Finally finished the house in Vredehoek. This house is not typical of the work that Swissline does. Rarely do they take on renovations. Most building work is on new builds, or decks, stairs, joinery added to existing homes.
Most often, the structural timber used is German Spruce imported by Swissline. Like Canadian construction timber, it is clean dry and straight. South African Pine has a loose grain (I'm told due to a long warm wet season that causes quick growth spurts) that makes it susceptible to movement. Also, it is cut, planed, treated, and sold wet. This means that as it drys it can still move and twist quite a lot. Structural timber in North America and Europe is machined and sold relatively dry so it is much more stable, straight, and smooth.
Due to budgetary constraints, this house had only a few columns and ridge beam in beautiful straight perfect German Spruce. All rafters and joists were South African pine, and sat on already irregular walls so there were many irregularities requiring bespoke solutions. For example, each and every fiber cement soffit board had to be measured and cut, fit, removed and re-cut, pre-drilled, and finally fit permanently. The gables had unusual eaves with broad triangular soffits. These were tricky to measure and cut with accuracy and the size makes them very heavy, so it was a challenge to say the least.
On this job, I was the foreman on site. Unless I wanted to call the boss or experienced guys every 5 minutes, I had to figure things out and make decisions on my own. There were no detail drawings to show how the triangular gable eave met with a horizontal eave below it (see photo below). I took some broken tiles that i had on site and arranged them on the battens do determine their height and made a flashing to lay on top and then cut and secured the last triangular soffit board on top of the flashing. When the rain sheets down the soffit, the flashing will guide the water onto the top of the tiles so it can run to the gutter on the lower eave. I was pleased when the tiling team arrived and liked it.
It was great to finish my duties at this project and the result is really neat and tidy.
Most often, the structural timber used is German Spruce imported by Swissline. Like Canadian construction timber, it is clean dry and straight. South African Pine has a loose grain (I'm told due to a long warm wet season that causes quick growth spurts) that makes it susceptible to movement. Also, it is cut, planed, treated, and sold wet. This means that as it drys it can still move and twist quite a lot. Structural timber in North America and Europe is machined and sold relatively dry so it is much more stable, straight, and smooth.
Due to budgetary constraints, this house had only a few columns and ridge beam in beautiful straight perfect German Spruce. All rafters and joists were South African pine, and sat on already irregular walls so there were many irregularities requiring bespoke solutions. For example, each and every fiber cement soffit board had to be measured and cut, fit, removed and re-cut, pre-drilled, and finally fit permanently. The gables had unusual eaves with broad triangular soffits. These were tricky to measure and cut with accuracy and the size makes them very heavy, so it was a challenge to say the least.
On this job, I was the foreman on site. Unless I wanted to call the boss or experienced guys every 5 minutes, I had to figure things out and make decisions on my own. There were no detail drawings to show how the triangular gable eave met with a horizontal eave below it (see photo below). I took some broken tiles that i had on site and arranged them on the battens do determine their height and made a flashing to lay on top and then cut and secured the last triangular soffit board on top of the flashing. When the rain sheets down the soffit, the flashing will guide the water onto the top of the tiles so it can run to the gutter on the lower eave. I was pleased when the tiling team arrived and liked it.
It was great to finish my duties at this project and the result is really neat and tidy.
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