Learn DIY brickwork.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, DIY brickwork. 

  A bricklayer laying bricks on a single wall in stretcher bond. Note how the mortar has been spread and treammed back and how he lays his bricks following his line. You can also note the position of the mortar board and the bricks, they have nees set like that, for the bricklayer to reach them easily. 

Welcome to our article, DIY brickwork. 

Dear readers, the original article of D.I.Y. brickwork is a long article; so, we are going to divide it up make, a few blogs, if you want to read it in the original form, click on the link above. Anyhow, I am writing this article ‘DIY brickwork’, because I am a bricklayer by trade, so, I want to share my knowledge with you.

I believe that even today, there are things that we must do ourselves, or employ qualified trades people to do the work. So, building knowledge can be helpful, for people that want to build something themselves.

So, we are writing this article of, DIY brickwork, to help people that want to do some building work. In this article, we are describing how to lay bricks and other building works. I know that people can appreciate this for different reasons, and most times could be just to save money.

But, to do any building work, whether is just repairs, or build a small something, or build a house, we must at least know in theory what needs to be done, unless we are tradesmen and knows what to do. So, it is wise to read articles about build. So, in this article we are going to write what we think can be helpful and paste articles that we think are helpful to learn how to build or repair things. 

But I want to point out that it is not possible to teach people to be a bricklayer just by reading a single article about bricklaying. For people that want to lay bricks, the best thing for them is to observe the bricklayers on the job, this is the quickest way to learn. However, even by observing how it is done, it will take a long time to learn bricklaying, in fact, it takes years to become a bricklayer but don’t be discouraged about that, because this article can help you, you see, you can learn enough to do what you want to do. Now, let me explain.

--------------------------------------------- 

Explaining my position and what we write  

Now let me explain, you should keep in mind that this ‘DIY brickwork’ article, is part of my life story, and I am writing this article ‘DIY brickwork’, since I am a bricklayer. I am partly retired now from building, so, I have been thinking that leaving behind my life building knowledge would be a waste; so, I want to share my building knowledge, and for this reason I am writing this article DIY brickwork; where we want to show you how to build with bricks, since we want to tell you how bricklaying is done, I have thought that it would be good to tell you how to build a brick base for houses step by step for a start.

So, dear readers please note that this article here is the first article about building with bricks, it will be followed by several other building articles, where we share our bricklaying and building knowledge with you; because then I feel that I have contributed in a small way to the community by sharing what I have learned during my life; in the hope that this can help somebody that wants to do some brickwork.

As we know, we are born with the capacity to learn things; so, we believe that most people can do building work themselves, if they are shown how it is done. Therefore, in these articles we will talk about the following activities: (1) How to build with bricks; (2) Building a brick base for houses. (3) Bricklayer laying bricks. (4) Getting ready to lay bricks. (5) Making sure we start the brickwork level; (6) Laying bricks on a sloping site; these are the main items that we are talking about in this article and the following articles. Of course, there is more to say about bricklaying, so, we are continuing with ‘DIY brickwork’ in our next article; Building a brick base, and we will continue to write about brickwork until we complete the brick base at least, even if we must write several articles about brickwork.

 

Building with bricks and other things. 

Dear readers, I believe that it is the duty of any human being to help humanity to improve their standard of living, as we have written in this website www.frankmenchise.com. So, let me pass to my readers some of my hard-learned knowledge, starting with how a bricklayer would build a house brick base.

But because it is hard to visualize some aspect of the bricklaying trade just by describing them, we are going to use some visual links from the internet to show you a few things about bricklaying, so, it is easier to follow, how to build this house brick base, I know that these are not my videos, but you see, ones you publish anything on the Internet those things are supposed to be shared from the rest of the community, at the same time whoever has published them can still claim to be the owner.

How to Learn the Basics of Bricklaying - YouTube

This link above is for people that don't know much how you lay bricks, however it is a starting point, of course there are things that a real bricklayer would not do, but there are also very useful hints for a beginner.  

How to Bricklaying Tips and Techniques DIY - YouTube 

This link above shows you other things and if you can use this together with what you have learned from the other links, you are on the way of learning how to lay bricks. 

How To Lay Bricks Like A Bricklayer - YouTube 

This link above shows you how a real bricklayer would finish his face brick wall, of course even here you cannot learn everything, and so if you are not a bricklayer, you need to visit most of other links here.

