Project from Hell

**wattlewemake** · 14th June 2007, 11:07 PM

I have been pretty quiet in relation to posting any pics of work completed. This been partly due to being very busy at work and a project that just kept growing in size.

It all started out as a way to reduce the noise from the motorway behind our house and grew out of control from there.

Pic 1 shows what the side of the house looked like originally. A daggy sandpit that was bordered by some koppers logs. Problem was the sand kept getting dragged onto the patio as you walked past.

Pic 2 shows the slab we poured over the sand pit area. Was a huge job as the ground was as hard as concrete and just happened to be the spot where the rubbish tip for the builders was.... bricks,steel,roof tiles, packing tape, plastic... you name it it was buried there. I broke my shovel and bent my crow bar numerous times digging the retaining wall/ rat wall footings. The pics are deceiving as the retaining wall is 600mm high at one end but doesnt look it.There is about 400mm of ratwall below the retaining wall as well so lots of concrete.Oh and the slab slopes 50mm down from the house to match the patio just to complicate things.

Next time I will get an excavator in for sure.

Pic 3 shows the wall around the slab being erected. It is a garden walls product and is easy to install. The panels slide in between the posts and then are painted to look like a masonary wall. The panels are 50mm wide and are polystryene sandwiched between cement sheets. Light as.

We used this to reduce the noise from the motorway and it does work reasonably well.

Pic 4 shows inside the wall on the slab with the tank installed and the wall painted. The tank was included as the qld govt were handing out rebates for tanks and I thought well if its only going to cost me 40 odd dollars why not...

It also helps to reduce the noise as the noise is muffled through the water.

**wattlewemake** · 14th June 2007, 11:39 PM

About this time we had some cockatiels in a cage under the patio. One afternoon a hawk got in and killed a baby and nearly killed the rest so we put them inside out of harms way. Unfortunately the friendship didnt last long. Feathers and fluff all throught the house caused swmbo to order an outside avairy to be built. So the journey continued....

Pic 5 shows the avairy frame panels welded up and bolted in place. It was made to be bolted together in 4 pieces in case I had to move it or extend it in the future. My 2nd hand GMC welder got a damn good work out during this. I found I had a lot of trouble with current control till I worked out it was the earth clamp. A new 400Amp clamp fixed most of the dramas with inconsistant current and blowing holes etc.

Pic 6 shows the mesh insert panels starting to be installed (bolted in place) and the roof in place. The roof and back panels are refridgerated coolroom panels that I got cheaply and sealed with aluminium edging. Easier than building a wall with ply or the like. The overseer thought it was a good place to lay around as the panelling kept the concrete nice and cool.

He spent more time in there than I did.

Pic 7. Next came the mini orb corrogated iron on the bottom and the timber framing around the iron and the mesh insert panels. The timber is 40 X 19 spotted gum and was sealed with 3 coats of sikkens cetol 7. The gum was pretty hard and when I ripped some of it on the table saw I had lots of smoke but I havent got it 100% set up right yet.

Pic 8 shows the final product. All finished and the birds enjoying thier new home. I even used my domino to help erect the frame inside the cage. Works a treat. Pity everything I have bought doesnt work as well as she does.

All in all I think it come up quite well and am pretty happy with it.

**RufflyRustic** · 15th June 2007, 09:35 AM

Hi Wattlewemake

Fantastic job all round - very neat and tidy. Looks like you've even got the foreman's approval

congrats on getting a tank for $40

cheers
Wendy

**Cliff Rogers** · 15th June 2007, 09:49 AM

Hey Shane, is that a bird-dog or a dog-bird in the new avairy?

Top job, looks good.

What sort of birds do you plan to put in there?

**JDub** · 15th June 2007, 09:57 AM

Nice work

I love before and after threads... keep em coming

**wattlewemake** · 15th June 2007, 10:43 AM

Thanks for the kind words.

Cliff the birds are cockatiels and at present there are 6 of them in there. The dog is a vizsla so it is a bird dog. He eats anything... apple, mandarines, bird seed, you name it. So maybe he is a dog bird lol

Hopefully he will be a good guard dog and keep the cats away from the birds.

Jdub I would of done it as a wip but it took me over a year to do the whole lot so I thought it best to take photos along the way and then do a wip at the end. Other wise it would of been one of the longest wip on the board and everyone would of been wondering if it would ever be finished.

Shane.

**Cliff Rogers** · 15th June 2007, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by wattlewemake

... it would of been one of the longest wip on the board and everyone would of been wondering if it would ever be finished...

Nothing like BM's canoe.

**Geoff Dean** · 15th June 2007, 02:16 PM

Hi Shane,

Nearly got myself a Visla a few years ago, was a toss up between them and the weimaraner, the Wei won, only just.

Bit of trivia, did you know that the Visla is the oldest pure bred breed around?

Regards, Geoff

**ozwinner** · 15th June 2007, 06:59 PM

Rat wall??

If there are so many rats that you have to build a wall, why dont you just poison them?

Al

**MajorPanic** · 15th June 2007, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Nothing like BM's canoe.

Or his DC system

**lightson** · 23rd June 2007, 04:22 PM

hi guys

as I am new here in this forum, I am an interior designer and as one of my senior colleague recommended me this site to learn fast and get suggestions from expert , so here I am ...

My areasL Garden, Landscape, House, Appartment etc...

Thanks for letting me be the member and sharing..

Charlene Lewis

**Barry_White** · 23rd June 2007, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by lightson

hi guys

as I am new here in this forum, I am an interior designer and as one of my senior colleague recommended me this site to learn fast and get suggestions from expert , so here I am ...

My areasL Garden, Landscape, House, Appartment etc...

Thanks for letting me be the member and sharing..

Charlene Lewis

Welcome Charlene

This is a bit of a madhouse but has some very experienced people here and also a lot of inexperienced people but out of that mix some great ideas come to the fore.

Enjoy

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