ASO MILL Blog

Finishing the deck 人工木材デッキ #2

2021-04-10 by David

デッキの作業が結構進んでいます。この前、デッキの大引きと床ができましたので、今度デッキのステップと柵を作ります。


Work on the deck is progressing nicely. In the previous blog the supports and the floor of this big deck had been completed, so the work this time is to finish off the edge of the deck, make some simple steps at the front, and build a fence around it. Let's get started...




▲ デッキ下の大引きや柱を隠すために人工木材の薄い板を再度に張ります。下のほうが植物や花壇で隠すと思う。そして、6か月以上ステップはなかったですが、やっと作れるようになりました。あとちょっと。。。

 

To hide the under-deck supports from view, I used thinner planks of this artificial wood around the outside. The bottom few centimetres will eventually be hidden with maybe some flowerbeds or grass, I think? A couple of steps were added at the front, with leftover scraps of aluminium supports to hold it up!





▲ 柵は人工木材とワイヤーで作ります。人工木材はもちろん何年間も使えますが、ちょっと高いですね。ということは柵の柱と手すりだけを人工木材で作ります。残りはモダン雰囲気のステンレス2mmワイヤーでつなぎます。ハンズマンDIY店から80mのワイヤーを買いました。

 

この人工木材の柱は中空ですので、その中に70cmのボルトを入れて、写真のようにワイヤーにつなぎます。簡単でしょう?!

 

Artificial wood lasts for years and years, since it doesn't rot like normal wood, but making an entire fence from it would be very expensive indeed. So to reduce costs I decided to only use artificial wood for the upright posts and the top handrail, and fill in the rest of the fence with wire. I had a cunning plan to style it to look a little more modern, and prevent it from looking too bad.

 

I bought 80 metres of 2mm-thick stainless steel wire from my local DIY store, and a set of aluminium crimps to make the ends. The centres of the upright posts are actually hollow, so I decided to slide in a long metal bolt (to the ends of the fences), and loop the wires around it inside the post.





▲ 柱をデッキの床に固定したときにこんな感じでした。

 

Once the upright post was slotted on to the base pads and the wires were loosely inserted, this is how it looked.





▲ 反対側の柵がこんな感じでした。そのステンレスのネジ/フックが5cmほどアジャストできるので、ワイヤーの張力が調整できます。

 

Once the top handrails were screwed into place, the fence had enough rigidity to tighten the wires using the adjustable screw hooks at one end. This pulled the wires tight, and finished the job!



 

▲ 手すりも床と同じ人工木材板を使いました。床との接続ポイントが少ないので、あまり強くないんですがワイヤーのフレームだけで十分ですかね?

 

最後にステップの端っこにも薄い板をはりました。

 

There aren't many connection points between the fence and the deck floor, so it doesn't have a massive amount of strength laterally - you can't lean against it safely or sit on it, for example. But it does have enough rigidity to pull the wires tight, so that's fine.

 

The last thing to do was to attach some edge planks to the front steps.

 

 

 

▲ 完成だ!やっと!ケイティちゃんも大喜びです!

 

And here it is - my finished deck!! At long last!



▲ 現在の感じです!

 

次はデッキ上の家具作成と家のペイントです。楽しみに。。。

 

So this is how the Aso house currently looks. The next work will be to make some tables and chairs for the deck, and then start painting the house! Woo!!

 


Tags: deck  デッキ 




Sign-making 看板作り

2021-04-06 by David

昔の染め教室の時代から看板柱まだ残っていますので、そこに新しい時代と新しい目的を示す看板を飾りたいです。

 

There's a lamppost out by the street, from the days when this used to be a dyeing workshop and painting studio. It also has a crossbar for hanging a large sign, so I want to hang a sign there to show the new purpose of the building!




▲ まずはロゴのほうから始めます。まだ目的が決まっていないんですので、あとからそれをロゴに入れます。最初には名前だけを決めます。「Mill」は英語で「Windmill」(風車)や「Watermill」(水車)で使われていますが、最近3Dプリンター業者にも利用できます。ということは3Dプリント工房という意味になります。そして、ロゴの「ASO」の文字をよく見ると「A 3D」にもなりますので、「A 3D Mill」(3Dアトリエです)という意味も入っています。ロゴの周りに昔のローテクの歯車とハイテクの回路基板も混ざっています。最後に「阿蘇観る」という意味も見えますね。(あと、苗字のニックネームも入っていますが、だれも分からないよね!)

