Beginning at last…

Monday 29 June

My first day building – I got out to the car, hoping I had all I needed, but went back for the waterproof phone case.  It looked like rain.  As it turned out the low cloud burned off and by midday sunstroke was more likely than drowning.  With new electric tools, advice from Andrew and Ali, and my string-line I set to, up on the first floor.  I worked steadily and carefully, placing and screwing the first two boards as a platform by the stack, then setting out some scaffold boards to get me safely across the yawning joists from the palette of chipboard to the side where I was laying them.   Thankfully they were only half sheets, it’s dense stuff and half a sheet is slightly too wide to fit comfortably under my arm. Perhaps that will change if I carry enough of it.  Once satisfied with each board’s alignment I pulled it up, applied glue, and slid it back into position, coaxing it home with a lump hammer, cushioned by a piece of scrap timber, then banging both boards at once where they joined to ensure the long edges lined up before putting a screw in each end to secure it.  I took my time, and didn’t assume the mass produced boards would be as accurate as one might hope.  Small discrepancies accumulate and cause problems later.

My new impact driver didn’t sink the screws further than the start of the head.  I tried the other battery, to no effect and later mentioned it to Andrew.  He took the tool, in seconds found the now obvious sliding switch, set to one.  He slid it to two and the machine drove the screw heads out of sight.  How could I not have found it?  Patryk was amused.  ‘Now we have some gossip…’ he said, smiling.  I went back and sank the proud heads.  To complete each row a board had to be cut, the cut piece being used back at the other end to start the next row.  Because the tongue and groove boards interlock at both sides and ends, and are glued, they don’t have to end on a joist, so there is little cutting or wastage. 

I soon became used to my new circular saw, finding it less intimidating than anticipated, but towards the end of the day it wouldn’t complete a cut; battery?  No.  I peered beneath the board, supported between two joists, there was no hidden obstruction, the board was well supported and not pinching the blade; something extra hard in the chipboard?  I leaned over again to view the blade – the spindle was turning but the blade was not.  It was loose.  I’d simply started using it as supplied.  Easily tightened.  I was enjoying myself, engaged at last in the building and by the end of the day I’d completed four rows, nearly half the floor.  

I’d coped with the boards built-in inaccuracies and was not embarrassed by my work.  

Meanwhile the team had completely wrapped the garage in its tea-cosy of wood fibre insulation.  An impressive day’s work and a testament to their know how and steady approach.

The working day was punctuated by lunch around twelve, a visit by Iain, the electrician at two and at teatime by neighbours Fiona, and Jasper with a jug of young beer for us to taste.  It was good.

The lads left soon after five, Andrew at half past, and I carried on until about half six before calling it a day and stopped to take photos.

A large bird about half a mile away had me puzzled – osprey or heron, or…  It was hard to judge the scale and my binoculars were down in the car. I reckoned it was too dark for an osprey and had no sign of trailing legs, so not a heron.  In the end I became sure I was looking at a sea eagle.  It looked solid and somehow exuded the same sense of purpose I’d noted at Upper Carse when one appeared low over the forestry flying inland across the small field we stood in. 

Tuesday 30 June

Last night my hands were filthy with inevitable smears of the glue, black with the dirt that had stuck to it..  It’s polyurethane, doesn’t wash (or scrub) off easily and foams slightly once applied, filling gaps, and setting in five minutes.  I should really have been wearing gloves but generally find them a nuisance, so to minimise contact with the glue I made a jig from some scrap timber to hold each board on edge while I glued it.  Applying glue to the groove had proved awkward and slow so I just ran a bead on both sides of the tongue.  Sometimes they didn’t fit as closely as they should, either because they’d been damaged, had spilt glue set in the groove or just weren’t accurately made; the first two responded to attention with a chisel, the last required compromise.

Apart from a strip 100mm wide I’d finished covering the floor while the team had hidden the garage under its 120mm thick wood fibre – Andrew cutting and supplying, Ali and Patryk measuring and fixing.  They’d first laid recycled glass wool (from old glass jumpers?) between rafters then the closely interlocking wood fibre batts over over the top.

Tomorrow I have hundreds of screws to put into the floor so it becomes one with the joists and walls that it sits on.  This will add stiffness to the building, in the same way that a cardboard box is firm when the lid is closed and taped, then suddenly flexible when it’s opened.   I forgot to mark the position of the joists before covering them, so will need to do some setting out. 

Andrew’s wife arrived unexpectedly with ice lollies for us all, saying she’d felt guilty lying around in the sun when we were all working…