Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 102Sep 25, 2015 12:50 am Build thread http://tinyurl.com/llgc7yk Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 104Sep 26, 2015 12:12 pm Interesting note about joining the sides. How about the top, can just run a full length plate on from outside ? Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 105Sep 26, 2015 3:58 pm rocksteady Interesting note about joining the sides. How about the top, can just run a full length plate on from outside ? Forgot to mention that Rocksteady - the engineers said I could do the interior joins with 600 centres but the spacing of those 'indents' made 500 easier to manage. They said the same could be done for the roof - so outside I will be doing 100mm lengths of 75 x 6mm strap every 600mm centres. Just finished all the interior joins today and will start the roof tomorrow if the weather improves (Wet and cold down here today.) Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 106Sep 26, 2015 4:45 pm waxinggibbous rocksteady Interesting note about joining the sides. How about the top, can just run a full length plate on from outside ? Forgot to mention that Rocksteady - the engineers said I could do the interior joins with 600 centres but the spacing of those 'indents' made 500 easier to manage. They said the same could be done for the roof - so outside I will be doing 100mm lengths of 75 x 6mm strap every 600mm centres. Just finished all the interior joins today and will start the roof tomorrow if the weather improves (Wet and cold down here today.) Ahh too easy then You have done really well cutting out the walls so low, my back hurts just thinking about it! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 107Sep 27, 2015 10:37 pm Love how you call that snake a 'little' fella, it's huge!! We also had the authorities around checking for tussock but we are lucky that we don't have many at all. I am curious about the mange in wombats, I didn't realise it was a problem. What can you do about it? Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 108Sep 28, 2015 12:05 am MnT I am curious about the mange in wombats, I didn't realise it was a problem. What can you do about it? Hi MnT Mange is quite widespread and causes a long, slow painful death for wombats. When it gets bad the animals spend so much time scratching themselves they don't spend enough time feeding during the night and therefore can often be seen out during the day looking for food. Mange is caused by a parasite similar to scabies and they believe it is spread by foxes which have a tendency to explore wombat burrows. Severe mange: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Healthy wombats (to get the previous image out of your head!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ It can be treated if you can find the burrow of an infected wombat. It involves a simple contraption made from an ice cream container lid with a bottle cap full of ointment glued in the centre. This is hung over the burrow entrance and when the womabt enters or leaves it tips the lid and the lotion is deposited on the back of the wombat. A serious case of mange can be treated with a once a week dose in about 6 weeks. Treatment flap: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Wombats are becoming an endangered species (farmers can be quite ruthless towards them because they burrow under fences and occasionally try to burrow into dam walls. They find it easier to shoot them than find an alternative method of prevention.) There are about 200 Northern Hairy Nosed Wombats left in existence. That makes them one of the most endangered mammal species in the world -ore endangered than the Sumatran Tiger! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 109Sep 28, 2015 9:47 am Thank you so much about the Wombats, I'm glad you put in the healthy photos after the mange ones, poor little devils - those pesky foxes just another reason to dislike them! Being on a property we are native animal lovers but have never seen a wombat on the property, the closest one was about 4kms away so they must be around. Good to know there is a simple treatment, will have to look closely if we ever see one. My build thread: Custom build on 40 acres viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75656 Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 110Sep 28, 2015 7:36 pm Wow I'm sorry about the hold up re the engineers - but thank you for all that info re the wombats <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=62083">viewtopic.php?t=62083</a><!-- l --> Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 111Oct 12, 2015 7:00 pm Finished the roof welding last week:
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Two of us tried lifting the 7M steel beam up to the roof so I could drill through the brackets into the cross beam. But it was too unwieldy so I will have to find another approach. Meanwhile - as it is Spring I have urgent thistle business to take care of outside. I swear I can actually watch the thistles growing. I finished building a water tank stand today. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ With more things growing in my veggy garden carrying water 50M from my dam is too laborious. So I bought an IBC 1000L water tank and made a stand for it so I can gravity feed water to the garden. I sank the poles to just over 800mm and used concrete. I then braced the poles on all four sides and screwed the pallet to the bracing and used metal strap to tie down the water tank. The tank is a little smaller than the pallet so I set it off centre so one side is directly over the 2x4 on the pallet, and I added another plank inside the pallet where the other edge of the tank sits for extra strength. I think I will box in the poles and add a hinged door a little later on - then I can use under the tank for storage - perhaps leave the water pump there. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I bought a 5.5Hp petrol powered water pump from eBay for just under $160, the greenline poly pipe (70M) cost $225, the tank was $95 and the four corner posts $28. So the whole thing cost around $500 - which is what I saved by doing all of my tussock spraying by hand!! The pump filled the tank extremely quickly - a few minutes and it was done. Now I need to fit an adapter for the 60mm outlet so I can attach a garden hose. $35 from somewhere in Sydney or $5.77 from Hong Kong via eBay. Hmmm...difficult choice! (I just LOVE eBay!) Still - even without it I was able to fill the watering can in seconds which made watering so much easier. The strawberries already have fruit developing on them and I'm putting pumpkins in tomorrow. Last week I was saddened to find a dead wombat outside my northern boundary fence on the side of the road - my neighbours had hit it the night before. But on the bright side there has been wombat activity around my wombat holes so I still have at least one wandering around! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 112Oct 22, 2015 10:19 am Hi waxxingibbous, thanks for all that info you have been amazingly busy, good to see you making progress with your shipping container house even with wombats, tussock, thistles, water tanks and vegie garden to deal with also. Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 113Nov 01, 2015 11:08 am Paul is visiting for a few days so it was a perfect time to get the last ceiling beam in place.
