20 - Too "Slowly, slowly" !!!

While we were ready for our early cladding inspection we were NOT ready to be failed on the building wrap (which we had already passed!!!!) This was because the building wrap had been left exposed for more than 60 days since inspection..... At this point we'd like to give a big shout out to Mother Nature for the 5 weeks of distraction she threw our way during winter while we chopped up trees that blew down and repaired the neighbours fence!!  (exactly what we are shouting out remains unpublishable) We had thought the building was at a great stage to be left as it was braced and wrapped from the elements - bloody fine print (not found on the product wrapper but on the manufacturer's web site) So what does that mean? We had to remove all the cavity battens, flashings and building wrap (except for 300mm around the windows and doors and the eaves, which could stay as an overlap to the new paper). Instead of spending Christmas/New Year putting the cladding on the house we spent it removing bits (VERY depressing!!) A lot of the cavity battens broke whilst trying to remove them - I had nailed 'em on real good, 'cos they were never coming off, eh? The inspector said we could increase the spacings between battens from 300mm to 600mm as we had a continuous lining of ply beneath the building paper; saving us buying more to replace the broken ones. The inspector also pointed out that the cavity closure flashings needed more holes to comply....... 51 (5mm) holes per metre!! - that's one every 19mm.... about 3,800 holes to be drilled by hand. The inspector also recommended taking off the plaster from the North and Eastern sides of the house foundation and replacing it with fibre cement board to avoid the problems with warping and cracking caused by the sun whilst it was drying. This was a good idea, but caused even more re-work. After a month we had re-passed our building wrap inspection and early cladding inspection and were back to where we started (almost)... Painting the fibre cement boards to go on the foundation insulation. The fibre cement boards over the foundation insulation (thanks for the help Rosa) Drilling concrete whilst lying on the ground - my new least favourite job! This was installing the window/door support bars to the foundation. Thank goodness for the new radio headphones!! Removing the staples from the remaining building wrap so we could slide the new wrap underneath. Pull 'em out or smack 'em in ladies - able assistants Charlotte and Elizabeth prepare the walls for the new wrap. The boss gives a demonstration of correct tongue-holding position to achieve maximum hammer power! Quality Control Officer spots a missed staple and takes care of it Positioning the new wrap with assistance from Julia and Charlotte. The last piece of wrap goes on! Julia and Charlotte got a real arm workout drilling 3,800 holes in the flashings! Count 'em kids..... The battens go back on.... Julia cut and laid out the additional 400 blocks to go with the 300 made by Saige and Rosa. John came over to help and showed why he is in management.... ;-)  (He also had a great time with the nail gun and put in all the (shortened) intermediate cavity battens for support behind the dwang nails) ....The cladding is so close I can smell the "Light Organic Solvent Preservative" across the Internet !! Next Page... 21 - Cladding Take2