Now that we have pasted some of these helpful links here and we are pasting another one below in this article, let us continue how to build a brick base for houses. 

-----------------------------

For want of a better photo to show a normal house brick base, we are replacing it with this small brick base photo, just to give you the right idea what we are talking about. Anyhow, you can use your imagination to fit it to whatever you want to build. Now allow me to explain it in writing. 

Build a brick base for houses

To learn something, we need to observe how it is done; so, we are going to show you how a house brick base is built. I know that I cannot teach you how to lay bricks from scratch for an entire house base. But let us write, how a bricklayer would build a new house brick base.

Anyhow, as I said I am going to write so many details here, that it is like teaching somebody how to lay bricks, so, I am calling this DIY brickwork. Anyhow, for the following to make sense, we need to go back to our previous article House building in Brisbane, to see what we were doing on the building sites, when we were building a new house and we had reached the point where we were ready for the bricklayer to start laying bricks for this house brick base. 

Now what is going to follow here is how we bricklayers lay these bricks; here I am speaking with the knowledge of a bricklayer, and I may add that what I am writing here can also apply to other brickwork, because bricklaying is a repetitive job and once you have acquired the skills how to do one job, you can easily use this knowledge to do a different job.

So, now that I have explained myself, let me take you step by step how the bricklayers work, when building these brick bases for houses, so that, if you have in mind to do some bricklaying work yourself, you have some ideas of what you need to know. You need this basic knowledge because once you have laid the bricks and the mortar becomes hard it is a very hard and costly to fix it. I have to say also that it is easy to make mistakes here, unless you are an expert and really know what you are doing. So, let us follow how a professional bricklayer would start the house base, because there are a lot of things that must be kept in mind, before you even start laying the first brick.

The most important thing is that you start laying the first brick in the right spot, and this should be done at the lowest point of the foundation, otherwise you could encounter real problems later; so, how we bricklayers go about to achieve that you may ask?

Okay, here we should assume that some of our reader may not know anything about bricklaying, so, it is wise if we can describe to you, how a bricklayer lays bricks and then we will proceed to build the house brick base.

---------------------------------------------

How a bricklayer lays bricks.

Therefore, let us describe briefly how the bricklayer lays bricks, so that those that have never seen it done before, can have some idea how it is done. Let us explain this first, most of us are right handed by nature, but a few of us are left handed; now let us assume that the bricklayer we are going to talk about is right handed, so, he holds his trowel in his right hand and picks the bricks with his left hand; now let us go back to our last article House building in Brisbane, there we were getting everything ready for the bricklayers to lay bricks; so, we had set near the foundations, a combo-board and a stack of bricks and then again a combo-board and a stack of bricks and so on.

Now that you have this picture of the setup, you can see when the bricklayer lays bricks, first he spreads his mortar bed on the bricks, by picking up a trowel full of mortar and while he tips his trowel to let the mortar fall on the bricks he pulls back his harm towards his elbow, so that a long spread is achieved, if he likes to spread a longer bed then he picks a few more trowel full of mortar and spreads it, then he fix this mortar with his trowel more evenly, and at the end he uses the tip of the trowel to split his mortar and collects the extra mortar on both sides, then he picks up a brick with his left hand and at the same time he picks up a bit of mortar on the tip of his trowel, while he turns toward the wall he sticks to the head of this brick the mortar that he picked up and now he can lay his brick, these are the main things that we can describe here, and it would be hard to say more, unless you can see how it is done, so, I have found a bit of a video from YouTube to show you.

Here are a few videos from YouTube to show you how some bricklaying is done.

The Art of Laying Brick - YouTube

Images for bricklaying

These two links above would be very helpful if they work, because one shows a bricklayer laying brick and explaining how it is done step by step; the other link shows photos of many types of brick walls already built, many types of bonds and also brick walls while they are being built, let us hope that these links works for you, if they don’t try to copy them in Google search bar and use Google engine to find them.

We also strongly advise that if you really want to do a bricklaying job yourself, you must practice how to lay bricks before you start, most people find that it is harder than it looks and also think about it, practice make perfect.

Now that we have explained how the bricklayer lays bricks, you need to learn about important tools that the bricklayer uses, and we are going to talk about how to use and check the spirit level and make sure that it is okay. 

We also strongly advise that if you really want to do a bricklaying job yourself, you must practice how to lay bricks before you start, most people find that it is harder than it looks and also think about it, practice make perfect. Anyhow, hereunder we are pasting more link again hoping they can help you. 

