Building the Deck Roof

The Need for a Roof.
We tried to do without a roof over the deck for three years.
The first year we had nothing. There are some great advantages to having an open air deck such as lying on your back and looking up at the stars. They aren’t worth the fact that every time it rains everything gets wet and around this part of the world, it rains a lot. Sometimes all day for a month or more.





The second year I tried partially covering the deck. I used a teepee that we sent back from India on our travels. I strung it up between the trees and the palms. The size was perfect and for a while it looked grand! It also functioned well. But was a temporary solution. Soon it grew mould, and pooled water that would then drip through and slowly but surely it lost its splendour.









Being in the weather takes a toll on the life of the structure. Every time wood gets wet it expands a little, then it dries out and contracts, cracking a tiny little bit. Then it rains again, the water gets into the tiny cracks and they get bigger. When it rains a lot, moulds and fungus start to grow as the natural processes of the forest decomposition begin. A properly weatherproof timber building can last over a hundred years, indefinitely if it is actively maintained. In the open it can become dangerous and in need of a rebuild in just 10 years.



In the third year we covered the teepee with a poly tarp. The water repellent qualities were excellent but it had the unfortunate side effect of preventing any light whatsoever from entering our house. The deck had transformed from an open air garden paradise to a cave.





We finally realised the folly of our ways and began to plan a suitable, permanent and beautiful roof. Due to the split level nature of our house and the slope of the land an extension of the gable was going to need some enormous posts. The roof would be very high. We toyed with alternative roof styles but they also seemed difficult.

Through serendipity a friend of ours who had helped us previously with building our compost toilet had another friend who was a travelling journeyman carpenter. He had arranged a place to stay and some work, but the job had fallen through at the last minute and he was already on his way. Of course we said he could come stay and work with us!

Kirrah picked Andy up from the airport. He was very eager to start work which we thought was fantastic. Not knowing much of his skill we slowly built up to the main project. First the fixing up of the hut he was staying in. He lined the roof, made shelves and built a small brick surround for the fireplace. We were very impressed with his efforts so we moved on to a bigger project. We extended an annex out the front of the studio and extended the carport. Both jobs went very well and deepened our appreciation for his skill. This was surely the man to help us with our biggest undertaking so far.

Planning


We set to work making a plan. First on paper and then once we had drawn too many crosses through each others measurements moved onto the computer. I had first made 3d models for the toilet and it was time to take those skills to the next level.



I used free program called Sketchup by Google. It has a PROfessional version that I intend to buy when I finish my studies. They do offer a student version of the PRO package, but only for those with .edu ending email addresses and here in Australian our educational institutions have .edu.au. Quite an oversight.
Not to worry, the free version is quite capable for my needs. It is also very extendable with many people making ruby scripts and fancy rendering tools.
The beauty of the 3d model is that it allows for rapid changing and updating of the elements. It also makes it possible to experience the space, especially for people who have not developed their mental 3d imagination from plans. You can check sun angles throughout the year, which is very useful when designing for maximum solar gain.

















We decided in the end to go with the gable extension, despite the lofty heights it was the easiest way. It also allowed us to design for maximum solar gain, a critical factor on this overgrown east side of the house. We were going to use some large gum trees (over 20 m tall) that were very close the house as the posts. Due to some interesting design decisions made earlier the centre deck foundations were off aligned with the house, luckily the tree we intended to fell had a similar perfect bend it in. In any other structure this would have posed a problem but for ours it was perfect!

Once we all agreed on the plan we got to work.

As the trees were so close to the house we had a professional climb up them, attach a rope and we pulled them in the direction we wanted them to fall. In more difficult cases you can use the torque of a tractor and in the extreme a bulldozer.




Once the trees had been felled we immediately removed the bark. If this is done the same day it is very easy, any longer and the cambium layer dries out and fixes the bark to the wood of the trunk making it difficult and sometimes impossible to remove cleanly.





