Friday, April 11, 2008

Thursday and Friday

Yesterdag was hell it was just paperwork all day long. the only practical that we did was doing a bit more formwork untill smoko. we spent the morning doing up the construction sequence and all the safety requirments for the formwork. then after luch we started on the timber wall frame test. it was a pretty big test and took up pretty much the rest of the day. i'm pretty sure that i did well.

Today we finished off our formwork took some photos and then disambeled the formwork and packed everything up. after smoko we started on the wall cladding test which took up to lunch and i'm sure i did well again. after lunch we sat for the second part of the test which was all calculations about quantifing both weather boards and sheet cladding. i'll find out how i went next time we come to tafe but i'm not to confident about it though. i can do it but i just needed to study up about.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Formwork for monday and tuesday

Yesterday we started on form work. we started off by talking about it and what we were going to be doing for the rest of the week which includes doing three tests. after smoko we started to do research on concrete and formply. after lunch we then started to look for a plan that we wanted to do and then we started to mark out the boundary of the block and then pegged out the area for the house. we could not use the existing fence as a guide because it was not square so dan and rob decided to use Pythagoras to get the side square and it worked like a charm.

Today we we levelled up one of the pegs 170mm or two brick courses high which is the standard step up for a concrete slab. while that was happening the guys were setting up the hurdles as we went around to transferring the reference point around all the hurdles. we set up the rest of the string lines and we had all that do by lunchtime. after lunch we went around the site and paul was asking us where the wall was going and we had to answer to make sure taht we could visulise what was going on. then paul went through and explianied about shutters and bracing units. afterthatwe split up into three groups and started to prepare all that will be required for tomorrow.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thursday and Friday

Yesterday we spent half the day finishing off our wall cladding. Me and Rob finished off the wall sheeting and got everything ready to start on timber cladding. But by the time we had got everything organsied we had to pack everything up because we had run out of time. Berie came to see us as well basically seeing how we were all going and then he got us to sign a couple of pages so that we will get $1000 from the government for completing our 6 month and 12 month increments. After lunch we then had to sit for our exam about levelling and using the dumpy and it went on for 2 hours. I'm quite sure that i did do well. After smoko we did some more stuff which included finishing off our profolios, Paul telling us about the sub floor exma for Friday and the explosive tools that we are going to use.

Today we spent half the day researching and learning about explosive tools and then we actually got to use one. I found it quite disappointing that we couldn't use a more powerful explosive tool because the one that we used i thought was pretty weak. Then straight after lunch we started on our exam and if we finished early we could blog and then go but i took a little longer then the rest of the boys but i think that i may have done a little better then most. i hope i'm right.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tuesday and Wednesday

On Tuesday we spent a whole fours hours researching different types of cladding. The types that we researched were timber, concrete and a hardiflex product. Then if we had enough time we could research a fourth type of cladding and I decided to research this special concrete product produced by The Concrete Company, this stuff is awesome. You can ask for any type of colour and style you want. I saw some examples and it looks really good. The things that I had to research on the different types of cladding was the make up of the product, how to install it, what materials we had to use to install it and we had to find the MSDA sheet for the product. After lunch Paul taught us how to figure out how to work out the gross and net wall area and then from there how to work out how much materials and the cost of the job is going to be. He taught us how to work out both timber and sheet cladding. Sheet cladding is a little bit more involved because you have to work out the most efficent way to apply the sheet so you are cost effective.

Wednesday we went over the research from the day before so that we knew exactlly how we were going to use it properly. Then we went outside and started to clad our timber wall frames. We were devided up into three groups. Dan and rhys, Me and Rob and Greg and Mike. The other two groups did the timber cladding and me and Rob Did the hardiflex sheeting. I believe that me and Rob worked well with each other and we got alot done. Our work was quite neat but the only thing that Paul could pike on was that we didn't know what the correct spacings between the nails were. With sheeting I learnt that you need to put alfoil between the sheets to help water proofing and then you put a cover batton on top of that to help make it more presentable. With the timber cladding you need to first cover the whole wall with a aluminium sheet to help water proof and insulate thw wall. I did not know that until yesterday so there you go.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Blog for today tricks of the trade

Today we finished our stud wall frames and it looks hell good. Paul reacons that if we built the same wall on site we would not have any probblems getting paid. I'm not gonna get into too much about the construction of the walls because i already have in the last blog. Some of the tricks of the trade are: when you are measuring a long surface you should use a straight edge with a level so that it takes out all the uneveness of that surface so that you can get a more accurate reading. Before you put the walls up make sure that you put in two incisions on the bottom on either side of the doors so when they are in place you can use a saw and be confident that you will not damage it. Leave a space between the head trimmer of the window and the window itself so that the window so that it dose not take any weight at all. When you are using the string line make sure that it is an equal distance away from the wall so that you can clearly see if the walls around the perimetre are nice and straight. Metal bracers must be inserted sharp end down and must be fixed into the top and bottom plates. Use a masonary bit when you are using concrete board because you won't be able to nail straight through.

Finishing stud wall frames



On Thursday we started to build the stud walls for our house. It was pretty easy to do because everything was marked out all we had to do was to measure the timber to length and then cut. We made the studs 2330mm because we wanted the over all height to be 2400mm. We shot the studs in between the top and bottom plates and if there were any windows or doors we delt withg them accordingly. I'm not getting into heavy detail because we hacve already written up and talked about the whole process. Once all the walls were built one by one we carried them over to the sub floor that we built the week before. The first wall that we erected we plumbed out and then held it into possission with braces. Then we got the adjoining wall and and clamped it to the first wall. We made sure that the both walls were flush with one another and were plumb, then we shot them together with the nail gun. We repeated the whole process until all walls were erected.

We set up a string line around the top and bottom of the outside preimetre of the walls to help sight the straightness of the walls. Then we plumbed the corners of the walls and if they did have to be moved we remover the braces got the walls in the correct possission, reinsert the braces and then nail them off. To finish off we put in dog legs in between certain studs, inserted more trimmers where needed such as in the bathroom where the shover door and tiles will go. Once that was done that is about it for the stud wall frames. If you would like a more detailed version you can get a copy of my construction sheet if you really want to.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Drawings and Stud framed walls

Yesterday we spent all day drawing up different ways to fix stud framed walls to one another. It turned out alright because we were ment to start on our wall frames but the timber didn't arrive until the end of the day. So it was good because we all finished our drawings yesterday without any fuss.

Today we spent all day constructing our stud wall frames and I found it good that we did so much drawing the day before because it allowed me to visulise what I had to do before I did anythink, so it made my job easier. Me, Dan and Greg worked together today and we worked really well. At one stage we decided that each of us would do spicific jobs and the productive rate went through the roof, we kicked ass. Tomorrow I think that we will be spending all day on the wall frames and I can't wait.

I think one of the good things that Paul made us do was that on every window he made us do something different so we could try and see what different methods are and what they do. I found that I like to us alot of jamb studs to reinforce the windows to me that seems to be the way to go.