----------------------------------- 

How to Learn the Basics of Bricklaying - YouTube

This link above is for people that don't know much how you lay bricks, however it is a starting point, of course there are things that a real bricklayer would not do, but there are also very useful hints for a beginner.  

How to Bricklaying Tips and Techniques DIY - YouTube 

This link above shows you other things and if you can use this together with what you have learned from the other links, you are on the way of learning how to lay bricks. 

How To Lay Bricks Like A Bricklayer - YouTube 

This link above shows you how a real bricklayer would finish his face brick wall, of course even here you cannot learn everything, and so if you are not a bricklayer, you need to visit most of other links here.

Now that we have pasted some of these helpful links here and we are pasting another one below in this article, let us continue how to build a brick base for houses. 

----------------------------- 

A good quality spirit level in necessary to do a good job, as I have already said, bricks must be laid level and plumb and this is what you can do with a good level, the most used bricklayers level is 1.2 m long

Bricklayers must have a good quality trowel to lay bricks, it is the only way to work efficiently, you see a bricklayer not only lays bricks with his trowel, he sometimes cuts bricks with the trowel, so, it needs to be of good quality. 

All brickwork must be built level and exactly vertical, so the spirit level, is a must have tool for bricklayers. 

Now that we have explained how the bricklayer lays bricks, you need to learn about important tools that the bricklayer uses, and we are going to talk about how to use and check the spirit level and make sure that it is okay. Anyhow, at this point of time, I believe that I have said enough in this blog, so, see you in our next blog, Explaining levels and the spirit level, D.I.Y brickwork part 2 

To see more click on this link, DIY brickwork. 

See you next time, in part 2.

--------------------------- 

Fixing the landing

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog we are going to talk about house repairs, since we have talked about the rest. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more, Fixing the landing 

Fixing those external timber landings 

This is the building where we are going to fix those landings. It is a brick-veneer building, this means that the building is a timber building, but the outside walls are covered in bricks. They work okay, but have their own problems.  

Fixing those timber landings

Welcome to our article, Fixing the landing 

Dear readers, in Australia and mainly in Queensland, timber buildings that consist of one story high have stairs and landings outside. They are built like that to save money, anyhow in this article we are going to talk about how to maintain and fix those outside patios or landings. 

The reason that in Australia we have stairs and patios or landings outside the main building, is to save space under the roof of the building itself; we do that, because it is cheaper and also easier to build, the Australian climate is hot and in most places dry, so, people like to live in the open, therefore stairs and the landings are outside. 

Now, because they are outside, they need more maintenance. Here we need to add that even though in Australia the climate is hot, and in most places dry, it is not so everywhere, so, those buildings that happen to be near the seaside tend to receive too much rain, so, they need more maintenance that those building that are in a dry place. 

This type of work must be done often, and it is better if we do them as soon as it is obvious that they need to be done, whether they require fixing or painting or both. Because when we don’t paint often enough, some flooring boards may start to rot away to the point where you need to replace them, sometimes this can be a few pieces of flooring boards, at other times most of them; anyhow today I have to fix this long landing, in this block of flats, which can be said is an open long balcony, depending on the way that you see it. 

With this landing, I have been able to repaint it without having to do any repairs on it, looks like that it can last several years before this decking needs to be repaired or replaced. 

This timber landing has been fixed and painted and now it looks better than before, I believe that it will last a long time, since the flooring timber I used is hardwood and of good quality.  

Today fixing this landing problem.

Anyhow, today I have this other problem to solve; the edge of this long landing that was fixed about fifteen years ago with hardwood timber, it was supposed to last a long time, but it is again rotten away, so, I need to fix it. I believe that the timber that I bought was not properly treated and low grade. I believe that today because there is a shortage of mature trees, the timber mills use any timber and some of this timber does not last long as it used to last in the past.

Now if you look at the photo below here you will understand, that this is not going to be an easy job to do, because there is this long steel handrail on top of it and cannot be removed easily, as it would cost a lot to remove it and then replace it again; so, I have to try to remove the rotten timber from underneath a short section at a time, while at the same time I prop up that section of handrail. As I have said this landing was renewed about fifteen years ago, and at the edge we used a larger piece of hardwood timber instead of the simple flooring boards, because we needed good grounds to attach the handrail to it, anyhow, it has worked out all right for fifteen years, but now it needs replacing.

