Backyard Project: Winter Activities While Waiting for Warmer Days

The last of the flowers bloomed through late fall.

A pleasant surprise was to see the Russian Tea plant flowering in the cooler late fall weather.

We  kept squirrel-busy cutting and storing firewood a few steps away from the fireplace.

The off-cut, untreated, paint-free construction wood had been cut to fit the fire box. We stacked it in a satisfying pile under the propagation table. With plenty of firewood, we looked forward to the cold weather and sitting in front of a fire.

This winter we had a number of significant snowfalls, something that doesn't happen every year.

The cherry tree while still in full leaf and under the Douglas-fir canopy was sheltered from an early snowfall.

The exposed young medlar tree couldn't cope with the wet snow weight. It and the other fruit trees had to be staked.

We took several trips out to Vancouver Island's west coast to enjoy the wild weather.

And now the soil is stirring and the new growth has started.

It feels like it has been a short winter and the garden is enticing me outside more often these days.

Backyard Project: Soil Building, Shelf Building, Glass Installation

Now that Josh has moved in place the big rocks that define one boundary of the garden bed, I have started soil building. I am using the lasagne method of laying down a thick cardboard base, soaking it well then adding layers of 'green' and 'brown'.

But first I dug out all of the rocks and stones in the garden bed area. All of these came out of that one small bed.

This bed is west of the walk way to the pergola. I'm not sure what I will plant here but I don't need to do the research just yet because the soil building will take a while.

Meanwhile, Josh has painted the doors for the Garden Sheds. I like the clever way he has held the doors while painting them.

AND he has started the footings for the shelving in the sheds.

Whoopee, the Excalabor guys are back.

The sheets of glass were carried on the side of the truck with little cork spacers to stop the panes from touching and to absorb the travel vibration.

This safety glass has been cut to size then all of the edges ground smooth and rounded.

It took quite a while for all of the stickers to be taken off, the cork squares to be pulled off then all of it polished spotless before being installed.

Meanwhile, back at the Garden Shed site, Josh has set up several workstations for constructing shelving.

Taylor has come back. He has carried lots of loads of coarse gravel up to the site and is now levelling the base frames for the cabinets.

The first lot of shelves have been built. These are to hold small tools where they will be kept dry. This is the Power Tool Shed.

In the same location in the other shed, the Garden Shed, Josh has built a frame to hold gardening tools upright. 

Inside the 2 dry sheds, we are leaving all of the plywood unfinished so there is no maintenance in the future. It will take on the patina of a place well used.

Backyard Project: Soffits, Gutters, Downspouts and Fascias

Cutting metal soffit panels to size for the garden Sheds.

Soffits protect the ends of the rafter beams from the rain without which the beams would rot out.

We have gone with vented soffit rather than a solid material with vents. Either way ventilating the space above is important to prevent moisture build up which would result in moulds growing and wood decay. In this rainy climate, moisture management is critical for the lifespan of the building. This is looking good with no exposed wood and a tight fit.

Another team has installed all of the caps on the end walls. I wasn't sure about the flat metal. If I had been home at the time I would have asked to see what the corrugated metal looked like. But it is done.

Fascia metal has been attached covering the exposed wood.

This interesting truck arrived in the driveway. I knew what it did because I had watched it at work when my Green shed was being built. That is a big roll of flat metal.

The metal comes off the roll and is fed into this forming machine. It can be programmed to make differently shaped gutters/eavestroughs.

 The Mighty Exteriors crew arrived.

Here is the crew to make the downspouts. I like his plastic cowboy hard hat. It makes his tool belt look like a gun holster. He had steel-toed cowboy boots on too.

'A downspout, waterspout, downpipe, drain spout, roof drain pipe, leader, or rone (Scotland) is a pipe for carrying rainwater from a rain gutter.' (Wiki). And these are the tools needed to make them fit the gutter/eaves trough.

A downspout is fitted up into the end of every slightly down-sloping gutter. The crew also went around the house and put downspouts where we had water chains that weren't working very well. Living under trees the building's roofs catch a lot of  'litter fall, plant litter, leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, or duff, and dead plant material, such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes; that has fallen' (Wiki)  that block the entrance to the chains causing the gutters to over flow. Ron has yet to find the perfect system to stop the gutters filling with litter.

Another crew arrives, the same one that installed the covers for the end walls, and installs fascia panels to cover the roof bearing beams.

A lot of different crews with specialised equipment and tools are needed to make a building water tight. We have all read the stories or know of someone who was unfortunate enough to have bought a leaky building or condo. 'The leaky condo crisis, also known as the leaky condo syndrome and rotten condo crisis, is an ongoing construction, financial, and legal crisis in Canada...it is the most extensive and most costly reconstruction of housing stock in Canadian history (Wiki).

'Build it tight, vent it right' is a building industry saying/motto.