With the posts cut to their approximate size we used the ute to snig (pull) them up to the driveway.




Here the skilled carpenter could work his wood magic to prepare them to fit perfectly in the holes in the deck and attach to the existing structural pieces.




I wish I got a copy of his notes for this, they were scribbled into a little black book that went when he did.





I ordered the dimensional timber we needed from Hogans Mill in Kyogle using the plans we had made (plus a few extra in case there were duds).







This was a very intense build and the pressure to have all the parts in place was strong. We had tried to arrange for a human powered post lifter that had been built by someone on the community, however some internal politics prevented that from happening. So the plan B was to use the skills and tools of Tree Fellas’ Bill Cox and his bright firetruck red crane. Bill needed to be organised well in advance. I was using several project management tools to keep it all together and on track.

Born into the digital age, a lot of my resources are computer based. I also love the quality of Apple’s design so I use a mac.
The calendar is invaluable. I like ical the apple computer based one for ease of shuffling dates around, adding notes and setting alarms + reminders.






I also used Merlin, a project management package that helped keep the bigger picture in perspective.
There is numbers, a spreadsheet for keeping track of materials and costs in an easy to view manner.
House Deck Roof Materials

Project Deck Roof Labour I also kept a physical journal. There is something about hand writing a journal that I find comforting. I also keep a computer journal, as I can type faster than I can write and sometimes my hand can’t keep up. There are other benefits too such as an easy jump to online publishing, editing and searching. It is much easier for me to pull up all digital records of the deck building process for publishing than it is to find all the little doodles, plans and sketches drawn in the margins of my paper journals.Back on the Building SiteThe big day arrived!
I called around for extra hands to help us and was disappointed with the result. It seems that the barn raising spirit i’d read about on the internet is localised around Amish communities. Undeterred the small team I had assembled was confident we could get it up. The first issue was getting the crane happy. It refused to operate unless it’s stabalising arms were both fully spread, lowered and locked in place, this was only just achievable on our narrow driveway.With the crane computer satisfied we weren’t going to tip the truck we lifted the farthest post into the air. It weighed in at 180 kg, I expected it to be heavier, but was also glad that we didn’t have to lift it by hand. Unfortunately the crane just wasn’t quite long enough to drop the post into the hole vertically, so we manoeuvred it into place as best we could and then did the last bit with human pushing power.The centre post was no more co-operative requiring a few cuts with the chainsaw and some whacks with the sledgehammer and finally a truck jack to raise the deck and to get it to fit. We expected to have the posts in a few days earlier and removed the existing posts but rain halted things and in this time the deck must have sagged a couple of cm.Once the posts were all up we used the crane to lift the beams that it could reach. Everything had been cut in preparation for the machine’s assistance.Once the beams were up we bid farewell to Bill, the crane & our friends. And immediately get on with the job of getting the roof timber on.These too had been cut ready and it should have been a quick job to get them up. There was a problem however. The chunky drill we used to drive in the long batten screws to hold down the rafters was tripping up the solar power inverter. It was such a hold up that I finally relented and bought a petrol generator after 3 years of bush living. My patience and willingness to use less was trumped by the fear that the building would be left unfinished and our carpenter would have to leave. He had been staying with us for nearly 10 weeks now and was