Northfield House Renovation

As the floor joists in the attic were quite small and were already bowing due to the weight of items stored there over the years, we decided that to make the space usable we needed to strengthen them. Again, this was another unplanned task. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

Had a visit from a friend today and was just discussing whether to remove the fireplace or not from the living room. One thing lead to another and before long we had removed the fireplace from the living room and also removed the plaster from the chimney wall. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 This is where we are hoping to install our wood burner but having the plaster removed, we are now debating whether to leave the chimney as exposed bricks. Previous Next

Flooring for the garage was delivered this morning and was fitted shortly afterwards. Photo 1 Photo 2 Previous Next

 Brickie was back on site today to create the doorway between the master bedroom and walk-in closet above the garage. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3  Creating the opening using an angle grinder produced unbelievable amount of dust. Photo 4 Photo 5 This will be the doorway from the master bedroom into the walk-in closet/dresser and en-suite above the garage. Due to the height constraints, we will require some steps down from the bedroom. Previous Next

Having completed the insulation in the kitchen diner, we started on insulating the external walls of the adjacent living room. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Previous Next

With the garage roof now constructed, we waited for delivery of the breathable membrane and battens to get it covered. During the current pandemic delivery times have been stretched due to suppliers closing or reducing operations. Anyway, this was a good time to get back to insulating the kitchen/diner extension. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9 This took about a week to complete and is a horrible task to undertake. Its bad enough having to cut 150mm insulation boards and work off wobbly trestles but the task is made even more painful when the rafters are not parallel to each other, meaning the distances vary and so each board needs to be cut many times. It creates an unbelievable amount of mess. Photo 10 Previous Next

So the carpenter was back on site today to add the noggins between the rafters and we also had the brickie install the final window sill to the en-suite above the garage. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4  This window sill was cut from natural stone at a reclamation yard. We provided the sill profile to match the existing front stone sills. Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

The structural engineer visited today and it was a relief that he was quite satisfied with the structural integrity of the roof and collar ties. He did suggest simply adding a few noggins in between the rafters as an extra measure. Photo 1 The photo shows a good view of the garage roof from above in all its glory. A very challenging roof to construct and credit to the carpenters for pulling this off. Previous Next

We had a visit from the building inspector and despite the collar ties, he wasn't convinced they were sufficient to prevent spreading and suggested we get the structural engineer to assess it. Moments like this do turn up the stress levels a notch and it meant we couldn't cover the roof until we had approval from the structural engineer in case they recommend some alterations. So while we waited for a visit from the engineer, we got the brickie back on site to install the remaining window sills. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Previous Next

Having removed the larger of the two bathroom windows, the bathroom was now deprived of a lot of natural light and had become quite dark. Consequently, we decided to enlarge the remaining window. Photo 1 The above photo shows the window that we wanted to enlarge. Now this window has an arch above it and a brick window sill. We were fortunate that we had salvaged some of these window sill bricks when we removed the main wall for the kitchen extension. We just about had enough! Photo 2 Photo 3 We were also fortunate that we had ordered an extra lintel for the dormer which wasn't required so could be used for the bathroom window. Now the lintel was a lot bigger and needed cutting. Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 5 shows the enlarged window from within the bathroom. Photo 6 Photo 7  We were again fortunate to have a spare stone head (manufacturing fault) which allowed us to enlarge the window a brick and half. Very pleased with the end result. Previ

Having sent photos of the roof to the building inspector, they raised some concerns about nothing stopping the roof from spreading if there was a load, so we were required to add some collar ties. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Previous Next