C O N S E R V A T O R Y   B L O G
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Guttering, Trim and Tiles

Since the last update I've been busy fixing the doors into their final position, adding all the trim and sealant, but mosty importantly, getting the guttering in place.

On Saturday my dad came over (again!) and we got started getting the floor tiles down. We needed to use a levelling compound to bring the floor level. We also needed to use a PVA based solution to seal the porous concrete base. This took most of Saturday - together with the guttering.

Once that was done, we could measure up for the tiles and get them all down. This took all of Sunday.

Bank holiday was spent grouting and cleaning the tiles.

Today's pearl of wisdom: Buy a proper tile cutter (around £15 from B&Q), it will save you no end of broken tiles!

Storms-a-brewing!   (stage 9)

As you can see from the photo below, the tarpaulin collected a substantial amount of rain water during Monday. When I got in from work, I found the tarpaulin wrenched from it's fixings by the weight of the water and on the brink of depositing said water into the conservatory.

With rain and gales forecast for Wednesday and Thursday we decided that the tarpaulin would not be up to the job and that we needed to get the real roof on before the bad weather arrived.

At 19:00 on Monday, we set about fixing the roof in place. There is almost no physical space between the neighbours fence and the side of the conservatory, so all trimming and decorative fixings needed to be attached as we went, through the gap in the roof. This was reasonable easy, but required time and thought to make sure we did everything in the correct order and didn't miss anything.

Because of this, we only managed to get the first of the 3 polycarbonate roof sheets in place on Monday evening before it got dark. I took an emergency morning off work on Tuesday morning to get the remaining 2 roof sheets into place.

In the evening, I hung the doors, though these have yet to be properly aligned.

Cheese Infill   (stage 9)

My dad popped over again today and we started getting the roof 'cheese infills' into place. This are triangular 'cheese' shaped pieces which help give the roof it's slope.

We discovered that the conservatory is approx 1cm narrower at the back than at the front. We're not sure how, but hopefully this isn't going to be a problem.

The single most important piece of the conservatory is the rear roof beam, which bears most of the roof weight. This had to be attached to the wooden frame we constructed in stage 8. It has always been marginal as to whether this beam would fit in under the existing house roof guttering, or whether the guttering would need to be moved somehow in order to accommodate the beam. I'm very pleased to say that our original calculations (going back to April, before we ordered the conservatory) were almost spot on and although there's not a lot of clearance, the beam does fit just under the guttering. This is a major bonus as we now can leave the house guttering in place.

Oh, and we also ran out of silicone sealant!

Framed   (stage 9)

We've been working all week on getting the window panels into place and I fixed the last panel into position Thursday (though the last panel will have to come out again in order to fix the doors). They all went in without a hitch which is a good sign that we got our measurements correct in the early days!

Ros popped down to Travis Perkins and got hold of a cavity closer. This is a small plastic thing filled with expanded polystyrene which sits in the wall cavity, between the base and outer wall that would otherwise be under your foot as you step out of the door.

Getting the door frame in was quite a substantial job as it required a lot of measuring and testing before we could actually fit it. I had to add a small slither of packing to vertically even the wooden frame up with the dwarf wall on which is sits. A small amount of packing was also required under the door frame to bring it to the correct height.

Once this was in all in place, we had to take the last window panel back out, fit the door frame - bolting it into the dwarf wall, then re-fit the last window panel. This is because you must finish the panel fitting with a corner panel, in order to get all the correct screws and bolts in. It was all extremely 'snug' (tight!), but we managed it in the end.

Windows!   (stage 9)

Ros and I started work tonight on putting up the window units and we've now got the first two panels in place.

It's tricky work though because of the limited access we have to the left hand side of the conservatory (because of the fence). We're basically having to ensure that we're creating water tight seals and adding all trimming and decorative bits, as we add each panel. Once the whole conservatory is finished, it will be impossible to physically get down the side of the conservatory, so we have to make a good job of it first time!

We're hoping that the lack of access down one side of the conservatory won't be a problem for putting the roof on, but it's something of an unknown at the moment.

Onwards and Sideways...   (stage 9)

During the last week I've been working on and off fitting the timber frame, which I've now finished. This included cladding the frame on the outside with waterproof PVC slats. When the conservatory is up, the timber frames will be filled with insulation and covered with plasterboard, which eventually will be plastered over.

My dad came down yesterday and we started work on actually putting up the conservatory! stage 9. We've only got the sills done so far, but we hope the rest will go up quite quickly. The instructions that come with the conservatory leave a lot to be desired though!

Timber!   (stage 8)

Another productive weekend saw the half of the timber frame constructed for stage 8 of the conservatory. The timber frame sits under the roof soffit and fills the gap between the conservatory and the house. It's vital that the timber frame is structurally sound as it will have to provide the support for the conservatory walls and roof. For this reason the frame is made from thick 3" x 4" timber.

It's then bolted to the wall using special metal anchor bolts, bolted to the dwarf wall using more anchor bolts and screwed to the roof timbers (exposed by removing the soffit board). Basically, it's not going anywhere!

The finished frame will be cladded on the outside with white PVC slats to protect from the elements, filled with insulation and have plaster board on the inside. But that's next weekends job.