and decided to create a rugged arbour behind the house to improve the look and feel while usefully supporting some deciduous fruiting vines, the hardy kiwi berry.

This area had never really been well used, despite being so close to the house and easily accessible via the concrete pathway. Part of this project involves improving the productivity of garden.

After coming up with a suitable plan there was a decent amount of work clearing the existing plants and attempting to eradicate the twitch grass. I imagine this is going to take several passes. At this stage it has been sown in a cover crop for winter.

Concrete footings were cast with galvanized metal brackets to create a sturdy base, elevate the posts to keep them dry and make any future repairs reasonably easy.

Melisa helped assemble the heavy timber framework and metal piping.

Final phase is the planting of the vines (waiting patiently in pots) and training them up and over the arbour frame.
May 18, 2020
  construction  zone1 
Olmec Sinclair
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Reciprocal roof (self supporting)

Reciprocal roof (self supporting)

The reciprocal frame is a roof structure where each beam both supports and is supported by other beams in the roof structure. A minimum of 3 beams is required to create a reciprocal frame roof. As each beam supports the next in a reciprocal manner no internal support structure is required.  Only the outer end of each beam requires support which will normally be a post used for the wall.  The roof loads are transferred to these posts and in turn to the supporting foundation. The beams can be fabricated from timbers, laminated wood, steel or reinforced concrete. A very inexpensive roof structure can be made from logs.

While building it you need to support the first beam temporarily; when the support is removed the whole structure should neatly lock together.
https://web.archive.org/web/20081227232...
  wood  construction  plans  design  calculator 
Olmec Sinclair
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Shed upgrade

Shed upgrade

Details   Progress has been made on the upgrade of our chook and pig shed. The overall objective is to reconfigure the north facing side of the building as under cover growing space that we can rotate the chooks through.
Date   July 31, 2015
Tags     Construction 
Old iron sides

Old iron sides

The weather boards on the exterior walls of the house were looking tired and required patching in a few places. Also, white was not our favourite colour.
Rather than continue to patch new problems and run on the painting treadmill we decided to go for a more serious and long term solution. After much consideration and deliberation we settled on colour coated corrugated steel. Long lasting, easy to install, made of recycled steel (or can be recycled) and available in a range of non-white colours.
The end result looks good and should last for some time.
July 20, 2013
  progress  house  weather  construction 
olmec
Resurrection

Resurrection

As the number of chooks steadily increases so too does the need for housing.
In attempt to prevent the family of bantams from visiting our garden everyday we decided to resurrect the old shed down the far end of the farm.
Click the photo to see before and after
March 09, 2010
  Chickens  Construction  Renovation 
olmec
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Inverted spiral

Details   Combining the popular parmaculture herb spiral concept and the desire to squeeze the maximum amount of edge into a given space, this excavated spiral will serve as an in ground water catchment feature and plant based sun trap with additional aspects such as shaped earth seating and potential fire 'pit'
Date   May 24, 2015
Tags     earthworks  spiral  construction  water 
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Earthquake repairs

Details   Another project that can finally be crossed off the to-do list. The earthquake in November 2016 caused cracking in the brick wall behind our fireplace. While it was still standing and looked ok we were not happy about having this unstable stack of bricks there waiting to come down. I decided to remove most of them before another quake brought them down and caused damage to the hot water pipes that passed through to the log burner. It also allowed for the insulation of these pipes which had foolishly never been done in the first place.
The project required carefully chiselling the bricks apart and reducing he height of the wall to a satisfactory level. Than a concrete bond beam was poured, encasing the top layer of bricks, locking it all together. Finally, after adding some additional timber framing the opening was covered by mini corrugated sheet metal.
Date   March 18, 2017
Tags     construction 
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New roof for the guest house

New roof for the guest house

The revitalisation of the guest house has been under way for some time but a major milestone has been reached - the new roof is going on.

I had been putting it off for as long as possible (excuses such as waiting for chimney were used) but with summer waning it is clear the leaky old iron needs to go.

This project makes use of most of the recycled concrete roofing tiles I got back before we purchased the property.
February 26, 2012
  Roof  Tile  Construction 
olmec

Old Gate vs New Gate

Details   Another use of that glorious construction material, old irrigation pipe.
The old gate was heavy and difficult to open and while it technically worked to prevent wandering stock from entering off the road (if it was closed) there were a number of factors that motivated me to fabricate a replacement.

By using several thickness pipes and threading the thinner vertical pieces through holes bored in the horizontal elements we have a reasonably robust assembly secured together with 200 stainless steel screws.
Date   January 22, 2022
Tags     pipe  construction  recycle 

Starplate geodesic garden structure

Details   It's always nice to have a protected are where birds can't interfere with the growing of produce. We have tried numerous techniques and constructions over the years. One that looks promising (and cool) is this geodesic frame made with starplates, polypipe and plastic netting.

Light, durable and almost circular (5 sided base) this seems like an ideal little garden space for Melisa
Date   December 31, 2021
Tags     2021  December  Construction  Garden  Pipe 
View 3 photos
In Ground Storage - Root Cellar Construction

In Ground Storage - Root Cellar Construction

One thing that's been on my todo / wishlist is the creation of an underground cool storage room or chamber for fruits and vegetables.

Having grown up in a house that had a cellar I was familiar with the benefits of a low technology and energy efficient way to protect and store harvests for long periods.

After selecting a suitable location that shouldn't accumulate ground water, the project was initiated in November 2022
May 23, 2024
  construction  2024 
Olmec Sinclair
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