terryeight

Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

The idea was always that the downstairs area could be changed around quite a bit: one area is usually a study, but one entire wall moves in, opening up almost all of that room into the main gallery.

A couple of other (bigger) walls also move (in tandem), to change the layout of the gallery, or, when pushed right around, to completely change the space: somehow, the gallery has gone, now there is a dining room with four painted walls (all different from the gallery), a fireplace on one wall and a window on the other, all previously hidden.

Magic!

At the bottom of the spiral stairs, there is still a *wee* bit of work to be done in the gallery. This is looking towards the main internal courtyard. Those glass squares at the end are 12 foot high doors, they (of course) open right up.

The construction of the moving sections of wall is just starting

From the big doors looking down the length of the gallery. The start of one of the big wall/doors set out on the floor

After much discussion it was decided to make the door/walls with very light plywood frames, clad in thin ply (one side) and (paint finish) MDF the other side (Medium Density Fibreboard.....mashed/pulped wood glued together, very fine, good for paint finish)

There are three of these "doors", which are about 12 feet high, and 14 foot long, and about 8 inches thick. The small square in the middle is a (lighted) display cabinet in the middle of each door.

The outer framing is 18mm 5 ply, the cladding sheet joints are made on strips of 12mm ply. The heavier looking bits on the lower end, and across the upper part are "negative details". That is, from the other side, they are open boxes or rectangles. This will make more sense later. The little verticals are just temporary props to support the sheet joining strips while the cladding is glued and nailed to them.

So the customwood (MDF) has all been glued and nailed on, and the frame flipped over. You might notice the whole door is now sitting on a new floor. This is because the existing concrete floor was not perfectly level. We needed a perfect floor to build on, as once it was finished, we figured the unit would not warp or twist at all, so it had start off as close to perfect as we could get. Any warp would show up something awful when we installed the door and closed it up into the existing wall.

The units had to be prewired. The real strength comes from this polystyrene. These blocks were easily obtainable, and for a very fair extra price came precut to exactly the right size, so they were also very easy to fit. After much research we chose a contact adhesive especially formulated for the product to glue it to the MDF.

NO room for errors with contact glue, so each bit was carefully dry fitted first.

On to next page or

Start / return (takes you back to the beginning of this house series)

The idea was always that the downstairs area could be changed around quite a bit: one area is usually a study, but one entire wall moves in, opening up almost all of that room into the main gallery. A couple of other (bigger) walls also move (in tandem), to change the layout of the gallery, or, when pushed right around, to completely change the space: somehow, the gallery has gone, now there is a dining room with four painted walls (all different from the gallery), a fireplace on one wall and a window on the other, all previously hidden. Magic!
	At the bottom of the spiral stairs, there is still a wee bit of work to be done in the gallery. This is looking towards the main internal courtyard. Those glass squares at the end are 12 foot high doors, they (of course) open right up. The construction of the moving sections of wall is just starting
	From the big doors looking down the length of the gallery. The start of one of the big wall/doors set out on the floor After much discussion it was decided to make the door/walls with very light plywood frames, clad in thin ply (one side) and (paint finish) MDF the other side (Medium Density Fibreboard.....mashed/pulped wood glued together, very fine, good for paint finish)
	There are three of these "doors", which are about 12 feet high, and 14 foot long, and about 8 inches thick. The small square in the middle is a (lighted) display cabinet in the middle of each door.
	The outer framing is 18mm 5 ply, the cladding sheet joints are made on strips of 12mm ply. The heavier looking bits on the lower end, and across the upper part are "negative details". That is, from the other side, they are open boxes or rectangles. This will make more sense later. The little verticals are just temporary props to support the sheet joining strips while the cladding is glued and nailed to them.
	So the customwood (MDF) has all been glued and nailed on, and the frame flipped over. You might notice the whole door is now sitting on a new floor. This is because the existing concrete floor was not perfectly level. We needed a perfect floor to build on, as once it was finished, we figured the unit would not warp or twist at all, so it had start off as close to perfect as we could get. Any warp would show up something awful when we installed the door and closed it up into the existing wall.
	The units had to be prewired. The real strength comes from this polystyrene. These blocks were easily obtainable, and for a very fair extra price came precut to exactly the right size, so they were also very easy to fit. After much research we chose a contact adhesive especially formulated for the product to glue it to the MDF. NO room for errors with contact glue, so each bit was carefully dry fitted first.
	On to next page or Start / return (takes you back to the beginning of this house series)