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With the threat of rain hanging over me I pottered on trimming back the beams where they met the shed eaves. That resulted in further work on the 'corners' [angles] nearest the shed. I need to make room for gutters on the shed. It was never necessary in the past but I don't want rainwater splashing up or lying in the gap between the buildings.
I also added a floorboard at the front where there was a large gap between obs. floor and the veranda. The flashing will cover the boundary between the face of the obs. and the veranda. The flashing will be tucked under the nearest veranda floorboard to ensure rain running down the obs. wall is carried away. Hopefully avoiding any rain running back into the observatory itself.
Earlier on, I was afraid the bulky 2"x8" front beam was going to dominate the view of the observatory. However it now lies in deep shade under the veranda floor. So it will be lost in the front wall of the lower building. I have no experience to guide me. So there can often be ten trips up and down the sturdy aluminium ladder.
Boarding the veranda has been a slow and difficult process. Pride demands reasonable joints at the angles. As did the dominating miters at the change of angle on the rim joists. The weather and natural changes in the timbers has altered the accuracy of my patient cutting.
Crucially, I never used a cord line to mark the perimeter of the octagon posts at the beginning. So I never really had an accurate guide to the external dimensions of the veranda. I just made them look right to my own eyes. Looking above and below the veranda beams at the octagon beams allowed me to see non-parallelism if it existed. I had already checked levels and uprightness of every post, joist and beam using reasonable quality spirit levels.
In practice the perimeter of the veranda is not truly parallel nor even truly concentric to the octagon sides. I don't think this really matters because the wedge shaped boards nearest the octagon will be concealed by the flashing. I don't think it would serve any useful purpose to fix the veranda to true geometric precision with the octagon. It would probably just look twisted and perhaps a bit mean.
I would certainly recommend that anyone building such a structure set out the project properly with cord lines. Their absence in my case was simply ignorance of normal building practice. The concrete footings were never precision placed but could have been by using cord and posts. I tried to hold the building accurate by measuring between posts with a tape measure. The braces between posts were mostly [almost] the same length. None of this affects the strength nor appearance of the structure. Which is/are the important thing[s].
In my own defense I was lax at times because the support posts were bent or twisted or became twisted in use. Where do you measure from when the start and end points have rotated or moved?
The Head Gardener makes a regular inspection of progress and workmanship.
Those who work with wood every day would know whether to reject such material at source. Or know how to deal with natural changes in the materials. Or how not to build using such simplistic methods as my own. Scaffolding would have saved me not being able to reach the upper floor until much later. Simply because I was unable to lean a ladder up against such a loose and flexible structure.
Boarding the veranda has been a slow and difficult process. Pride demands reasonable joints at the angles. As did the dominating miters at the change of angle on the rim joists. The weather and natural changes in the timbers has altered the accuracy of my patient cutting.
Crucially, I never used a cord line to mark the perimeter of the octagon posts at the beginning. So I never really had an accurate guide to the external dimensions of the veranda. I just made them look right to my own eyes. Looking above and below the veranda beams at the octagon beams allowed me to see non-parallelism if it existed. I had already checked levels and uprightness of every post, joist and beam using reasonable quality spirit levels.In practice the perimeter of the veranda is not truly parallel nor even truly concentric to the octagon sides. I don't think this really matters because the wedge shaped boards nearest the octagon will be concealed by the flashing. I don't think it would serve any useful purpose to fix the veranda to true geometric precision with the octagon. It would probably just look twisted and perhaps a bit mean.
I would certainly recommend that anyone building such a structure set out the project properly with cord lines. Their absence in my case was simply ignorance of normal building practice. The concrete footings were never precision placed but could have been by using cord and posts. I tried to hold the building accurate by measuring between posts with a tape measure. The braces between posts were mostly [almost] the same length. None of this affects the strength nor appearance of the structure. Which is/are the important thing[s].
In my own defense I was lax at times because the support posts were bent or twisted or became twisted in use. Where do you measure from when the start and end points have rotated or moved?The Head Gardener makes a regular inspection of progress and workmanship.
Those who work with wood every day would know whether to reject such material at source. Or know how to deal with natural changes in the materials. Or how not to build using such simplistic methods as my own. Scaffolding would have saved me not being able to reach the upper floor until much later. Simply because I was unable to lean a ladder up against such a loose and flexible structure.
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