I just thought that I would provide a new story line .
This story started in 1989 when I designed our house at Picton (NSW). I had permission from "She who must be obeyed" that I could incorporate a train room into the house as long as she got her kitchen and bedrooms, and all the other stuff that women want in a house.
As an owner builder, I decided to continue to excavate from where the garage side finished, and go just a little further, whilst not undermining the footings for the side of the house, so that the train room could be there from the start.
I originally placed 5 x 200mm Universal Beams under the bedroom (Reinforcing) approx 4.6 metres long. I should have kept going with the steel beam idea, as they were relatively cheap then, compared to now, however I didn't and placed 12 brick piers in the middle section of the house. The end result is that I have a 8.8m by 4.6m open area which runs into an area of 5.6m x 7.2m with 12 double brick piers.
I fully intend on removing 9 of the piers and replacing them with universal beams, leaving 3 piers to support the beams.
I have seriously restarted digging the sandstone to a level where a 100mm concrete slab can be laid, a 8mm bessa block wall built and a steel frame built on the bessa blocks, to be clad in villa board and a the whole thing air conditioned. This is a massive job, but so too was building the house, and it was finished. To add to the problem the clay has found a water table so I needed to place a concrete trough against the clay/sandstone wall and a draining system to divert all water from the bessa blocks. Check out the graphic below. The blue lines indicate the modelling area.
Tim--Having a good old go at rock breaking
At the moment all the rock in front of the hammer drill is at slab level
The pit will have a drain a water trap inside it to divert water
Lots of work to be done, but I am looking forward to the challenge.
The dumpy is absolutely essential for the correct levels.
The blue lines indicate the modelling area. This is stage one, stage two will include pier removal and more excavation. I could probably hide a helix in the far left corner, but then I would have to explain that is there to allow the trains to migrate to the back yard, and --- that's how the fight started.
More to come, much more . PS this is for a 7mm layout.