Backyard Project: Problem Solving, Finding Solutions

Lower Patio - constructed on the old hot tub pad. 

A problem - the enclosed area doesn't drain after a rainfall.

When working on one-off projects so much of the time is spent problem-solving.

Hmmm... the water has nowhere to go. 

Hmmmm....there's a nice damp place.

Solution - drain holes.

A problem - The excavations for the 2 sheds has exposed more of the house foundations which now makes the stepped edge of the house siding look odd. Mike has relocated the main irrigation pipe along the side of the house and Josh has started to rebuild and patch-up the siding. He had to hunt around quite a few lumber suppliers to find wood to match our 14-year-old house.

Problem solved. Josh did an excellent job finding a pleasing solution and skillfully working with the wood to solve the problem. When the rest of the wall is washed and repainted the colours will match better. Well done Josh.

Problem - Finding a mesh for the upper propagation table shelf.

Perhaps the leftover screen material from the gate? No, there is not enough and it would be very expensive to buy another sheet when only a part of a sheet is needed.

When products are sold in standard sized sheets and one is working with non-standard shapes there is often extra expense and waste because more sheets are needed than get fully used.

Another possibility? A leftover piece from a roll of metal mesh used to put inside a concrete form had the right price and size. Problem - it was already beginning to rust and I would accelerate the process when watering the plants sitting on it.

Also, it was a bit too springy and bouncy. The small pot plants would fall over whenever I placed a big pot beside it.

Solution? Leftover shelves from a shelving unit in the garage. It is a heavy gauge steel that can take the weight and Josh could work out a solution for securing it. Problem - I have other plans for those shelves. With now having sheds to put stuff in we are going to reorganise the garage and I plan to put the shelves on the shelving unit where they belong.

Solution. Ron and I visited a metal warehouse - a most interesting place. They have so many different kinds of metal sheets. We found this galvanised extruded (?) metal screen. It won't rust and is flat so the pot plants won't tip over. Problem solved.

Josh had the right tool to cut the sheet to size and he found a solution for securing it in place.

That was a problem that took a number of weeks to solve but we did come up with a successful solution.

Backyard Project: Finishing the 2 Roofs

The roofers arrived to put the final layer of bitumen on the shed area roof.

This layer has a rough grit stuck to the surface to make it more weather resistant.

Roofing or clout nails with a big flat, umbrella head. 

The roofer hammers with a 2 stroke rhythm to drive the nail home.  

In the meantime, Josh is working on the Propagation Room roof.

He is slipping in place each section of 3 boards. The boards are held up out of any rain water by plastic wood blocks that won't rot. We will be able to lift out the panels to clean the debris off the roof. The black part of the roof is sloped towards a drain hole.

Backyard Project: 2 Different Roof Systems Serving 2 Different Purposes

He looks like a ghost buster but he is a roof layer - a torchon roofer. 

Nortek Exteriors is back to install the same sort of roof they put on the studio - a torchon roof.

First, a layer of fireproof fibreglass felt is nailed in place. 

For the next layer, a sheet of bitumen is melted and sealed in place with a butane torch. 

While continuing to be used extensively in commercial buildings because it is easy to install and repair and is one of the cheapest roofing materials available, it is a somewhat controversial because it is made from similar materials to our roads. 

The reason why we decided to go with the torchon roof on the studio and garage is I want a green roof. Under the forest canopy, mosses and lichens will naturally colonise the roof while feeding on the bitumen. It will last 15 to 20 years which is a shorter life span than some other roofing systems but it is easy and inexpensive to scrape off the mosses and add another layer of bitumen on top of the old. Though they do last longer other roofing systems need to be removed and put in landfills before the new material can be installed.

The other controversial roofing material is going on top of the propagation room.

The flashing has been installed.

The lumber has been delivered - Kayu Batu - a sustainably harvested hardwood from SE Asia. Some would argue it is irresponsible to use hardwoods from other countries and that would include buying furniture made from hardwood. 

We decided to go with the hardwood because treated like a piece of furniture it will last as a roof for up to 50 years - a better option to replacing local wood decking every 6 to 10 years. We live in a rainforest where conditions are perfect for breaking down and rotting wood. Kayu Batu is suited to these wet conditions and is resistant to mould, fungus, wood rot, insects and fire. It does not require the usual yearly painting or sealing. It can be oiled to keep the rich colour or it can be left to age to a silver grey, which we will be doing. The only maintenance will be keeping it swept.

Josh ordered 10-foot lengths to cover the 10-foot wide deck so there is no waste wood produced during construction.

Josh made a jig to get an accurate positioning of the supporting cross members made of water resistance composite wood.

He is making panels of 3 board lengths.

Installation details in a later post.

2 different roof systems serving 2 different purposes - 1 to provide food for living organisms the other to resist living organisms.