getting impatient too.My previous experience with generators had all been bad so I was keen to get the quietest model I could. There was a new generation of inverted generators that can raise or lower the rpm of the motor based on the load, this is a great idea as often generators run underloaded and cause themselves damage as well as being noisy. I bought the honda model that was available locally. I’d actually done my research beforehand and was waiting for the catalyst to buy.With the generator the work could proceed, but pressure remained on. We were both ready for some time off away from building site.Our eagerness to finish the project contributed to a few problems. Our general jovial banter was cut back as we focused on the task at hand and a few shortcuts were taken. We didn’t pre drill the holes for the batten screws to attach the battens to the rafters and this split the rafter ends in several places.With the battens on we could almost taste the ginger beer.
The one that matters of course is to get the roof on. We chose to make the entire roof ampelite clear polycarbonate. The very obvious downside to this is that it is almost completely “untrafficable” and thus difficult to clean. The obvious upside is that it lets 90% of the light through onto the deck and into the house. The difference this has made is incredible. In a similar situation next time I would make every third piece a sheet of tin, this would still allow a lot of light through but would also allow the roof to be cleaned.
Poly expands and contracts more in the heat than tin so you need to pre-drill a large hole first and use a special domed tek screw. It also has a UV protectant coating on one side only, so you need to be careful when installing it.With the roof done we could relax a little, there was still the gutter to attach, the water to plumb away and a whole lot of cleaning up to do. The water we were going to be catching on this new roof was going to be run off into fruit trees. I couldn’t find anything definitive about using it for drinking tank water, so I went with my gut and chose not to. We have sufficient household water from the existing zincalume roof anyway.Lessons Learned
Order confusion
I have a friend who is a builder and he offered to buy some of the materials from a supplier he uses regularly and gets a discount with. I thought this was a great opportunity to save a little bit of money so I told him what I wanted and waited for the estimate. It came back higher than I was expecting, but still I appreciated the time my friend had used so I accepted and put the money in his account.
On the day the goods arrived I looked through the pack and the order sheet and noticed that some of the items I wanted were not even there!
I quickly called up the supplier and explained the situation, and was told that they did get those items originally but was waiting to hear back from the builder to confirm them. They never got the confirmation so they didn’t deliver them.The high quote I originally received wasn’t even for everything I thought I had ordered. I called the builder to ask, but he told me that he didn’t know what they were talking about with any confirmation. I bounced back and forth several times before I realised the futility of the “he said, she said“ situation and marked the experience down to a lesson.There must be a really good reason to warrant adding another person between you and the other party you’re trying to communicate with. Children play this game at school, evidently I wasn’t paying enough attention that day. When you tell somebody something and they then tell someone else the message is inevitably changed. Often only slightly and inconsequentially but sometimes dramatically.
The handling of the situation by the supplier left me unsatisfied, so for the next leg of the project I used their competitor.Final Thought
On the whole we are thrilled with the result. It has transformed the deck space into something so much more usable for us. For most of the year it is the busiest room in the house. We eat breakfast out there, we have friends for tea out there, we do yoga out there, it is a wonderful space to be.