Today because the grounds have rotten a bit more, I have decided to use a larger piece of timber, so that it can bridge better the outside edge of the landing to the timber joists, the timber joists come from the building itself and in this case work as a cantilever, like a very long balcony in a concrete building. Now because the hardwood has rotten in a very short time, I am going to replace them with treated pine slipper, because they are cheaper, lighter and easier to nail, I know it is a new approach and most builders may not approve what I am going to do, but I am going to try, I believe that the sleepers will last at least as long as the hardwood did. Anyhow, we will see how it works out soon; and then we will see if they are going to last in a few years.

This is the landing that needs fixing, what you see here, is a section of landing seen from the side. Note the bare patch of timber where the paint has fallen off because the timber is rotten.   

Replacing the timber edge

I have started to work to replace the old hardwood landing edge, with these new pine slippers, it is going to be harder than I thought it would be; to remove the old edge is very hard because there is the hand rail in the way, but in any other way is going to be more costly, I know it is going to be a real struggle for me but I am stuck with it. You see, we don’t want to spend a lot of money on these landings of this old block of flats, because the building itself is becoming old and in fifteen to twenty years is going to be demolished and a brand-new building will be build. We are saying this because this is how these timber building usually last in Brisbane Australia, old timber building reach a stage when it becomes necessary to replace the existing building with a new one; very likely the new building will be a concrete building, nobody really knows, what it would be the right thing to build, in fifteen to twenty years’ time, because the local by laws may change and also the way we build changes.

Anyhow, the other day I have pulled up some of the old edging and I have set the first sleeper in place, but I still have to replace about another three of them, and also remove and replace any other timber that needs replacing and then paint at least what I have replaced; but really I am going to paint the entire landing and also the steel hand rail that is rusting, it is going to be a long job, since I am doing it a bit each time, when I have some times to spare. Anyhow, I believe that it is going to turn out all right, as you can see from the photo below in this article. 

Now this is how the landing looks like after fixing it and painted the new timber edge, what remains to be done is to paint the rest of the deck and the handrail. 

----------------------

Other building things 

Dear readers, I believe that I have written several D.I.Y buildings articles, so, let us go back to see what we have done. In our last articles, D.I.W. house repairs,  we have talked about stairs repairs, and other things that we are going to review here, since there are many other things that can be done on these old timber buildings. We have also written about, House renovating, where an entire house was renovated; and fixing an old timber landing, of course, there other things that need to be done on a timber building, these things can be done, if the owners feel like doing it, anyhow try to do some D.I.Y, you will be proud you did, you see, I did and every time I see what I have done, I am proud about it.

Anyhow, here I want to add another thing that can be done in these timber houses. For instance here in Queensland most houses have a roof over their patio (veranda) most houses have large verandas, (since these are spaces that have a roof on them but they are open and have a hand rail around for safety reasons, if the building if off the ground) so, if an owner feels like that he is short of space in the house, and he needs a small room for the kids or a study, he can enclose some of the veranda space and have an additional room at this house, because there is no structural alterations and the roof is already there, this can be a D.I.Y. job, as long as you know enough how to do it. Anyhow, this is just an example how easy it is to do some repairs or small alterations to these timber houses.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. 

I also believe that I have written enough D.I.Y. articles in this blog. So, in my next blog, i will start talking about some problems that are happening in Australia.  

See you soon.

--------------------------------------     

Farming today compared to the old ways, part one NOW EDITING

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, we started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business. Now in this blog, we are going to write part of an old article called, Farming today compared to the old ways; we are doing this to give farming the importance they deserve, so that you know why we are talking about farming. When we finish with this article, we want to talk about some social issues that can affect all of us. We will start with some Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. We are starting with this article about farming and their problems, since farming is the most important part of our society, because it produces food for us to live. We hope to interest lots of people. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see this article in full,  Farming today compared to the old way 

                                  THE HARVESTER MACHINE

The best inventions that has helped farming a lot, must be the tractor and the harvester machine. 

Welcome to our article, Farming today compared to the old way, 

Wheat farming the modern way

Dear readers, this article is a long article that I have written in Hub Pages; so, I am going to split it in three blogs, the entire original version can be found here, Farming today compared to the old way. 

Anyhow, we will start with, wheat farming the modern way. I want to talk about farming today compared to the old ways, because I can mentally see the great difference that it has made in our standard of living. So, I believe that today we are better off than we were before; but let me see how I can describe this difference. Anyhow, I am writing about my life story, so, I mentally compare the ways of life of today to the ways of life in the past when I was young; for this reason, I have become aware that there is a great difference; in fact, the difference is so great that it is worth writing an entire article to explain my personal point of view.

