Garage Extension

It's started.

Existing garage 5.28 x 5 = 26.7m2, but lost 8m2 to utility

Extension 2.68 x 4.6m = 12m2

5/7/21 Emptying and tidying 1 day.

Empty the wood shed

6/7 1h digging 5 barrows

7/7 1.5 hours. 5 barrows. Just under half of the old shed.

16/7 2-300L taken to tip. Less than 1/4 left of base.

21/7 dug out bank. Trailer full. Removed some of the stones at old shed entrance. Got a good pile of earth stored on slope.

22/7 2-300L taken to tip.

26/7 dug out the rest of the bank, left ready to go into trailer 4h

27/7 5h. took down old shed. Moved path over to near new location. Dug out old path base - 5 barrows of stone in pile.

Move the path temporarily

Shed gone

Protection from the rain!

29/7 3 hours to mark wall foundations and fill the car + trailer.

5/8/21 2 hours unload sand, gravel etc, 2 hours fill car + trailer

6/8 moved 2m3 of ballast and gravel ~ 2 hours

8/8 4h dug out the long wall foundations to depth (0.55 ish) Trailer filled

9/8 4h dug out rear + door foundations

12/8 laid foundations 6h including clear up. Mixer wont do a 100L mix. 13 mixes / 6.5 bags cement. 32C. Stuff laid at 11am had gone off by 4pm.

110L melange + 35kg bag cement = 100L concrete

13/8 car full of clay to the tip.

16/8 4h. 1st row main wall. 1/2 bag (11.5L) cement.  moved 24 shovels in 4 barrows = 300L. hmmm

17/8 rain am. 4h 2nd row on main wall, 1st row at rear. 1/4 bag (5.7L) cement and 25L sand (8 shovels)

18/8 1h moved remainder of 1m3 bag of melange with trailer. 72 shovels each trip, 3 trips 

19/8 3h filled trailer with clay. Stacked 300L on bank. 6 trailer loads left before pour

20/8 350L + 300L to the tip. ordered whacker

23/8 4h final removal of large lumps and back filled gaps with spoil, Used up quite a lot of soil.

27/8 AM dropped off 350L + 300L of soil. PM dropped off 350L + 300L of soil (none left!).

About 3.5cum taken to date.

Picked up whacker for the weekend (45€) And 11 roof trusses (Allwood)

28/8 Whacked soil, moved 1m3 of gravel (herrison) whacked in 2 layers (~70mm) then ~30mm sand. Watered sand to help it pack.

29/8 Built up entrance to garage, spread out 1m3 of gravel and whacked it.

30/8 AM returned whacker, built up drains and laid liner etc. PM laid 1st slab. 5 + 5 mixes (ie 500L). First 5, then mesh. About 3 hours plus polishing

31/8 laid 2nd slab. 5 + 5.3 mixes. First 5, then mesh (45 mins) then 1 hour for 2nd, plus polishing. Then tidied up in the afternoon. Moved about 200L of melange and similar in sand to the top of the garden.

1/9 cool and rainy. Bit of a dip on rear slab that fills with water and a smaller on at the front. Looked at existing roof detail. The wood on the far right is there to support a join on the facia. The noggin has been pushed down flat. You can see where it was to the right side of the wall plate.

2/9 moved remnants from penultimate bigbag on the drive to the garage for the slab laying.

4/9 took down guttering etc. 8h

5/9 put up frame 4h

6/9 8h set up rafters. Wall uprights completed. Angle 12 degrees. Technically too shallow for the altitude even with the suggested membrane, but it's very protected here. I've read the main reason for the membrane is to prevent condensation dripping off the tiles, but we get that anyway in the original garage and that is standard 20 degrees.

7/9 8h noggins on main roof. Membrane in and original roof re-fitted.

8/9 8h. Sheet of osb installed and end wall.  Most middle noggins on rafters fitted. Door end guttering temporarily glued in. Roof and end wall temporarily covered - storm due

9/9 It rained! about 11mm. Bit of ingress where it ran off the roof and bounced off the slabs. Started assembling garage door. Cast door reveal bases. Temporarily installed original guttering on extension. 

10/9 4h. Fitted osb to front corner. Cut frame for door. Sanded frame. Cut 15mm off rh concrete door reveal where it ran onto slab. 30 pieces of cladding to be oiled. Too wet.

11/9 8h LG oiled wood. Fitted rest of door timbers and door.

12/9 8h fitted cladding rear and side. Got some of the door parts assembled.

13/9 3h door fitting 

14/9 7h Added OSB behind door rails. Door very stiff. Steel edges grating plastic off weather strips. Dropped door onto foot. Removed panels and fettled edges. Door drifting to the right and spring hitting door.

15/9 1h improved rain protection. 7h door! Reassembled door then managed to push it off the end. Broke top edge of second panel up, so swapped it for the top one. Slight dent on 3rd panel. Fettled several metal sides, 2 lower rails bent where wheels were forced out with fall. Went back together better. No rubbing.

