The front gable
August 5, 2008
The work on the shed has now moved to the front gable. For that I needed a scaffold and Simon was so good to provide with a bay of his set. Great!
There are a number of challenges… First, it’s fairly high so the logistics get more complicated. I need to lift the blocks up in stages. First stage is on a pair of folding steps and then onto the scaffold. Only 4 as space is limited.
Second, the mortar cannot be transported in the wheelbarrow. I use a bucket for that, so every two blocks I need to refill the mortar supply.
Third, I need to cut blocks to follow the pitch of the roof. Cutting a block is done with a electrical saw using a diamond blade. This generates huge dust clouds, making it very difficult to track markings on the block and get a clean cut (…and get a breath of air…). As you can see on the photo, there are small triangles at the right end of each row. I fill out each row of blocks with straight blocks and then cut a rectangle as the closing element. The benefit is that with one cut I get 2 triangle elements. For seven rows of blocks, I only need to make 4 cuts!!
The scaffold tends to be a bit wobbly. Moving the heavy 6” blocks around is a bit awkward, especially if you have to set blocks close to the sides or outside the area covered by the scaffold. I’m very pleased with the final result, though… It’s starting to look like “the real deal”…
Weather: northerly winds, blue sky and some sun. Got another sun burn Good building weather and no midges!!!!
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