Anyhow, we must acknowledge that this modern wheat farming in Australia, and in other parts of the world, it has slashed the present cost of living a lot, and this helps us to live a better life. We believe that this has happened because of the new farming machines available to the farmers, and the fertilizes available to them; so, farmers are able to produce wheat and other produce a lot cheaper than in the past, so, food has become cheaper, therefore, we are better off today in many ways.

In this article, we invite our readers to compare how different farming and farming life was at the time when I was young in the fifties, and also, how hard was life then because most of us had to work hard just to earn enough to feed ourselves and our families.

This difference that we are talking about applies to the farmers and the general public as well, because today it affects both in a beneficial way. So, there is a lot to be said about this great difference in cost and hardship or easiness, and this has happened during my lifetime. So, I believe that our standard of living has improved a lot, at least in the sense of being able to feed ourselves with wheat and other farm products, because the cost of farm products are more affordable today than in the past; so, let us compare the cost of living, perhaps for the sake of seeing where we have come from and how much we have improved since then.

Today we often wonder how easy it is to grow and harvest wheat, at least it seems so when we look at a video that shows harvest time in the wheat farms, we see a few harvester machines in a field collect the wheat in no time at all, and because of this speed of these wonderful combine harvester machine food is a lot cheaper today than it used to be; of course these machines are only part of the machinery that helps the farmers produce the wheat, because there are many more machines required. So, let us talk about some other machinery that the farmers require.

---------------------------------------

House renovating

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog we are going to talk about house repairs, since we have talked about the rest. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more, D.I.Y. house repairs, House renovating 

This house has been raised and renovated, it looks a lot better than before. You need to compare how it was before to see the real difference. It takes a lot of work to do that, but it is well worth doing it. 

Welcome to our article, House renovating.  

Dear readers, today because some friends in the suburb that I live are going to renovate their house, we have this opportunity to talk about house renovating. Anyhow, we want to point out that the timber houses in Australia can easily be renovated to various degrees, it all depends on what you want done, and how much money you can afford to spend, just look at this house that is being raised and renovated in Brisbane, look at the great difference of how this house looks now, and how it was before. Today this house looks like a new house, but it was an old house before these renovation works were done. So, in this article we are going to talk about this house renovations and show you some photos to see how the work progresses.

---------------------------- 

After removing the old garage door and the old timber enclosure. This house is now ready to be raised and re-stumped, or walls can be built around and under it, so that a few rooms can be added under the house. Anyhow, this is how this house looked like, when they were working to get it ready. 

House renovating needs trades people to do the job. 

Now, in this article we are going to talk about major renovations, so, it is not a D.I.Y article. Anyhow, we have been talking about building and how to do it yourself, in our last posts, we have talked about stairs repairs and fixing an old timber landing, but there are lots of other things that can be done on a timber building, so, in this post we want to talk about how to renovate a house. We invite our readers to follow how these things are done, and then, compare the difference.  

There are lots of things that can be done to renovate a house, some of those things can be done from the owners themselves, if they know how to use a paint brush, a hammer and a saw and a few other tools, they don’t need to be trades people ether, since owners can do a lot of things to their own houses, they can take their time and learn as they go while doing the job, after all if they make a mistake nobody will say anything, as there is nobody to answer to, so, try to do some D.I.Y work sometimes, you will be proud you did, you see I did and every time I see what I have done, I am proud about it, it gives you a good feeling.

In this article, most of the work must be done from tradesmen, because we are going to talk about raising and building under an existing timber house, you see, by raising a house you can add more living space to it, but there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of people involved. We will talk also about some jobs that can be done from the owners themselves, like painting the house after the house has been raised and fixed properly from tradesmen, so that the owners can save money. 

---------------------------------------

Timber houses are easy to renovate.  

As we know, the timber houses need maintenance, therefore, most people when there is a lot of maintenance to do, they will renovate. They may decide that they are going to raise the house higher, so that, they can build a few rooms underneath their house, this sounds strange in some countries that have only masonry houses, but with timber houses it can be done. In fact, timber houses are the most versatile houses, you see, you can even move the entire house from one place to another; but this must be done from experts that specialize in house renovations or removals, because this requires a lot of know how and a lot of heavy equipment, but it can be done, and the outcome of it, is that it is cheaper than building a new house from scratch.