Our last attempt was thwarted as it was too heavy for us to get into position to predrill the holes. So since my last post I made a template of the bracket and hole positions and drilled the holes into the perpendicular beam that is already in place. (After checking and checking etc etc a zillion times as steel doesn't allow for errors of even a millimetre.) Being too cheap to hire any type of mechanical lifting device, I knocked up an adjustable tripod in about an hour and a half and used this to support one end of the beam whilst the two of us focused on the tricky end. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I found a use for all of my used cutting disks - washers! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Once the tripod was in position, one of the "L" brackets was bolted in position, the beam hoisted over it and the second "L" brackets fitted and bolted in place. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then back down at the other end the steel tube support post was put under the beam and welded in place. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So I now finally have a fully supported interior space. It was a relief to get this part finished. While I was inside doing the welding Paul offered to take my brand new (early Xmas present) lawnmower for a spin and he cleared around the veggie garden and made a path down to the dam. (The grass is already over knee height and I needed a clear path to take the water pump down to the dam every now and then.) "Just do over to the tree line thanks Paul..."!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ While he was mowing a path around the near edge of the dam he was suddenly shocked when a large red belly black snake shot out from under the mower and made off into the long grass. Fortunately the mower is on its highest setting so it escaped unscathed. Rhubarb is coming along nicely: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and I have just started collecting my first strawberries: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Quite exciting for someone who has never had their own garden let alone ever grown any of their own foodstuffs! I have also newly planted pumpkins (2 varieties), capsicums, beetroots and basil to go with the rhubarb, garlic, mint, strawberries and chives. But now I must get cracking on the build again! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 114Nov 01, 2015 5:48 pm Quote: So I now finally have a fully supported interior space. Does that mean that all the structural work is finished and you can move on the more architectural work? I can see some window/door frames leaning against the wall. When are they going in? Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 115Nov 01, 2015 6:23 pm Is that only two shipping containers wide? The width looks much bigger than I imagined <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=62083">viewtopic.php?t=62083</a><!-- l --> Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 116Nov 01, 2015 6:33 pm Beetaloo - the beams were almost the last structural work before I move on to doing the roof and back verandah (as its roof forms part of the overall roof.) I still have about a dozen of those blue poles to install which will go alongside every window and door opening (one per each) for extra support. They just need a bit of welding to the top and bottom beams. I have had all of the windows sitting patiently waiting to be installed for several months now! Unfortunately I am not very good at organising myself to work on several different parts of the house at the same time. I tend to take each task one at a time, research it and then tackle it. Great waste of time I know but I'm nervous about doing something out of sequence and getting in a mess. Every step of this build is a new thing for me which entails lots of research, then searching for products/getting quotes etc before embarking on it. But the vague plan is roof, then plumbing, interior framing and window fixing. Electrical first fit then external insulated panels, then....??!! But it's still an exciting journey so far - I hope I can maintain the enthusiasm and pick up the pace! (Returning to casual teaching has been a real shock! So trying not to do too much of it.) AKB - the main living space is three containers - so approximately 7m wide. This will be the largest space I've ever had to live in!! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 118Nov 02, 2015 7:10 pm Looks fantastic, love the garden updates, great work on the water pump too. Very sorry to hear about the wombat, I get so upset seeing dead wombats around our place on the road - although selfishly I am happy the haven't burrowed in our horse paddocks. Build thread http://tinyurl.com/llgc7yk Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 119Nov 24, 2015 9:43 pm Anyone on here understand fluid mechanics??
I'm having trouble with watering from my garden tank. The IBC tank is raised about 1.5M off the ground. It has a 18mm hose leading from the tank (as the tank adapter had a 20mm outlet) which is one metre long: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and I put a simple 18mm to 12mm reducing plug to join my standard garden hose to it: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The problem I have is that the water comes out of the reducing plug with a lot of pressure but when the 12mm hose (12m long) is attached the flow drops considerably. If there is a spray gun attachment on the end it comes out very slowly and when the spray gun is removed the water doesn't come out at all. Would I get a better flow if the entire hose was 18mm? I only need it to be 12M long. The way it is right now is that it is quicker to take off the 12mm hose and fill a watering can from the 18mm hose!! Re: Tondelver House - Southern Highlands 120Nov 25, 2015 8:04 am You need to maximise the head (the height difference between the water level and the outlet) and minimise the friction loss (ie: maximise the size of your pipes and minimise the length). At our campground we have our IBC on a 4m stand and use 25mm pipe right up to the tap. The pressure and flow rate are good but if we then connect a 10m garden hose the results are poor. So, go with the largest pipe you can and keep the distance and pipe fittings to a minimum. Probably best to use a drip system and a mechanical tap timer for your irrigation. If you do go for the timer you might need to try a few different models as some of them need a fair bit of pressure to operate and they restrict the flow even further. 1 10481 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17588 hi guys. Please be nice. First time home builder in Qld. I would like some feedback please on whether I should build my granny flat first before my main house at the… 0 4587 |