Got several tips from forums. Measured all panels - same size despite some being badly cut. Tried removing 1 spring, and lengthening wires, but this made opening harder. The more tension means that the rear wheels get closer to the track end, opening is easier, but closing has less resistance. Ended up with the spring datum moved from 145 to 105mm.

Rained hard

16/9 4h Installed door motor.

17/9 -

18/9 2h moved some OSB + started electrics. Tweaked door motor beam as it was rubbing on the top of the door.

19/9 2h. worked out roof tile spacing. Bit of electrics

20/9 5h picked up roof tiles. Finished all electrics. Fitted rest of the noggins.

21/9 - 

22/9 8h roof on. About 4h to batten and tile. Had a 50mm difference in tile run side to side; it measured 50mm less on the left side from existing roof to gutter compared to the right side. The tiles have a tolerance of 10mm, so over the 6 battens/7 rows I pushed the right side down 6mm and pulled the left side up 42mm (spaced 358mm left, 366 right).  A little tight on the top row onto the existing tiles, but this was partly as I'd laid the tiles a little close together left to right. 

About a 40mm gap between fascia and long wall. Will need an extra column on the right side, and possibly one over the door. Will need the special double peak tile there anyway. 50mm run out here top to bottom over the door. 

23/9 1h osb cladding over door.

24/9 put up some brackets to hold 3 strimmers and worked out if the trailer could be stored upright. 

Not quite enough space at the moment with the trailer parked there.

Problem solved! 

25/9 4h finished osb cladding (finally the end wall) and installed loop for hoisting trailer. Spent the afternoon working out how to stand the trailer up. Well, that bit is easy; getting it back down took a lot of effort!

203 hours to date (29 days)

26 -

27/9 8h cut rafter feet and fitted guttering.  Finished cladding on long side.  Black panels stop the rain splashing mud onto the cladding 

1/10 7h dug path to correct width and tapered it uphill. Put in temporary gulley to drain as heavy rain forecast. 

7/10 7h Filled trailer with the soil dug out last week and dug path to correct depth. Another load ready for the tip. Cut slabs. 

Note the red marker tape for the two conduits (middle of photo in bottom quarter on edge of path) that go up to the outside sockets. The conduits are about 10cm below. I found them again at the bottom of the footings - just out of the way. The tape is found again when cutting the steps.

8/10 4h cut trench for drains. 

9/10 8h fitted pipes to drain and back filled. Cut trench for upstand on path. Laid 5 drains and most of the slabs. 

10/10 4h fitted last slabs at front + drain at rear and partly graded to old

12/10 pm collected extra roof tiles and dumped 500kg of soil. Cut step slabs and trimmed juniper 

13/10 7h dug out and fitted steps. 2 barrows of mortar. 310kg of clay.

14/10 4h removed old steps and  tidied across to new steps. Pointed all paving.

Old steps and a typical pile of clay ready to be loaded into the car and trailer. 360 kg in the trailer, 300kg in the car. All weighed!

15/10 Dumped ~650kg of clay. 2h painted extension floor

16/10 7h fitted slabs at rear. Made up levels with melange beton and small amount of cement to bind. Worked well and set firm.

17/10 2h fitted last slabs

18/10 1h pointed slabs

About 36 days.

19/10 4h started roof at front.  Jiggled all the tiles so they lined up. There was a 30mm run out top to bottom at the front. The tile columns had been banana shaped. Now they are straight, you can clearly see that the original roof columns are banana shaped. 

20/10 6h finished roof and cladding at the front

23/10 3h started rear roof 

25/10 2h cut cladding around door

28/10 3h finished rear, soffit & infill. Cut gutter.

1/11 2h fitted new guttering facia, soffit & guttering

2/11 4h made extra bit of guttering from some ali & fitted.

6/11 3h fitted downpipe, finished original soffit, corner moulding, re-sealed pipe to water butts

Cubster mini service

 air filter clean

plugs left black tip, but grey

right clean.

Sounds like it's running a bit rough

Removed deck, clean sharpen

Drive belt worn out

Put original back on. Light crazing on sides.

Philips LED ceiling light 1500 lumens

Philips 333623117 Plafonnier Cinnabar 

https://www.lighting.philips.fr/consumer/p/myliving-plafonnier/333653116

15W / 0.11A / 0.55pf nominal at 236V

Went faulty (flashing) after a few months service and replaced under warranty. Return of defective part not requested.

Rude not to repair it...

constant current smps outputs 87.2mA above a mains input of 208V

There are 4 modules in series. 

Each module has 14 leds, with 41.3V across the module.

I had a faulty led on one module, so bridged it. Module now has 38.6V volts. The rest still have 41.3V.

It's now September 2022 and the replacement light has gone faulty in 11 months. Same fault.

I've bridged the broken LED and we'll see. This is a product with 2 year warranty on the fitting and 5 years on the LEDs and the smps (go figure). So far 2 out of 2 have failed to make a fifth of the warranty period. Can't even blame a batch fault.