Building a Deck

Our deck was built in two parts. First the floor and sub-structure and later the roof. We did this because we needed the floor space quickly and couldn’t really comprehend how we were going to cover it initially. Our building skills definitely expanded during this project. We were also quite naive on how important it is to keep timber out of the subtropical weather and thought we might get away without a permanent roof.

I picked up a little book at the Lismore University bookshop called “Acceptable Standards of Domestic Construction by the Acceptable Standards of Construction Committee (NSW) Incorporated” and goes into the details about what building codes relate to what kinds of building work and their specifications. I have found it to be a valuable reference.

Foundations The Australian Standard for foundations is spelled out in BCA Housing Provisions Part 3.2.4 AS2870. I used my Acceptable Standards hand book to establish that I am on Class A Stable soil. It is sandy here but the sand isn’t loose. The standards state that footings on my soil type should be minimum 400 mm concentric width and 400 mm depth. I increased this on our site to 450 mm concentric width. For the footings that were going to be potentially supporting the roof I made 1000 mm deep the others I made 600 mm deep.

The ground wasn’t excavated flat so there was a bit of shuffling of the footings to dig in the easiest spots. We didn’t think this would be a problem and it was able to be worked around years later when it came time to line the beams up in the roof!

Working out the volume of concrete required. Roof Pole Supporting foundations:

.45*.45*1 (length * width * height) = .2025*5 (volume * number of roof foundations) = 1.0125 (cubic meter volume)

Stump Supporting Foundations .45*.45*.6 =.1215 * 10 =1.215

total foundation volume 2.2275 = ~2.3 cubic meters

I did a bit of internet research and found that when the ingredients were delivered they were going to be dry and loose, and would compact when wet. This dry to wet factor could be as high as 1:1.6 Meaning we actually needed 3.8 cubic meters of material.

Concrete ratio (by volume) for footings. This ratio is for weak concrete, but that is ok for our solid block footings. It would not be suitable for a high wear area or floating slab.

Cement : Sand : Gravel 1 : 3 : 6 1+3+6 = 10

Cement bags 3.8 * 1/10 (total volume of materials by the fraction that is cement) = .38 cu m / .0166 (volume of cement divided by the cubic meters per 25kg bag) 22.89 bags, use 23 bags.

Sand 3.8 * 3/10 1.14 cubic meters of sand

Gravel 3.8 * 6/10 2.28 cubic meters of gravel

As we were making concrete for the composting toilet at the same time, I ordered a cubic meter of sand, but this turned out to not be enough for both the toilet and the deck projects, that were occurring side by side so I decided to order way too much with another 4 cubic meters.

I ordered a 6 cubic meter truckload of 20 mm”blue metal” gravel, which is the capacity of a 9 ton truck. It has many other uses such as a high quality road base, paths and drains.

Concrete is made up of cement, sand, gravel, water & air. The cement is the most expensive component and it is made up of limestone that has been ground up to a very fine powder and then baked at very high temperature. When the cement is mixed with water again it causes a chemical reaction called hydration and begins to harden. From when you mix the cement with water the clock begins to tick to get all the ingredients mixed and the resulting mix where you want it.

In our humid subtropical environment, cement that is not used quickly will absorb moisture from the ambient air and go off “in the bag”. It is very important to only buy as much as you need, and if you do have too much, to use it all anyway and make things like pavers, steps or small slabs under washing machines.

Termite Control We are quite biased against poisoning the soil and water around our house so elected to use steel stirrups that keep the poles out of the ground and act as a physical barrier for termites. Termites will not go out into the light. Their bodies are translucent and their gut flora that breaks down the lignin and cellulose in the wood can not survive the awesome power of the sun. They will build tunnels out of mud though and make their way to a feed. So it is important to check the crawlspace under the deck annually (at least) for any sign of attack.

Structural Planning

Timber for the Posts The posts were sourced from another share on the community. They were tallowwood trees. Tallowwood is a hard durable timber rated as Class 1 but the sapwood is susceptible to powder borer so it isn’t recommended for internal use, that’s no problem under the deck though. We found some of the sapwood in the wet parts of the deck also developed a dry rot, this stopped at the solid wood though.

The posts were all put in at least 30 cm too tall, then we ran string lines and cut them to the right height with a chainsaw.

Then notches were cut out for the bearers. We used 12 mm galvanised threaded rod to tie the posts to the footings.

Subfloor Timber

We sourced the green rough sawn timber from the Kyogle Saw mill, it is the closest supplier as well as offering the best price. I found them to be very easy to deal with and continued to use them for our other projects. They couldn’t tell me the particular species of the timber however we identified a softer yellow timber, which we suspect is either Yellow Stringybark or Tallowwood and a harder red timber which we suspect is Sydney Blue Gum.

The bearers were 4x3 (100x75) hardwood, for the short spans this seems to be fine. It is more common to use 6x2’s for floor bearing and I would use those instead next time for additional weight bearing capacity.

Ideally 12 mm threaded rod is used to tie the bearers to the posts. In our situation there was no power and boring big 12 mm holes through all that hard wood was quickly draining the cordless drill we were using to drive the bit. So we decided to save that extra step of putting the rod through the bearers to later and used coach bolts which we could drill short holes and fasten in by hand. The joists are 4x2 (100 x 50). We used low-cost length limit is 4.5 m so we ordered the span of the deck in two pieces. We took a bit of a punt, often when timber comes from the mill it is a bit longer than you ordered so you can cut the ends property. Sometimes it is a lot longer. Due to the unusual spacings of the foundations one side needed 3765 mm lengths and the other 3200 mm. We ordered 25 x 3600 mm pieces. Thankfully it worked out well and we had so much extra that we could place them side by side over the centre bearer for maximum strength.