Now that I have introduced the idea of what can be done with these timber houses, let us follow one of these houses that the owners have decided to raise it higher and build a few rooms underneath. You see, this house not only needs fixing and painting, it needs also re-stumping, because the original wooden stumps are rotting away, perhaps one or two have been eaten from the white ants, the house is too low to make decent rooms underneath, at the moment it is high enough to park a car and to store a few things, but that covered space can be put to better use if the house is raised. So, we need to think first how that can be done safely, and then, we must do that according to the local building requirements.

-----------------------------

Need to follow the local building laws.  

The local building laws here in Brisbane Australia allows the owners to fix the houses, replace the stumps and other things without consulting them, if there are no changes to the structure of the building, so, we can change the stumps replace any timber that is rotting away outside as well as inside and even carry some minor alteration inside. For most people that is enough freedom to carry on the works themselves, or employ a tradesman to do the job, but in this case of wanting to raise the house and fully enclose underneath the local authorities require the owners to submit a plan of the works they want to carry out.

Once you start with plans and everything else you know that it is going to cost a lot of money, so, before you make you last decision make sure you have a fair idea what they can cost you; you can ring a few firms that specialize in these works, and hope that they are willing enough to give you a rough estimate. Another way is to stop by where they are doing similar works and ask the contractor or the owner what is going to cost them. Anyhow, you need to know what it could cost you, even if it is a very rough estimate.

You have have done that, so, now you look for a firm that makes these plans; after that tell the person you have chosen to go ahead and make the plans for you, they should be able to tell you what the plans can cost, and also they can give you an idea of the cost and a few other things that you must do.

Once you draftsman or architect has made the plans and they have been approved from the local authorities, it is time to have a few quotes from builders or contractors, some people suggest that you get at least three quotes, and I think that it is the right way to go. After that you can chose who is going to do the job for you. You can decide this easily if you know somebody that does this work; if not go for a firm that is really specialized in raising and re-stumping houses.

Now all the decisions have been done, you have this firm that is coming to do the work, in most cases you have to move out of the house for a few days, or a few weeks, for them to raise the house and re-stump it. Here we need to point out that you need to have chosen a firm that has good tradesman and enough of them to do the job quickly, most of these firms know that and they are ready to do your job as quickly as possible. So, you are ready to move out as soon as they need you to move.

------------------------- 

Raising the house is a specialist job.  

Now, let us assume that the house remover team has come to do the work. so let us follow how they will do it. They start by reinforcing the house with steel beams attached to the bears of the house, because to make normal size room under the house, some stumps will be removed for good, so, there will be less stumps to support the house, and the steel beams will support the house, where the stumps have been removed.

They have done that, and now they make two rows of these large piles of timber, made from squares block of timber as shown in the picture beside here, they place across these square timber-piles two long steel beams one on each side right through the house, they put these big jacks under this steel beams three or four of them on each side depending how long the house is, and they start working the jacks up. They work as a team and they all pump the Jacks up all at the same time, first on one side of the house and then on the other side of the house.

Once the house is raised to a certain level, they pack more timber on these square timber piles and work a way how to move the jacks to a higher level, once they have done that they start pumping the jacks up again, they will repeat this operation several times until the required eighth of the house is reached.

Now that I have described to you that, it does not sound that hard to do it, but in reality, it is, because there is no room for mistakes, as a single mistake may put in endanger the workers that carry out this dangerous job, because they are under the house while they are raising it. Also, to do it, whoever does it needs a lot of material, see the large piles of timer columns made up from these large pieces of timber, they have to carry it around from job to job, not only that, but also the large steel beams that they place under the house, so, that they can use the jacks to lift the house, and all those jacks and other things, so, you need teams that do this work, to be on the safe side.

Anyhow, the team that raises the house, has successfully raised the house to the right level, and checked that the house is level, so, now a different job needs to be done, to replace the stumps with steel columns, or in some cases walls can be built to replace the stumps, instead of replacing them with steel columns. Anyhow, there are a lot of other things that need to be done as well. Sometimes the same people continue to do this job, at other times another team is required depending how this firm or builder works.

------------------- 

This is how the house was before raising it, one needs to compare this photos, with what it will be like when the house is finished.