 

I need to start with a logo first, and this is the design I came up with. The text includes the word MILL, which is currently in use for places where 3D printers are working, in the word "print mill". Since that's one of my hobbies (and side businesses), I wanted to include that, and if you look closely at the word "ASO" you can also see the letters for "A 3D ... Mill", which describes the building neatly. Plus it includes my nickname from when I was at school, but of course nobody knows that! Finally, it's also a play on words in Japanese  - "miru" means "see", so the sign also reads as "See Aso" in Japanese. Yes, cheesy pun, I know!

 

The cogs and circuitboard parts are to show the blending of low-tech and hi-tech elements in the building.



 

▲ DIY店からプラダン4枚重ねって木材柄のシートをなりました。強化するために周りにアルミのフレームを付けました。

 

I used 4 sheets of lightweight "plastic cardboard" stuck together, and covered by wood-effect cutting sheet. I added an aluminium frame to give it strength and neaten it up.

 

 

 

▲ 職業も看板作成の時もありますので、カッティングマシンはすでに持っております。ロゴのデザインをその機会でカットして、両面に張りました。

 

I occasionally make signboards as part of my job anyway, so I happen to have a small cutting machine. It did a pretty good job of cutting out all the parts of the logo onto black cutting sheet.





▲ 最後にこのブログのURLを指すQRコードも張りました。

 

To finish it off, I added a QR code to point curious passers-by to this blog (and eventually a website for whatever business I chose to run here).





▲ 看板柱に付けるとこんな感じです!これで満足です!

 

じゃ、デッキ作成に戻ります。。。

 

Looks pretty good hanging outside the house, with a new light above it and some waterproof string lights!

 

Right, I'd better get back and finish the deck properly...

 


Tags: studio  アトリエ 




Making a deck 人工木材デッキ #1

2021-03-31 by David

春が来た!ずっと楽しみにしていたデッキ作りが始めます!

 

…ですがその前、家のサイディングを直さないといけないんです!

 

Spring is finally here! I've been looking forward to the first project of the year - a wooden deck!

 

... but before I get to that, I have to take care of a few fixes to the outside of the house.

 

 

 

▲ デッキ作業の前の様子。草や要らない植物いっぱいありますが、ほとんど抜くつもりです。そして、この写真でははっきり見えないんですが、正面の前に古いデッキちょっと残っています。ただし、結構危ないんですね。あっちこっち壊れています。

 

This is how the house looked just before I started work on the exterior fixes and the deck. As you can see, there's a lot of overgrown weeds and bushes all over the place, and I plan to take out most of those eventually. It's a little hard to see the old deck at the front of the house from this photo, with all the weeds in the way, but it really needs to be removed! Most of the wood is rotting away, and I've put my foot through it in several places.





▲ まずは、地震のダメージで割れたサイディングを外しました。4年間も水が入っていた大引きを修理しましたが、3センチほどずれた柱を元の位置に戻すには力が足りませんでした。そこで、3トンのカージャッキでちょっと上げて、ハンマー叩きで横に3センチ戻せました。成功!

 

近くの工務店から新しいサイディングを注文しました。8枚ほど入れ替えできました。デザインは若干違いますが、家をペイントしたら気がつかないと思います。

 

The first repair to the exterior of the house was the removal of broken siding panels. The worst patch is at the side facing the street, where a couple of the upright posts inside the walls actually shifted slightly during the big 2016 earthquake, and pulled the siding off. As a result, water was able to get at the wood for 4 years during heavy rain, so I had to make that damage good.

 

Getting the posts back into the correct place was quite problematic, but I managed to solve it by carefully raising the upright post slightly using a 3-ton hydraulic car jack, and bashing it back in place with a sledgehammer. I replaced about 8 panels with siding ordered from a local store, and hopefully it should be pretty invisible once the house is painted.





