With great pleasure, I am handing this blog over to Whistlewood volunteers. If you would like to contribute, you can write your own piece as Chris has or send me notes using the contact page or via Whistlewood.
By Chris Gregson – 25th June to 2nd July.
With the continuation of the good weather the build has progressed well with the visit of the timber certification company on Monday and the second building inspection undertaken on Thursday. Also, in a busy week, the track was completed!
We can now move forward with the roof construction over the next few weeks.
As most of the round poles are structural they have to conform to a standard (GS/C16) which means that they are strong enough to carry the loads required of them. This is something to do with the general state of the timber, number and size of knots, size and length of any cracks (also known as ‘shakes’ or ‘shivers’), any evidence of insect attack or disease, rate of growth and many, many, more little indicators to numerous to mention. All of the large structural poles passed as did most of the smaller ones, the rejects will be put to other, non-structural, uses.
Meanwhile I’ve spent much of my time this week painting the steel supports and brackets which hold the roof together. The ones that will be seen post construction have been painted, as above, in a delicate shade of ‘wild thyme’, this is what you get if you leave the colour choice to me! A fairly mundane job but one that needed to be done, however it did mean I got to work in the shade.
The walls now have the timber top wall plate in place which will be stuffed with straw for insulation and a top OSB board fixed in place to complete the structure. Once this has been done the walls will be compressed prior to the roof structure being started during next week.
Additionally: not really to do with the Roundhouse build, but just as important, we can now announce the completion of the new ‘accessible tree bog’ which was given its official opening at the ‘midsummerish festival’ on Saturday.
Enjoy.
Chris Gregson.
Get involved?
We will soon need lots of willing hands.
Once the roof structure is complete (building the roof will take three to four weeks), we will be nailing on several thousand cedar shingles. The bottle floor (weekend job) will follow soon after. Then we have some key finishing jobs – the lime and mud plastering and the decking.
To find out more keep an eye on this space, visit the Whistlewood website, read your newsletter (members only) and talk to the Whistlewood members in your life.
Michelle Spaul 