Here the steel beams have been set in place and bolted to the timber bears of the house. These beams can carry more weight at a longer distance and some posts could be eliminated

This photo was taken while the work was being done. There is indeed a lot of work involved, and only people with the know how and a large gang of worker should attempt to do it. Just look at those big stack of timber that they use to hold the house

 Earth work and steel columns. 

In this case under this house all the timber stumps had to be removed, and there was an old concrete floor that had to be completely removed and taken away, then the foundations for the steel stumps were dug, after that the steel stumps were fixed to the timber bears and the concrete poured after making sure that the building was level. While the concrete is setting and becoming stronger as the time goes by, a steel worker is making and fixing these steel braces in a few places, as it is shown on the plan, these braces attach two columns one to the other, one end of the brace is attached near the bottom of one column and the other end at the top of the other column, a second brace is placed in the opposite way, so that the braces form like an X, this bracing makes the two columns very strong, because it transfer the strength of the concrete foundation of this column to the top of next column, in a lineal way.

After a day or two when the concrete foundations become strong enough to take the weight of the house and the stress of any movement of the house above; the house remover will come back to remove their jacks, their steel beams and their piles of timber, then the house will be fully on the new steel columns.

Once the house remover team has taken away their heavy equipment, the builder will come in and start by digging the rest of the foundations and concreting them as required; and then, they work out of to lay a concrete slab under the house.

-----------------------------------

Concrete slab and things to do next.

Anyhow, the house raisers have come and gone, now a builder and concrete workers lay the concrete floor, they level the ground under the house, work out the level that the floor is going to be, and start boxing accordingly. After boxing around the house, they lay the steel reinforcement, as shown in one of our photos, they get it inspected. When they are ready, they lay the concrete floor.

Now that the concrete floor has been laid, and the house is setting permanently in the right position, the builder can start to reconnect all those things that have been disconnected to raise the house, so, the plumber, the gas fitter and drainer will come to reconnect these things, there are plumbers that can do those three things, so, you don’t need to call three individuals to do these jobs. It is very likely that the power needs to be reconnected from an electrician, and many other electrical work, not only for the old house, but also for the future rooms under the house, perhaps a new power box is required, anyhow, the electrician will know what to do. But that is not all.  

Because the house has been raised, now the existing stairs don’t reach the ground anymore, so, the builder needs to extend or replace the stairs. After that the house upstairs can be occupied again, if there are no other major works to be done.

Anyhow, after doing a few other things, the owners move back to live in the house, because they want to save money, as they are on a budget, they realize that they don’t have the money to finish everything, So, they decide to enclose under the house and finish the external walls only. The rest of the walls will be left bare for when they can save some money to do it. Here we can say that for the time being, all renovation works on the house have been done. To save money the owners are going to paint the house themselves, which is a job that most of us can do. But after all this works on the house, the garden is a mess and the owner will do that themselves since they know how to do that. 

----------------------------- 

Anyhow, today I need to say that I do not have any more photos that I could show you, so, you need to click on this link to see the entire article, how it appears in Hub Pages,  House renovating. 

Gardening and other things involved.

Now, the yard needs to be made nice again, starting from removing those pieces of building material that are left over. The ground needs to be leveled, because there are hips of dirt and the ground is uneven, what we are talking here is not that we want the ground level, like we do when we build something, but we want the ground to follow the natural gradient of the land. After the yard is cleaned and leveled, we need to landscape the yard, or at least plant some trees or shrubs and then lay some lawn.

There are many other things that the owners need to do as well, to make the house and yard look beautiful. You see, the owners want their house to look beautiful and inviting, to do that it costs money, so, most times the owners do it themselves.

But it is worth to make the effort. After all, when we visit somebody house, the front yard and the garden is the first thing that catches the eye, from this view in mind, we start to imagine what we can find inside and what sort of people are living there.

Having said that, now we can go back to talk about our house and its garden. The owner of this house that we are talking about have done a lot of work and have fixed the yard and the garden, as you can see from some of these photos beside this article. I believe that they have done a good job.

------------------------------------

Fencing and other things

After doing all this work on the house, now the house looks great, but there are fences that are so ugly that need replacing. So, these owners have replaced also some fences. They have also built a brand-new fence in the front, as you can see from to photo above. Today they still should finish the rooms under the house, and they will do that when they can save the money, but most of the work has been done and they are happy about it.

I think I have said enough in this article, so, see you in our next article, where we are going to talk about, fixing an old landing.

 See you soon.

-----------------------------------------