First topic message reminder :

..grows a bit like this.

willowsend wrote:

What about the hand rail for when you get older You have to look ahead

I will be back in the UK by then

Is that a large bottle of 'Creme de Menthe' holding the slab down?


Just wondering.

Mint rakki

Now you are all going to think I am off my rocker here and you know, you could be right The balcony is finished now, all covered in plastic bag flowers. The woodshed is also finished and has some plastic flowers there too. The patio is coming on we had the gazebo bars made up now Dougie is putting it all together we will have a roof of wood and that fancy felt.

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Looking good...things like this have special meaning, simply because you have done it all yourselves.

I gather you are staying for the winter this year.

Ah thanks Bazz, yes staying here until next year now. Next we need to insulate the bedrroom walls ready for the winter.

Great to hear that Berni...gets quite lonely here when the snow lies gently on the ground.

We were here last year for winter and when we had the snow every morning the neighbours would ring to check on us also checked if we had enough wood etc. We are so lucky and blessed we picked this village

Today Dougie and Roger put the wood on the roof, tomorrow we will put heavy plastic waterproof before we put the felt tiles on.

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Hi Berni
The structure is coming on and for summer should provide a nice shady area I take it the roof base is OSB, which is having a waterproof liner then felt tiles, so an immovable structure, just an observation, but are the supporting poles strengthened enough to take extra weight? and have you considered the extra weight they will have to take if you have a heavy snow fall this winter :-
snow may weigh 15 pounds per cubic foot and drifted compacted snow may weigh 20 pounds or more... ” Let's figure this out... There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot of water - that's about 62.4 pounds.

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I am hoping so, as it would be a shame to see all your efforts destroyed by a bad winter,

Bill

bulgariabill wrote:

Hi Berni
The structure is coming on and for summer should provide a nice shady area  I take it the roof base is OSB, which is having a waterproof liner then felt tiles, so an immovable structure, just an observation, but are the supporting poles strengthened enough to take extra weight? and have you considered the extra weight they will have to take if you have a heavy snow fall this winter :-
 snow may weigh 15 pounds per cubic foot and drifted compacted snow may weigh 20 pounds or more... ” Let's figure this out... There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot of water - that's about 62.4 pounds.

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I am hoping so, as it would be a shame to see all your efforts destroyed by a bad winter,

Bill

Thanks Bill - we are learning as we go on so now will make sure we put extra strength on.

Well now after Bill's comments we looked at the structure again and even though it is metal bars and bolted onto the ground it does move and at present it is top heavy, so we had decided to get the big wooden posts and cut a grove down the middle so it fits around the pole, but that took too long to make a grouve so we will get tun and grouve make a box around the pole and fill it with cement do this for all the pole. So we learned another lesson

Hi Berni,
Sorry if I have caused you more work, but I thought it looked a bit top heavy, and would have hated not to say something and you find it buckled under a heavy snow fall or high wind. If you are going down the route of surrounding with wood and filling with concrete, would using heavy duty drain piping do a similar job? a be a bit more cost effective, pipe cut to length, then cut down one length,to allow you to place around the pole, drill a hole at the top and pour concrete into the hole and leave to set, you then have the choice of leaving the pipe in place or removing it and have concrete pillars and decorate?
Just an idea

Bill