▲ じゃ、次は古いデッキを壊しました。古い木材がとても弱かったので、たった1時間で終わりました。

 

外したら、ポーチ屋根の柱にまた地震のダメージがありました。地震の時にサイディングが割れたなのに、水が入ってきました。両方の柱の下の50センチほどの入れ替えが必要でした。また3トンのカージャッキでちょっと上げて、修理できました!

 

The second repair job was on the thick wooden posts supporting the front porch roof. Again, the earthquake had cracked the siding panels and let rain get at the posts, and as a result the bottom 50cm of each post needed to be cut out and replaced. As before, the car jack saved the day, by letting me raise the roof a few centimetres to remove the bad wood and make it good.





▲ ペンション村の方が「阿蘇の湿度で木材のデッキは大体5年間まで」と言われましたので、今回何年間も使える人工木材でデッキを作ります。20年以上使えたら嬉しい。

 

ネットでいろいろ調べましたが、やはりハンズマンDIY店から注文しました。作りたいデッキは大型のL形になりますので、3メートル幅で約11mx15mデッキが必要です。せっかくですので、柵を含めて予算は60万円となります。家が安かったから(350万円)、今回だけお大きい買い物します!

 

商品を集まるのがちょっと時間かかたそうですが、配送料は何と3800円です。大体1.5トンの人工木材がありましたので大型トラックと2人のスタッフで来ました!

 

Aso has a very humid climate, and according to a neighbour, wooden decks only tend to last about 5 years! Yikes! So I looked into using artificial wood for the decking, so it would last for the next 20 years instead. This is wood-dust, glued into resin and shaped into planks. It shouldn't rot, I hope.

 

After some internet research, I decided to order all my wood and aluminium support beams from my almost-local DIY store, Handsman. The deck I want to build is about 3m wide, around two sides of the house, in a large L-shape. It's approximately 11 metres at the front, and 15 metres at the side - which is pretty big! So, including the fence I want to include, my budget will be $6,000. The house was very cheap ($35,000) to buy, so I'm happy to spend this large amount this one time, since it will transform the whole house, I think.

 

The DIY store delivered all the artificial wood and metal beams on one large truck with two staff to shift it - in total it probably weighed about 1.5 tonnes! The delivery fee was $38, which was pretty reasonable, I thought.

 





▲ アルミの大引きが45センチほど開けて、前からあったコンクリート土台に固定しました。L型ブラケットやビスがすべてアルミ商品に入っていましたので、助かりました。

 

その上に4メートルの人工木材を載せて、大引きに固定します。

 

The deck is supported by aluminium beams spaced about 45cm apart, and these are attached to the concrete base using the L-brackets which were helpfully included with each beam.

 

On top of that, I carefully lined up each of the 4m wooden planks (each weighing about 10kg), and screwed them down.



 

▲ 今までの作業がスムーズに進めましたが、家の横に古いレンガのステップやコンクリートがまだ残っていました。全部取ったらすごく時間かかりそうだったので、上の部分だけを壊してデッキで隠せるようにしました。ちょっと恥ずかしいけど、時間の節約ですね。

 

So far the deck-building had gone fairly smoothly, if a little slowly. But at the side of the house there was a large amount of solid brick steps concreted into the floor. I was not keen on removing every last piece of this, so I removed the bare minimum using a sledgehammer, just enough to fix the support beams over the top. I'm a little ashamed to admit I was too lazy to remove and carry away several tonnes of brick, and instead just built the deck over the top. Once the edging of the deck is in place, everything will be hidden from view.

 


 

▲ デッキのL型一応できました!端っこがこれから付けますが、とりあえず使えるようになったので、嬉しいです!

 

At this point the floor of the L-shaped deck was done. Even though the edging has not been finished, at least I can now use the deck! Yay!

 


 

▲ 正面にステップも作らないといけないですね!まだまだです。。。


I also need to build some steps at the front. Still lots to do before it's finished....