Once everything was up we oiled it with linseed oil and turpentine.

Decking

We shopped around for decking. There are quite a few options depending on the fit and finish. We decided to go for a 250 m pack of kiln dried dressed spotted gum seconds from the Nimbin Building Supplies. We used every piece!

Putting the deck together is something of a giant jigsaw. This job is best done in a team, with a couple of people lining up the boards and someone attaching them to the joists. The person doing the pre-drilling and nailing is on their knees for hours at a time so it is best to have knee pads.

There are a few tricks to remember. Decking is not end matched, so you have to meet the ends over a joist to prevent spongy spots. Try not join pieces on the same joist side by side. The eye doesn’t see the joins if they are randomly dispersed around the floor but if there is a continuous line of joins it is quite obvious and looks bad.

I try to use galvanised everything, it lasts longer and isn’t that much more expensive.

Finishing We used a non-toxic milk based stain called Cooee timber treat on the deck surface. There are several different brands available in this area, even one made locally in Byron Bay.

Building Evaluation

Building Evaluation.
Building has been a great challenge for me. It is a series of challenges. It’s an activity that manages to fill my entire consciousness, it is all consuming even entering my dreams. The creative process of bringing some new space into the world. The logical and logistical challenges of co-ordinating equipment, materials, labour. It tests every ethic and principle. There is always another way of doing things, people are often very happy to offer their opinion about what you or another labourer has done wrong.

I found during each build that there was a stage where things looked really ugly, as if all you had done was waste a lot of time, money and made a huge mess. I came to recognise and enjoy that moment, it meant that soon things would look better and work would again seem to get traction.

The building process changed me.
When I first started building I would chronically over estimate. Whether it was a quantity of materials or cut on a piece of wood instead of aiming for exactness, I would add a bit. Sometimes a lot. With materials I would justify it to myself by saying something along the lines of “the delivery fee is the same, so a few extra spares are better value” or “I can always cut a bit more off but I can’t add any back on”.
My initial planning was often quite good and those extra, unnecessary items would remain unused first becoming clutter, then waste. Those bits of wood would need to be cut again, wasting time and interrupting my flow. It took a quite a few lessons before I readjusted my sights for as close to exact as I could get it and then focus in to hone that, instead spending time dealing with the excess.
It takes time for skills to catch up with new intentions but the pile of leftovers has been getting progressively smaller as projects go on.



Some surplus items are more durable and useful that others. In this composting toilet build, excess concrete blocks quickly found their way to other jobs (such as keeping timber off the ground). The extra unnecessary bags of cement went off and were good for a fraction of their potential. I drilled a hole into them and dyna-bolted a right angle bracket to form a weak footing for a shed.

When you are self building it is possible to enter a timeless state of being. In this state you are focused entirely on the task at hand, each activity effortlessly flows into the next. Mind and body are in harmony and my will is able to be realised in earth, stone and wood. I would see a clear image of what I wanted to do in my mind and then the steps required to get there.


There are a few conditions that I found inhibited this flow state.

The running of a generator or petrol motor.
Mixing concrete by hand is exhausting, heavy work. Using the petrol mixer greatly sped up proceedings and reduced the callousness of the work, but increased the rate that ingredients needed to be collected from their respective sand, gravel and cement piles as well as further loading our senses with the noise and fumes of the machine. Once the power system was connected, an electric mixer made the process far more enjoyable.

I am yet to order a truck of cement but I look forward to the opportunity to do away with the mixing process entirely.
There is a certain honour in taking time and expending effort into something that has cost the earth a lot to provide, will last many decades and is responsible for holding the entire structure together. That being said, mixing concrete would be my least favourite of the many and varied jobs on the building site.

Accurate assessment of the scale of the works makes the process as clean and easy as it can be. For patching, a bucket is fine. For mortaring the wheelbarrow is often enough because of the pace of the process. Once you start pouring more than a half a cubic meter of foundations a mechanical mixer becomes worth its while. When you get to 3 cubic meters, or a decent sized slab then it is worthy of a cement truck load.






When mixing larger quantities of concrete it is very important to take the time to set up the space. It is easy to see the difference from our initial attempts at foundation mixing to the more recent.









The use of power tools greatly speeds up work. I found electric saws and drills did not distract my own mental focus as long as they were connected to our solar power system (although I am sure that they are to those around me).



Unfortunately our most powerful drill at full torque load which is required when driving long batten screws into hardwood would overload the inverter and require us to use the generator.

I found it much more difficult to maintain my personal rhythm with the generator on, it was difficult to relax and the team was more prone to be irritable or impatient with each other and the work. I felt an extra pressure to get the job over with so that I could turn it off again. There is a numbing of our sensitivity and that sensitivity is essential for the detailed, quality work standard that we wanted.

There is a recognised tension between speed, cost and quality.

Material Selection
One of the Permaculture principles is use and value renewable resources. There is a good range of natural building materials, and often there is one that is uniquely suited to a particular site. Timber was my first choice in most cases. It is a renewable resource that is warm, durable, workable, modular, transportable and beautiful.
I like earth buildings but saw their vulnerabilities in the subtropical conditions near Nimbin. One local natural building we inspected had mud wasps raiding the earth bricks for their own homes. Our sandy soil was not suitable for it either, a particular balance of sand & clay is required. Tons of raw material would need to be brought on site and oversized foundations need to be made.

For the poles we were able to use trees that were felled from our block. It was extremely satisfying to have such a close circle from felling to final use. The trees were selected for their suitability, solar gain to the house & gardens and proximity for moving. Some of the trees were also a considerable risk to the existing assets, so a local tree climber was employed to put a rope up and ensure that they fell exactly where we wanted them.
Green round timber is very heavy and the trees that best fit the bill were Grey Iron Bark, among the hardest and heaviest of all.








Timber lends itself well to future extension being easy to cut, drill and bolt on to.





It has limitations in lengths and spans. Lengths from our local mill were a very good price up to 4.5 m. Beyond that meant longer waiting times and higher price per meter. Maximum timber spans are set by the Australian Standard Building Code, they are shorter than the equivalent dimension in steel.

For dimensional timbers we chose to use untreated, green milled native hardwoods from Hogan’s Mill in Kyogle. The availability & affordability of these large dimension hardwoods will vary greatly with the area.

Another key consideration in their selection was the full product life cycle. Other competing building products become toxic waste at the end of their usable life, such as treated pine & laminated beams.

The use of recycled timber was considered but we couldn’t justify the time it would take to source the materials and prepare them for reuse. If upfront capital was less available than our free time then this option would have been more closely considered. We did investigate it, visiting and questioning Keber in Murwillumbah who offer high quality recycled timber, but found the price difference not able to justify the advantages. Recycled timber also tends to be much harder to drill and saw than green timber, this is already a big factor in using hardwoods.

Roofing
Colourbond steel was the most available & affordable roofing material. It seems to have surpassed zincalume and galvanised iron. It is widely available from a selection of suppliers in Lismore. Hurfords Steel was our supplier for half our projects. Some other tin for the sheds was acquired piece by piece from Nimbin Building Supplies, it was new offcuts or seconds that came in various lengths at a much better price.

Seconds and offcuts vary from recycled roofing in that they don’t already have holes drilled for the roofing screws. Recycled pieces are mostly suited to wall cladding, covering other materials or other lower order uses where full integrity isn’t required. If it is all you have available be sure to lay it so the holes are on the high point of the channels and then seal them with silicone.


