Hatching the loftyness

Every loft needs a hatch. We already have one, but as the boiler is located up there, the hatch needs to have an integral ladder, thus an upgrade was on the cards.


Before fitting the new hatch, the old one needed to be removed. Additionally the ceiling at the top of the stairs was false, taking nearly 75mm of headroom away, and the old light fitting needed to be disconnected and removed.

Pics to the left show the 'before' state - the second is the point where the false ceiling stops, the original ceiling above is painted turquoise..!





Above the plasterboard was a lot of timber 63x38mm C16 CLS - that ceiling wasn't going to fall down any time soon. In pulling it down carefully I managed to salvage a lot of the quite hefty screws used to put it up - these were used later on on the new ceiling joists.






To the left shows just the hatch remaining on the original ceiling.









The hatch came out quite easily, along with the opening for the earlier original hatch around it.

At the same time I started cutting the original plasterboard in the position I wanted the new hatch. Irritatingly it's neither the same size, or in the same place as the hole I have already. You can see the joists which will need trimming.

Cutting the joist was quite simple and easy, given their structural nature, I spent more time finessing the position of the new noggins (hammer-time!)








Once they were in and fixed the new hatch lining was fitted once I'd separated it from the hatch and ladder (it's quite a heavy lift otherwise). I had to guess a bit on it's height, as I intended to plasterboard over the exising ceiling, and wanted to get a fairly flush finish.








Fitting the hatch and ladder was quite simple once the lining was in place. The ladder had to be trimmed to suit the still quite low headroom - the ladder is good for 2.8m originally. To acheive this I opted to trip a tread of both lower sections, rather than two treads off the bottom, this made for a shorter swing out, as the original full length mid section got very close to the airing cupboard door.

I had to stop for the day at that point, as I'd not got drywall screws long enough to go through 2 layers of plaster.

The following day (after a trip to collect the right size screws) I started boarding over the old ceiling - this was done with leftovers from the false walls - hence the blue board - it's much heavier and quite floppy compared to normal plasterboard, and not my favourite building

material, however it it saves having to go out and fetch more plasterboard then it's good enough. I also went about wiring in the new lights, which were recessed spots out of respect for the fact that the centre of the ceiling now has a door in it. They pick up off a junction box in the loft which was connected to the old ceiling rose. There's an additional spur from the JB to another spot position over the top of the stairs.

I could now go about finishing off the loft floor, which I managed most of (bar 4 panels) by the end of the day.

There's more plasterboard to go on the ceiling above the stairs, and then we can think about plastering and final finishes in that area.

Lofty aspiraitons

So here is the starting position - insulation removed prior to the electrical works. The bits of white tube are linked the AV sockets throught the house, this makes it quite easy to poke some tv co-ax or network cable down to where needed. The joists are 4x1.75" - above these running across are 4x2" nailed at each intersection with a 4" ring shank nail. Where the 2 4x2" overlap there's little if anything holding them together. My first job was to secure these joints as a crack had formed in the master bedroom ceiling where the joist had moved slightly (compounded by joints in the original plasterboard).

The long lengths of 2x4" were drilled and bolted together with 5 sets of M10 nut & bolts, each joint with the joists had a 6" deck screw put into it. This reduced the movement of the joists nicely, though in tightening up some of the joints a few joists lifted, putting cracks around the wall-ceiling corners of the room below, nothing that can't be fixed with filler.

A jolly evening was then spent replacing the fibreglass insulation.urg.

I managed to secure about a dozen 8x4' sheets of 18mm MDF for little cost, though transporting them was to be my own problem. I cut them to more manageble sized boards (4x2') and routed out a 6mm slot on all edges to allow a tongue & groove joint between adjacent boards. It took 2 runs to get the 50-odd boards back home in our surprisingly practical 3door hatchback..

Above each joist I fixed some 18x38mm rough sawn timber to lift the boards off the joist - strategic gaps in the timber allowed the unimpeded passage of wiring. Then it was simply a case of laying the boards.

On reaching the 'near' end of the loft I had to stop with the boards and establish the new position of the loft hatch.

An exciting delivery

Had this beast arrive today. Quick test fit and run up, then it'll go back in the box until we've finished decorating:

The TV has been a bit of a drama, due to it's size (50") and the fact it is a glass panel as it's plasma meant we had to have it delivered (glass panels need transporting upright), it should have arrived on tuesday (I'd taken the day off work to recieve it) but for whatever reason that didn't happen, so it was arranged to be redelivered on saturday. We bought it from Richer Sounds, who were excellent about it all (arranged the redelivery and refunded the delivery charge).

It's full HD, with network and USB connections to allow playback of computer videos, as well as music and photos. it has THX image settings and a whole host of other features and functions I'm still reading up on. The important thing is it's very well regarded by enthusiasts, and also very good value considering.

We also got a matching blue-ray player, and wall mounting kit. As you can see, it's all been carefully worked out to fit the space available, giving optimum viewing distance and angles. The result should be an excellent tv/film experience without detracting from the layout and function of the living room.

Holiday chaos

Given the weather and impending public holidays, personal and family comitments have meant the 'project' is on hold until normal service is resolved.

Thankfully we're away for the festivities, so will not be eating turkey amidst this chaos.

Kitchen progress

S spent the weekend with the tile cutter, and managed to produce this:

Pretty good eh? Actually starting to look like a kitchen.

The 'feature wall'

Earlier in the week we had an attempted delivery for the glass blocks, so thursday evening we took a detour on the way home to collect them from the delivery depot.

So today I got the glass blocks out, as you can see by the photos about a day will get you a glass block window. Its constructed with the bocks on extruded PU spacers that are glued in place with a funky smelling adhesive. It'll take a couple of days to cure properly, but even freshly built it's quite sturdy. I'll probably grout it next weekend, but in the meantime I've got a few gaps & holes to fill around the frame. There's also about an inch gap at the top which I'll try to wedge a bit of wood into and then fill/plaster over. The blocks are slightly narrower than the wall thickness, and also don't run parallel to the wall (the wall is far from straight/vertical) so there's going to be some creative plastering going on in that corner.

The last of the demolition?

Got my favourite tool out on sunday - the SDS drill/chiseller.

The intention was to prepare the hole/opening along the side of the stairs for a glass-block panel. Before and after photos follow:

Irritatingly an overgenerous mortar joint messed up the third 'step' but beyond that I found that the cinderblock is actually quite easy to work and get a fairly accurate cut

So the steps are pretty much where I want them. However it has yet to be seen if they are where they need to be. Glass blocks should arrive this weekend, then I'll find out.

Now that this has been done, the theory is there's no more messy/dusty work to be done. Apart from a small amount of plasterboarding, and lining the 'narnia' cupboard with timber & insulation. Oh, and levelling the floor.. hmm.