Balcony Project Week 3

This "weeks" progress has been concerned with the finer details in the steels. especially the staircase. The tricky piece has been to ensure that there is sufficient head clearance at the lower end of the staircase to satisfy building regs. Keeping within the outline of the balcony has forced some rework to use a double turn staircase.

Next

Also arriving this week were some samples for the decking and support materials. In order to have better durability we have chosen to use plastic lumber for the decking substructure from Envirobuild.

This new material is made from recycled plastic waste and can be worked with wood working tools and methods. Having got some 3M samples of 3*1 the feel of the lumber does seem to be a bit different than wood possibly not having quite the same torsional rigidity. This will be fine for the decking support but not sure would work for the main support joists.

Looking further on to the finishing touches we are considering an illuminated handrail which will certainly add some glamour and price.  Something like this picture.

Balcony Project Week 2

Whilst it may have been more than 7 days since the last weekly update, there has been a bank holiday in the way. However progress has been made. After a visit of the local council building control inspector the holes are now about a foot deeper down to below the level of the drains.

Forward progress this week has been filling the holes with concrete and measuring/marking the back wall ready for the steel support pads to be inserted. Today Max from local firm WM Ironwork visited to do the measurements for the structural steels.

Next

The colour decisions have been made “dark grey pearl” for the support leg collars and front edge facing covers. This will blend with the “stone” decking, white under roof and RSJ pillars.

Things may go quiet for a while whilst the steels are cut and shaped to plan. The tricky bit of the steels is the staircase that has to be specificity customised for the hight/travel.

Design conundrum

What we have seen since the dig has progressed is the level of rot in the support pillars. Two out of the five front pillars at the front two show significant rot at ground level that goes some what to explain the sagging of the existing structure.

The existing 2008 built structure is wood and showing the impact of age, water and poor designs.  The original support should have been built on top of a water proof support similar to this diagram....



Also the joists are showing the start of rain exposure damage caused by external exposure and run through.


The new structure is to have a waterproof under decking laid on top of the joists preventing such damage in the futures. However the conundrum is do we use joists made of recycled plastic or traditional wood. Liking the idea of supporting the alternative wood materials industry but they do cost three times as much per metre.

After some thought we are likely to go for the composite decking with plastic lumber under support as this will be the rain impacted area.