I even brew it and bottle into the Grolsch flip top bottles, which I believe is the only way to drink a good beer!!

The castors? or the bench?

The bench is 100 by 100, however I mucked up by edging it with Merbau, I should have (and will replace the edging) just done breadboard ends.

The castors are good quality rubber ones, about 50mm diameter. I have skirting on three sides of the island, and the fourth skirting is shorter allowing me to lock in the brakes.

Cheers

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Good move. I put a couple of brews down a while ago. It tasted like sh*t, but it got you pissed so I acquired a taste for it . I got sick of all the cleaning and capping though. Brewed by the keg, kept in it's own fridge would be the go I reckon. Thanks for that. I'm just interested in the castors. Yours looks great with the contrasting light and dark grain. I might do the same myself.
I was thinking about how high I'd have to make the bottom shelf for the castors. I saw one in a kitchen being installed on a job I was working on and they were huge (about 100mm diameter) and exposed with no skirting. It had a thick slab of composite stone on top. It was very stable.

My rotten old chipboard/laminex kitchen is falling apart and I want an island bench in the new one I’m building. I want to make it the same dimensions as the original one in this picture, about 700 wide with the bench top at 1200, overhanging 350 on one side for bar stools. I’m thinking of making just a pocket for each wheel with a compartment under the bottom shelf filled with sand for weight and stability so it’s less likely to tip over when leaning on the overhang. I’m also thinking of a removable ‘clip on’ kickboard for one side to access the castor locks on two of the wheels.
I could leave the bench in the middle of the kitchen, or spin it around to make an L shaped bar/ servery to the family room. In that pic you can see my new deck and bifold doors.

edit: In that first pic, it's supposed to say 'new doors to loungeroom', not lungeroom. I don't do much 'lunging', but I lounge around a lot.

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Cheers, John

Short Stack (my son's band)

This is a budget update on our extension.

We have the roof on, all but 2 windows installed, flooring down, deck down. Our next step is the external cladding, wiring and plastering.

In summary our budget to get this much done was $50,469 and the actual cost was $52,359.

The breakdown is:

Estimate Actual
Footings $11,055 $7,829
Trusses/Walls $14,600 $15,967
Roofing $6,610 $8,985
Flooring $8,964 $5,429
Doors/Windows $8,200 $9,862
Scaffolding $0 $800
Hire $0 $115
Tools $1040 $3,316
TOTAL $50,469 $52,359

Some notes on this, for those that are interested. I was actually hoping this figure would be closer to $45,000 however there have been some blowouts.

I spent around $1,500 on F17 ash lintels, which I didn't budget for. Likewise I have spent a lot, probably upto $2,000 on connectors, nails, grips, plastic, glues etc that I wasn't really counting on. Plus an extra $2,300 on 'tools', mind you most of that was for a car and some for a cement mixer. And finally we spent an extra $3,300 on a bi-fold door rather than a set of sliding doors. The door looks great, but was a fair bit more than I was hoping to pay.

I will be providing a bigger report on the sliding doors later, as well as the decking (for which I used dek-tie - which was discussed earlier)

Cheers

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The decking was completed a few weeks ago, but I am a bit behind with updates.

The subfloor of the decking was a direct continuation of the main extension subfloor. Duragal flooring system, which was welded rather than the attachment as suggested by Duragal.

The decking used, was Belian (an African hardwood) which was 80mm wide and rates 1 on the Janka scale. The deck size was around 25 sqm, and the timber cost close to $1000 ($2.90 per lm)

I ended up using Dek Ties, as referred to by this thread. I did try the dek loks, which bang into the side of the boards but they were useless on the hardwood. These dekties, come up a treat, but be warned it was taking me about 20 minutes to do each 4.8m board, as they need to be biscuited, the dek tie inserted, pre-dilled (I was using steel joists) and then the next board marked. Also they are not cheap, including delivery they cost $200 for a box of 500 (40 cents each - about 30 cents over priced I thought) And I needed two boxes!

I have included a photo to show how they work, and as far as I can tell the only company selling them in Australia is the DeckKing from Melbourne.

I also included a set of external, step lights in the two steps for the deck. These look great at night and were well worth including for around $130, they come with a transformer and are definitely a DYI job.

As for the finish I ended up using Floods Spa & Deck, which cost around $190 for 10 litres from Bunnings. This product has received big props from people on these boards and so far I am happy with it. I ended up putting on 4 coats and will probably put another 4 on when the job is completed. It was simple to put on (although it does stain peripherals easily - such as doors, etc so be careful).

Not including the subfloor the deck cost around $1600 or about $64 per sqm. I am trying to dig up a photo of the completely finished deck, but that may have to wait.

POSTSCRIPT: These pictures are lost as well

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You do know that OneSteel doesn't recommend screwing decking to Duragal? Don't know why but it's in the back of the Duragal flooring guide:

"The use of screws to attach timber decking to joists on external decks and verandahs is not recommended."

It also looks like you didn't end cap the joists. Are they internally painted? In any case they recommend fitting an end cap and flashing it with Norton Flashtac to keep out moisture.

We welded all ours too. Much better job than using tek screws but it's a b!tch to weld without distortion.