I have noticed that the fitting glows when it's off. There is an earth terminal but no recommendation to fit an earth. I've fitted a X2 0.1uF cap N to E terminal and they glow no more. Maybe this leakage current was enough to pre-roast the LEDs?  We'll see.

I do also have a tube light LED Philinea 45W made by Philips which glows when off. No earth terminal and no problems since installing it July 2019, but it's a 60W equivalent vs 80W for the faulty one. A lot less stress and heat!

more fire wood

 A friend wanted some trees gone. A 50yo oak 60cm/15m, a large ash and a small ash. I got the easy job of felling the trees, then 10 trips to move the wood home. My friends spent days clearing up!

say 4 stere, so 2 years heating.

27/2 8h splitting oak and ash. Built a new wood store (0.75 x 1.1 x 1.9m = 1.6m3) near the house to hold a year's worth of wood. Filling it with ash today. Most ash now split.

28/2 1h all ash now split and stacked.

Hedge cutter service

 Dewalt DCM563. New 22/11/18

Bit disappointed with this having just serviced it, I see the motor is nearly worn out. It's not brushless like the drills. It's not like I use it every day. I have 300m of hedge I cut twice a year, plus 300m I cut elsewhere. Or around 4 days per year.

The blade is pretty worn too on the back side where it's supposed to be flat.

A new motor assembly - motor not available (brushes not available as the motor is sealed) is £48/60€ They've even gone to the trouble of pressing a plate over the motor mounting screws so you can't even source the motor.

The motor part number is 90626374, and this pops up on a V20 fatmax, for £27/40€

W180430 19.5V S-494 755

Worn brush on the right side just visible. 

The brushes might be swappable.  They are approx 5.5mm x 7mm, with a square locator on the back which is 5.5mm x 4mm.

This seems a good start 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000265047084.html

These are known as RS895/ 875/ 887 motors, although the case size of this motor is the next size down known as a RS755 (in the part no) but the same brushes as a RS750. 755/750 brushes are a lot smaller, reducing the contact with the comm. Important? Don't buy a complete brush assembly because 1. the dewalt one has suppression caps 2. slightly different moulding 3. different arms 4. you can't easily remove brushes from the arms.

See notes + more photos on PC.

New brushes are 4.8mm wide but are too long at 7.2mm from indent. Need to sand them back to about 6mm. Once fitted, the motor takes between 2.2 and 2.8A at 18.5V. I'll need to put some spots of weld to hold the back on. There isn't enough metal to peen.

Soldered some wire to bridge the holes in the brush holders.

A new blade is £87/100€

Why am I quoting in £?  Because despite buying the product in France, no-one stocks them. Poland, Finland, UK. But not France.

A new tool is 118€

Guess this is going binward and I'll be changing brands.

Thanks Dewalt.

1/10/23 Replaced the brushes again. One holder completely missing. Bought complete 895 brush/case assemblies (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005890644120.html), but they are too big (it's a 755 case ie 40mm dia) Brushes are perfect size and can be carefully removed from holder. Cut off a new holder and soldered it onto the old bracket. Ensure it's nicely central on the motor.

Ensure the current is less than 2.5A at 5V before welding. The plate is a bit bent. Will take about 3.3A at 18.5V with the blade attached. Ensure to straighten the blade and WD40.

How things shrink

Since January 2014 I ran a local server based on a microchip 32MX PIC. It originally connected to a weather station, gave a local read out, controlled remote sockets, uploaded to various logging services such as Thinspeak and Wuinderground, screened phone calls, monitored basic energy use, etc. It was largely ok until this year when the webserver would randomly stop responding.  I'd slowly removed some things like the weather station and the grid tie inverter, which became self contained nodes and did their own logging etc.

I'd planned to replacing it since March 2019, so I finally time to implement it this year. The box with buttons was the RF receiver and display, replaced by a receiver on the blue pcb, bottom left and the display also driven directly. The white board bottom middle is replaced by the blue one too, although its large size was partly driven by needed a hardwired ethernet connection, amd partly due to it being home made and single sided. New board is wifi and double sided with screen printing; I have no idea how them can make 5 of them for around 15€. The board bottom right is caller ID which had both a PIC and a wifi module. This is replaced by a dedicated CID chip and uses serial to communicate the main blue board. Quite a space saving, and the new board also allows me to use modern control methods like MQTT.

Logs

 December 2021. Storing the logs in the small trailer this year, and bringing them into the house in crates. Have 4 crates.

31/12/21 have filled the trailer 4 times, which is about 3 crates each load. 

31/12/21 Trailer pretty full and 2 crates are full.

1/2/22 filled trailer + 3 crates. Used about 1 crate per week since.

About 23 crates, but not clear when winter finished!

Dec 2022 Filled new woodstore (~1.5 stere) with ash. Not quite enough for this winter

Oct 2023 Filled the woodstore with 3.75 trailer load of mostly oak.