Tags: house    deck  デッキ 




Birdhouses バードハウス

2021-03-26 by David

春が来ます!やっと!ということは家の周りにある林をきれいにしたいですので、バードハウスを作ります。

 

A quick project to brighten up the outside of the house, now that I am starting to turn my attention to the deck (not built yet!) and garden (also not built yet!). With spring on the way..... sometime?...... I wanted to make some little birdhouses.

 




▲ バードハウスのかわいいデザインをネットで見つけて、3Dプリンターで3個も作りました。プラスチック材料は1個約500円でできましたので、安かったですね。

 

I 3D-printed these cute little birdhouses for about 500 yen each, from a free design I found on Thingiverse.com





▲ 家も赤にペイントするつもりですので、バードハウスもマッチするようにペイントしました。

 

I used some red house paint to make them two-tone, so they'll eventually match the house.





▲ できるだけ窓から見えるところに配置しました。1個目は2階のソファから見えます!

 

This first birdhouse is located on the big cedarpine tree right outside the side of the house, so I can see it from the 2nd floor living room sofa.





▲ 2個目は1階のホールから見えるところです。

 

The second birdhouse is also at the side of the house, visible from the 1st floor hall window.





▲ 3個目は玄関の読書スペースの新しい窓から見えます。ラッキー!

 

And finally, the 3rd birdhouse is at the front of the house, right outside the new reading nook in the entrance hall. Looks a bit nippy right now (!), but hopefully some little birds will find it useful in the spring.

 


Tags: garden   




Wood stove 薪ストーブ #2

2021-03-25 by David

薪ストーブの煙突も作らないといけないんですね。しかし、その前の作業には1階の部屋をちょっとリフォームしたいです!

 

The stove and platform are now in place, but next I have to fit a chimney pipe before I can use it to heat the downstairs hall. But first, I took the opportunity to redecorate....



▲ この壁をもうちょっとインパクトがあればいいなぁと思ったので、つや消しの「チャコール」でペイントしました!

 

After removing the extractor fan and water taps from the far wall (it used to be a painter's workshop too), I decided to create a slightly more 'high-impact' wall, using matt paint in a "charcoal" colour.





▲ どう?確かに違いますね!

 

LIKE it alot!





▲ ベンチソファの上に壁クッションを作りたいと思うので、それは木材に板のところです。その上にイケアの安いフレームを張りましたが、まだまだ内容は決まっていないんです。最後に、一番上に中古エアコンも付けました。エアコンも壁と同じ色でペイントしましたので、見づらいかも?

 

I thought the matt dark grey would make for a great contrast with these chunky thick white picture frames (from Ikea), where I can display some paintings, photos and artwork. I'll get to those later, I guess?!

 

The wide wooden boards are to mark out the location of a padded backrest for the sofa, and I even managed to squeeze in a used airconditioner above the picture frames, to help with heating and cooling. Of course I immediately painted that over in matt grey paint too, to keep the focus on the artwall!





▲ 薪ストーブのコーナーに防熱のケイカル板を張りました。いつか飾りタイルで綺麗にしますが、特に急いでいない。

 

じゃ、次は煙突の作業です。この高さは全然問題なかったけど、屋根の上にH型のキャップなどを付けないといけないので、それは一人で大変でした。揺れる梯子の上にちょっと怖かったが、やっとできました。

 

In the corner I fixed two heat-resistant boards made from calcium silicate, from my local DIY store. The stove is not very high output, and it's also positioned at an angle to the walls and at quite a distance, so I judged it safe from fire hazards there. For the chimney, there needs to be a large square hole in the wall empty of any wood or insulation materials, and into that hole you place a super thick block of calcium silicate (with a hole for the chimney pipe) - which you can see behind the stove there.

 

Then it's a fairly simple task of running the 10cm diameter chimney pipe up and through the hole, and all the way to an end point above the eaves of the house. Getting that last heavy section of pipe secured at the top of a wobbling 8m ladder was quite hair-raising, but in the end it slotted into place and I was finally done!

 

 

 

▲ 薪ストーブの初デビューです!使えるようになりました!

 

The first test-fire of my new wood stove! House didn't burn down so..... SUCCESS!!!!!

 


Tags: studio  アトリエ  heating  暖房 




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