I have also finished installing the windows and two of the holes which tie the existing house to the extension.

The windows were from Wunderbar and are aluminium, with a powder coated finish. The glass is called super grey toughened which we think is pretty cool. The glass is essentially a privacy glass, which means we can look out but people cant look in (although at night the shoe is on the other foot - the show is ON folks!!) Essentially, what it means is that whichever side of the window is darkest is the one you can see through (light reflects off the glass making it hard to see through). We love them, and have ordered blinds for the night, but in the mean time the neighbours are getting a free peep show. They really open up the vision and have changed the feel of the place. Another caveat is whilst they are also great sound barriers, they are not a very good insulative product - the heat bears through. This will be the other use of the blinds, although we are considering awnings and trees outside as additional alternatives.

All up we installed 6 of these windows, with screens throughout the house and them plus a 3.7m Noosa bifold door (which blew our budget) cost just under $10,000.

When installing the windows you need to be careful with the reveals. These are the bits of timber which encase the windows. I used 135 by 19mm reveals on half of the windows and the door, but I used 110 by 19 mm on the three windows at the back of the house. This has ramifications for the outside cladding, which I will explain when I post up some stuff about the Hebel.

The holes I am referring to are the two places where we knocked out large pieces of load bearing walls and replaced them with our lintels. Firstly we took up the load with Acrow props, which are indispensible. Next we set up some drop sheets and tried to minimise the mess as much as possible. Then after some hand wringing we started knocking things out. I used a piece of F17 as the lintel, which sits on some of the remaining brickwork, we have also tied the new frame back into the brickwork with bother expander foam and dynabolts.

I have one more hole to go, then I can start mucking around with the plastering.

I will post some pictures of the windows once I have them, batteries are a bit dodgy on the digi.

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Yeh, I actually talked to the steel supplier about that, and he didnt seem that fussed about it - so I ran with him!

And yes I forgot about the end caps, but I will put them on there in particular as that is the place most likely - wont take much to unscrew the facing boards on the step

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He wouldn't, it's not his house!!

Like I say, don't know why, they don't elaborate. I assumed it has something to do with corrosion prevention but can't work out what. Maybe the mositure follows the screw thread or something, where as a nail is sealed tight all the way around. They're very particular about pointing out waterproofing, tek screws with neoprene washers, flashtac everywhere. I followed the guide to the letter, that way if it fails I've got come back. We sprayed the insides of all the bearers and verandah beams with fish oil then welded steel end caps and welded top caps to the posts. Put end caps and flashing on all open joist ends. Joist tape under the decking. But then I'm only 5km from the ocean. It's borderline here whether we should have used it or not.

The next job we completed is the Hebel powerpanel.

As per the website:

"One Hebel PowerPanel is equivalent in area to around 72 standard bricks and can be installed in 3 minutes, making it a much quicker installation alternative to bricks or blocks.

A 2700mm long x 600mm wide panel weighs less than 75kg and is easily carried and lifted into position by two people. Panels are screwed to installed tophat sections and edge glued with Hebel Adhesive."

Don't be fooled by this blurb, if these things are 75 kg then I am a hairy coconut. They were friggin heavy and took quite a deal of maneuvering for two of us to put up.

The top hat took a fair bit of laying out, and it you need to have all your windows and doors in first. This was one trap I referred to earlier, because i used smaller reveals then I also had to use small top hats (the standard is 45 mm) I ended up using 28mm cyclone rated ceiling battens. This meant that the Hebel wouldn't sit proud of the window frame around the windows where I used the smaller reveals.

The Hebel cost $3,100 and included screws and adhesive (I bought my own top hat because I had a fair bit spare from the roof). Including labour, the Hebel cost about $4,300 installed which sounds very cheap, however as opposed to brickwork I still need to spend another $5,000 or so on rendering.

I was very cautious with the expansion joints, the installation guides suggest minimum every 6 metres, but I ended up sticking them around every window and door and every 3 metres in the longer sections. Of our whole extension, the Hebel crakcing and going pear shaped is my biggest worry. Every 2nd Joe that drops in has something to say "Termites love it, It cracks really easy, I hear its carcinogenic etc" Allthough I dont know anyone who actually installed it!! Time will tell I suppose.

And for SilentC's benefit who obviously has an eye for it, there is also a minor hiccup which you can spot in one of the photos - any takers?

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I know what you mean!!

I was going to use joist tape, but decided to go overkill with the finish, I am hoping that a large portion of the finish washes down over over the screw heads and acts as a sealer to some degree.

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Anything to do with a downpipe?

Nah, it was the sill under the window. I should have cut them all at an angle to run up under the weather strip on the windows, but for a couple a left a little ledge. I think if these windows were sitting out in weather more, then water would just sit there or worse, run under the strip. Luckily the two windows with the 'protruding sills' are are under cover.

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Damn! I thought you'd put the downpipe pop in the wrong spot, that looks like a bit of stormwater pipe sticking out of the ground on the left in the last photo. Trying to be too clever...

Nice try, but thats the escape vent for the sewerage. I'm not sure what you call it but thats where the crap flows out before it comes back up into the house.

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OK, that's the gulley trap. You normally would put a tap over it because it needs to be always charged with water or you get a smell coming up from the sewer.