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I
will lose the existing veranda as the new building's footprint expands to [partially] enclose it. Mostly to the W, SW and south. Less to the north and nothing to the east. Where there is no veranda next to the shed roof.
Now I am wondering if I could use the largest "shelf
brackets" to be found in the builder's merchants to remake a new
veranda. The old veranda added a distinct touch of style. Enhancing the otherwise plain,
"oversized pencil-shaped" tower. The veranda also provided safe and easy access
to the exterior of the present, plywood dome for maintenance and sightseeing. The existing veranda was made of mitred, larch, terrace
planks over softwood joists. The planks being arranged parallel to each side of the octagon.
The "industrial sized" shelf brackets are rather limited in size. 300x550mm is the largest I have found online so far. 550x550 would be much safer and far more useful. I bought several examples for my workshop for making lumber shelves. I'd rather not measure them today. Because of the driving rain and fierce gales.
Failing
that I'd just have to make my own, wooden, diagonal brace "shelf "
brackets. Like the working platforms on antique, wooden windmills. The
main problem there is that rain would probably run down the sloping braces and
into the building. Though lead or DPC could be sandwiched between the wooden brackets and the building's plywood walls.
Straight lengths of steel/iron plumbing pipes could be employed to support
flying joists. This would require large holes be drilled in the existing
floor joists. This would only work with the drill perpendicular to the existing joists.
Various joints, flanges and straight, plumbing sections can be used to make supporting brackets. That would avoid rain running into the building.
A simpler, front balcony? That would allow work on the lower dome. Which can be rotated to bring the relevant section within reach. I don't really fancy putting up a tall ladder against the building. To do work on the dome up so high. Not without some extra security. There would be literally nothing to which to attach a safety line unless I added large, eye-bolts. Only narrow sections of the dome exterior can be accessed through the open, observation slit from tall stepladders inside the dome. This access is shutter dependent.
An alternative would be stairs up to a protected landing at observatory floor level. Reduced exterior security and exposure to winter weather causes me resist this option. I would also have to duck under the building's top ring to gain access to the dome.
So it is a toss up between my being able to bend sufficiently in increasing old age. Or being able to climb the steep inside steps at 70°. A larger building does offer slightly more room inside for a slightly more relaxed angle of stairs. I could rout out some wooden steps.
Tangential stairs are another option. Though with the same "ducking and diving" problem if they were exterior. A gently spiralling interior staircase would be feasible but at the mercy of obs. floor joists . This would still leave a large hole in the dome level floor. Requiring a handrail and trapdoor at observatory level for safety.
The least difficult option is to move the present warehouse ladder nearer the western wall. With the pier moving in much the same direction there would be little useful gain in headroom. I would still have to climb the steps inside the pier to gain access to the new dome. There would be a slight complication if I rotated the entire, pyramidal pier slightly to align it better to true north. It is presently oriented more like NNE/SSW.
Which only produces some very minor clearance issues when the telescopes are vertical. The pier being only slowly tapered from its huge footprint at ground level it remains large even at the top. Being a plywood clad pyramidal frame, this does not offer much of an obstruction on the ground floor. I simply left the four 4x4s bare below the observatory floor level. The timber legs are bolted firmly to the steelwork brackets attached equally firmly to their four, concrete foundation blocks.
There are other issues with joists and flooring at observatory level. I cannot simply remove the octagon's upright posts willy-nilly. The new uprights are almost a meter further out in the west. Which might require extensions to existing joists to carry some of the enlarged floor loads. I'm hoping the new uprights will be close enough to the present floor joists not to be a real nuisance.
Some trimming of the veranda flooring is likely though for the new uprights. The observatory's larch flooring is parallel with the octagon's north and south sides. Albeit out of line with true north. My plan to rotate the larger building's footprint around the fixed easterly upright posts helps the northerly orientation slightly. The pier's 4x4s pierce the obs. flooring with deliberate mechanical clearance.
So yet another issue to attend to. I'll be lucky of there is enough usable larch flooring to make good inside the enlarged dome. The original timber stockist of the larch flooring has long retired and closed up shop. I rather like the untreated planks for their traditional look. Though they were rather costly at the time.
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