For the deck roof we chose our first “hi-tech” material in polycarbonate. We did this because of the desire to maintain direct sunlight entering the house from the north east.


The latest generation poly carbonate promises to correct some of the shortcomings of previous clear roofing materials such as brittleness over time, clouding, yellowing/browning & flammability. It also comes with a lifetime warranty. The true test for it will come with time and inevitably the time will come that it becomes landfilled plastic waste.

One of the limitations of using polycarbonate, and most clear roofing products is that they are not strong enough to stand on like a regular metal roof. When I next use the material again I would definitely compromise the amount of light entering and alternate between colourbond and poly sheets so that the roof is still mostly traffic-able for ease of cleaning and palm frond removal.
It is also possible to get various grades of light and heat permeability, I chose clear for the greatest transmission of both. This isn’t normally recommended but our site is special in that come mid-summer it has tree cover for all but a couple of hours, preventing overheating. The roof is also very high and the room is quite breezy.

Site Management
It is important to keep the building site as clean and organised as possible. Constantly spending time looking for tools, materials or ways through the site makes for a very expensive and frustrating build. When working with other people, make sure all your tools are clearly marked and be consistent and insistent that things are put back where they belong. A good clean workspace to grind, sharpen and oil tools such as chisels and chainsaws is well worth the effort, working with blunt tools is difficult, dangerous and very frustrating.

Just as important as the physical site is the mental site. Have a good clear plan with the necessary steps of the process, mistakes can quickly compound if a step is skipped over or a mistake is made. Such as not double checking the string lines before digging, and assuming without making sure that the holes are in the right spot before pouring the concrete.

Good communication skills are a critical tool to have in the toolbox. Maintaining goodwill and trust amongst all the people involved in the build is very important for things to flow smoothly. It allows for people to look out for one another, another perspective is very helpful in seeing potentials arise before they become problems.

Building while overly tired, stressed or intoxicated is inviting an accident and never saves time. Mistakes need to be fixed and injuries can take a very long time to heal. Thankfully I was blessed by clear lessons from those around me and have not been injured any more seriously than scratches, splinters and sprains so far. A friend cut himself very badly using a grinder without a firm two-handed grip.
With that in mind, this is physical work and a bit of fatigue is inevitable and signals to the body that it needs to build muscle & stamina. It is quite natural to feel tired after a long days work.

Reflection

An important component of evaluation is to reflect on what did not go
well and how you could improve your processes for the next time.
I found that building as close to standard practice as possible makes a much easier build, especially when working with other people. Our substructure is very ordinary, straight lines, squares, standard lengths etc.

One of the things that did not go so smoothly in the builds was changing between various trades. We used different people for the many different stages of construction, sometimes through circumstance and sometimes through choice. There was often a lot of time spent familiarising themselves with idiosyncrasies of the previous work, often accompanied with an unfavourable review. Many of these idiosyncrasies were due to my own inexperience in the standards of construction.

As the projects went on, I acquired a keener eye for the subtle and not so subtle standards of work, due care and attention to specifications. I was able to make adjustments, suggestions and corrections on the fly as I saw something amiss or that I needed to further understand before it was set in concrete.

This keyed in the importance for me of being onsite and involved (even as an active observer) when people are doing building or earth works. The bigger the machine, the keener the eye and more attentive the observation. There is also the process of finding the voice to speak up when there isn’t something quite right (or when something works really well). I asked many novice questions to the skilled builders here and they were often happy to explain and teach me. I was also able to correct silly mistakes before they became problems by knowing what was happening and making a suggestion.

