Studding Day 2

Well it was more studding. It's quite a task cutting up studwork and fixing it in place. All the verticals are cut to fit in the frame. The horizontals are essentially nogging pieces which keep the verticals apart. It gets entertaining when planning the internal sheeting joints (which are 1200 x 2400 as opposed to the more normal metric 8' x 4' at 1220 x 2440) and then even more complicated when it comes to guessing where future windows and doors might be.

Studd work to the north end of the building

Whilst the frame provides transvers stiffness (ie across the building)
the walls provide the longuitudinal. This is the main diagonal
studwork on the north east corner

Double rows of studd to seal off the gables

In addition we have been adding in two levels of 50mm x 150mm studwork on the top of the rafters at the gables so as to close the whole building in when the roof goes on top.

During all this work, Geoff popped by to use his smaller digger to clear away some of the crushed concrete around the main slab so as to make space for the french drains that will surround the building - its better to dig it out now when there is easy access before the cladding goes on. The cladding, with its battening and counter battening underneath, would extend some 150mm out over the french drains.

Studding Day 1

Well a long and busy day putting up studwork framing on the long east wall and the small pieces on the west wall. All this is done using some horrible normal softwood. Builder Centre (or Wolsey) supplied this at a good price and on schedule (OK, they were short on 60m of the 3m stock) and we just cut it up and stuck it in. Essentially we cut the verticals and then cut nogging pieces to go top and bottom such that the centres of the studs are 600mm apart (for the Fermacell wall cladding that is due to go on the inside). Note that the first pair of noggings have to be half the width of the stud narrower because the first sheet has to butt up to the outside of the stud fixed to the vertical posts. The only bit of complex studding was in the northern bays where we triangulated them to provide north-south stiffness whilst we wait for the internal cladding to be added. All is fixed in with 80mm screws with Torx heads which are so much better than philips or posidriv heads.