Next steps

As you might have seen in the last blog post, I started taking down the timber boards that were under the plaster (and reeds) in the bedrooms. The boards were full of woodworm and they were not very level. This would mean hours of work leveling before being able to hang the slabs. As well as that, I wanted to get an idea of what kind of condition the joists underneath were in - especially because the boards had woodworm.

It turned out the joists were in pretty good condition - no evidence of woodworm, and no rot. The joists vary between 11cm x 16cm and 18cm x 16cm. The spacing was not as much as in the living room floor, but it is still pretty wide, at about 95cm (centre to centre).

As part of our heating plan, there is a 1000L tank to be installed in the attic above the bedroom area. The tank diameter is about 1m (including insulation). 1000L on an area of about 1.57 square metres (3.14 * .5) means a mass of a tonne (1000L) on a very small surface area - i.e. considerable downward pressure. I didn't want this tank resting on the 95cm spacing between the joists. As there is a supporting wall running perpendicular to the joists I figured it would be possible to construct a timber support for the tank like in the sketch below. The timber beams would hang from the existing joists using steel joist hangers. They would also rest on the wall in the middle. This would hopefully spread the pressure of the tank over the existing joists and (more importantly), down through the supporting wall.

I had to call Johannes Stuckenberger to order more OSB boards to finish the living room. While on the phone to him, I asked him what he though of my plan to support the water tank. He pointed out that one of the prerequisites of getting the building plan passed by the planning department was that a static engineer has to sign. We might as well wait and see what the engineer has to say then. Here are two pictures of the area where the water tank is proposed: