Starting to put some skin on the skeleton

Right up at the top of the house we have created a mezzanine sleeping deck to better utilise the space, rather than just having an attic.
I had strengthened the dividing wall (which is only about 350mm thick at the top) with a couple of coats of our normal lime / mud render mix, however as the place next door is just used as a storage barn I wanted to insulate. 
That means dry lining the wall, so I knocked up a framework and as I had some spare foil insulation hanging about have used that and 100mm of isotherm fibre glass type stuff as the insulation and plaster-boarded over that. 

The foil has air gap in places and some places it is snug against the isotherm and the wall but it was the best I could manage without loosing to much space and will prevent heat loss through the wall to the empty space. 














The foil you can see in the roof over the chevrons is a temporary measure and was put up in feb 2012 to create a warm space for my son and his mate when they came over and trimmed all our oaks at project number 2 and helped me with the kitchen floor here (see earlier post) 
It will be replaced by 30mm celotex between the chevrons and 120mm over them then counter battened and plaster boarded.
Hmm toasty.

This is the banister thingy (balustrade?) that will prevent anyone falling from the mezzanine into the office below. It isn't fitted yet but you get the idea and size wise it is just over two meters long and about 50cms high.








Here you can see the insulated dividing wall leading up to the deck





We will be plastering (proper UK plaster) so we don't have to be too fussy about the taping and jointing and wont have to suffer the dust that sanding it down creates. My building guru has told me that we dont really need to bother T&J if we are plastering but I am, as ever, taking a belt and braces approach which wont do any harm. 


The staircase going up to the mezzanine deck is going to be hidden and disguised as a bookcase. and you can see the start of that process in the coming photos. We will be using light colour wash on all the exposed wood and sterling board which will blend it in with its surroundings although looks a bit stark as it is. 
It was originally a temporary one from a brico shed and has now been backed with 18m sterling board. 

Here is a shot of the back taken from what will be the under-stairs cupboard.




Then a shot looking up the stairs and one of the side in the room showing. I have beading that will fill the gap between the stair stringer and the wall to make it all neat and dust trap free. 












Here is the first part of the cupboard under the stairs door and its frame utilising old wood re-claimed from the original roof. The door was the old original hay loft door or might have been the back door I cant remember now.
We had all the old doors and re-claimed wood sand blasted so we could see what we had and I have to say it worked a treat 

If you can imagine a backdrop of white or cream wash on all the wood and bookcase extended right to the top of the wall and across the top of the understairs cupboard 








The rest of the office is now plaster-boarded out and the electric distribution box for that and the mezzanine is in as are the back boxes for the plugs and lights.








This is the upstairs toilet waiting for its skin.
The wall that leads to outside will be insulated, plaster boarded then tiled. The wall with the wires in it will be acoustic insulated with isotherm stuff and plaster-boarded. To increase the acoustic insulation the timbers that are to take the plaster-board will have a foam like membrane which prevents the wall form acting like a drum skin.
I have only just found out about this and would have used the same stuff between the floorboards and floor joists had I known. 

I wanted to get at least one of the bits of hydro placo up in the bathroom before we left and just managed it on the last day.
Loads of acoustic insulation and noggins and the main timber is 100 x 100, so nice and thick as I am no fan of flimsy stud walls.
A trick my building guru told me to make stud walls feel thicker and more sold is to use a double layer of plaster-board which although obviously more expensive might be worth the effort in some places. 











So that's us starting to put the skin on the skeleton.