It is so important to correct problems & mistakes early. They quickly compound to the point of disfunction when it becomes easier to pull everything down back to that point to get it right. If something is built out of square then all the other pieces that attach to it will also be out of square.
For example a mistake we made when building the first stage of the carport was having the foundations just out, the margin of error was only very small. I had unskilled, unpaid help and was just happy to see it being built. We put the posts up without checking the foundations and had no reason to suspect any issues. The beams went up and again my approximate levels where considered good enough for a bush shed. I was cutting into round posts so there was a bit of a squew in those too. Then the rafters went on and when it came time to brace the building I could definitely see that something wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t do much about it nor really wrap my head around the problem so continued and put the roof on, it didn’t go on straight and looked strange with one side overhanging more than the other.

The problem didn’t really come to a head though until it was time to build off that shed. This time I used a skilled builder to get it up quickly as we suddenly needed a bigger shed and as a training ground for the bigger project of the deck roof. Once the swearing had subsided, the new builder had to remove the existing tin that was on the roof and then twist the whole structure to fit the new square building that he was making off it. The effect looks as if the whole lot is going to fall down, despite being quite strong. There is also additional stress on the fasteners.

As the issue was in the foundations, it could not be easily fixed at the source but an experienced builder with an eye for that detail at that point could have used a bush pole with a bend in it (as we did on the deck roof) to cancel out the error and bring the building back to square.

Along the way I reached states of feeling really connected to the land, building, builder and process. Joyful moments of crystal clear purpose & intention. I got a sense of power from seeing what was once in my mind form in the physical world. Strong, real and durable with details and beauty that I hadn’t imagined. I now feel that I am able to meet the needs of providing shelter.

I also reached a few states of hubris. I knew the basics, I knew what the builder was going to do next and thought I can do this, why am I paying him?
There is a difference between knowing what to do and doing it. A wide gulf in fact. I am not shy to say that my mental capacity & belief that I can do everything I need to do is further developed than my physical capacity. When I had these feelings though, I would get involved and quickly discover that there is a lot more to cutting wood than meets the eye. Even making simple straight cuts at an exact length is a skill that needs to be honed. It made me far more appreciative of the precision of the work and the more advanced techniques.

As I acquired more skill in the diverse arts of construction my relationship to the built world around me also changed. It deepened my appreciation for good architecture and gave me the critical eye to recognise a bad job. I also developed much greater respect for the general trade of builders. There are so many facets and specific skills to the raising of a building.

Finally it gave me confidence to offer what I have learned as a project manager in a professional capacity. Another skill in my permaculture tool belt.

The Details
When it comes to the components that you actually see and touch to we put the extra time and effort into working with natural materials in their raw form or adding custom details. This pattern adds a uniqueness, magic and character to a building that we found to be the most endearing features. It also goes a long way to bringing the new structure into harmony with its environment.



Using round timbers and natural stone does take extra time to work around the inherent irregularities. However once the job is done those frustrating elements transform into the most beautiful features.


Building is exciting, amazing and empowering. The absolute best part is when it is finally over however and you can clean it all up and start to live in the new space you have just created.

1.1 Edited 15.9.2010

Our Rainforest House

One of the very magical things about living in a place for years is that the plants that you like start to grow. Through a combination of selective watering, planting, weeding, feeding, experience & loving attention we slowly impress our influence on the landscape. Some plants die in this process, but on the whole our domain is growing to support us. We are cultivating our customised micro-climate.

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A new bath.

Things are always changing around here. I heard once that life is lived in tiny changes. This was a big change.

We’ve got a new cast iron claw foot bath. Well it isn’t new, but it has been completely sanded back and then re-enameled.

This means we got to pick the colour and the condition is perfect!

It also inspired me to do the plumbing properly. The bathtub now bypasses the grease trap and goes straight into the grey water distribution system. Our old bath used to blow the lid off the box.

The other major change is the inclusion of an S bend so that swamp gas from anerobic processes in the system don’t waft up into the bathroom.

Another renovation was the replacing of our old hand rail.

The new version inspires a bit more confidence.

To prevent any unfortunate slips in the shower sending us over the side we also firmly secured a tree to hold on to.