More progress with the Gardenqub

It is a mad rush at the moment as I try to get as much done in the Gardenqub before my vacations.
but I am pretty happy with the progress.
Take a look at how its going...

Starting to join the steel elements to the bottom elbows.

The elbow closest to the walnut tree which the client has chosen to integrate into the flooring.

 It was easier than I thought to get the long elements in. This was because of the middle foot which I fixed to the element first allowing me to use it as a pivot point.

Got the bolts in but they are loose for now until we get the entire thing exactly square and in precise position.

The vertical elements are about 70kg each, but to my relieve, they slotted in perfectly. Here you can see the timber fulcrum we used to make finer adjustments in order to get the bolts in.

And here we go. The base frame is in and the uprights are in.
The base has been squared off and we leveled all the elements. We gave the entire Gardenqub about a 15mm fall to the back boundary so as to get a little natural drainage off the flooring.

Here you can see the special corner joist hanger. It is integrated into the bolt pattern of the main elbow bolts This joist will end up about 20mm away from the short frame element shown in this pic as the horizontal element. This is because of the joist shoe thickness and the bolt heads.

Now that all the proper spacers are in under the feet on the footings, the bottom frame is square and level, and all the bottom frame bolts are tight, we fill the gap between the feet and the footings with non shrink concrete grout. When that sets we'll drill a few holes down into the footings and bolt then down.

Next steps are to attach all the joist hangers to the bottom frame elements, and then install the flooring to the joists. All the floorboards are cut to the right length and the width of overall Gardenqub was adjusted so there is no board splitting.
At this point the bottom part is complete.

We are still waiting on the metal elements for the top frame which is basically a copy of the bottom frame without all the joist hanger holes.
The plan is to assemble this on the ground, and then using a small crane to lift in onto the upright elements.
 Conclusion so far:
I was a little nervous as I started to assemble the parts. I had devoted a lot of time to the preparation and plans of each part of the Gardenqub so that they would slot and bolt together with the minimum of fuss and time.
As I said in a previous post, this Gardenqub, the first full size example, is much larger than what I had initially planned. So the morning of construction, a million possible things that could go wrong buzzed in my mind: could we man handle the larger elements, will everything slot in as planned, have I drilled all the holes correctly, etc....

So it was with a huge grin and a satisfied sigh of relief that I, assisted by a friend who is a office worker with basically zero experience in construction, managed to man handle and assemble the Gardenqub to this point, with hardly any swearing, no last minute cutting or bashing, in 1 day!
The only tools we used were:

• a few spanners
• a spirit level
• a rubber mallet to coax the steel elements into position
• some lengths of wood as levers to lift and shift the large steel elements.
• a pair of ratchet tie-down straps to bring the lower frame to square.
• a laser disto to check the diagonals before final tightening

Pretty basic kit!

At this point, I now see little to no risk for the roof element installation apart from the Cherry tree in the back left corner. We need to finesse the roof frame into the branches and then finally into the vertical elements. Considering how it has gone so far, I expect this to take a morning to complete with about 1-2 hours of crane time.

If you have been following these posts, there will be a bit of a pause now for my vacation. When I get back we will finish this project in a few quick sessions.

Yagoona Barbecue wall hanger - redesigned

Since the initial ideas of the Barramundi BBQ, I have thought about what happens to the barbecue when it is not in use. The simplest solutions are often the best so that was my goal. And you cannot get more simple than the Yagoona barbecue wall hanger.

This simple plate bolts onto your wall in your garage or garden storage room. The 2 high tensile steel rods coincide exactly with the holes that are integrated into every part of the Yagoona Barramundi BBQ. And more recently, the Yagoona Ringryll barbecues (the 80cm and the 100cm) also feature these holes.
This means that the one product is compatible with all the Yagoona barbecues.
In fact the firepit lids from Yagoona also have these same holes so they can also be safely stored away on this wall hanger.

Redesigned?

There was a predecessor to this wall hanger. Its design was simply not appealing to me. Yagoona products should not only work well, be easy to use and durable, but they should also look simple and modern. During the redesign of the wall hanger, I also managed to optimise the production so as to reduce the waste in the metal cutting. It feels good to give the environment a bonus as well.

Interested?
This new hanger can be purchased online by following this link.
Not sure if it is what you need? Contact Yagoona and we will be more than happy to answer any of your questions about this hanger.

Steel components completed... almost!

On Saturday, Hubi (a good friend of mine who lets me use his workshop and helps me with technical issues) and I completed the bulk of the metal work for the first Gardenqub.
Here are some pics:

Here is one of the joist hangers attached to the bottom frame element, and yes, those are my feet in the pic as well.

These are the 2 5.7m long frame elements that will hold the floor joist hangers. The holes are marked and ready for drilling.

Here you see my friend Hubi welding and in the lower pic one of the Gardenqub elbows welded and ready for installation. As you can see, Hubi is a master welder.

One of the lower Gardenqub elbows with the foot welded together.

The 26 normal joist hangers collected here ready for delivery. Under them are some of the frame elements 

The Elbows and corner joist hangers ready ready for delivery.
These are the parts that would be delivered to customers of the Gardenqub. Everything will smoothly bolt together. I anticipate that the assembly on site will be surprisingly rapid now.

With vacations planned for next week, I have just this coming week to get most of this project done. The client is a little apprehensive about progress but is pleased to see that we are doing everything possible to get his Gardenqub in place.

In any case, the metal supplier did not have enough square steel pipe in stock to supply the entire quota of pipe required to complete the Gardenqub. The upper frame will be supplied in about 2-3 weeks so this gives me breathing room with the client.

Working the steel

Been busy in my friends workshop preparing all the steel elements of the Gardenqub.
Here are some pics of the progress:

 Elbow assembled with some prepared off cuts of the frame elements for testing.

 All the pieces for the joist hangers.

 Drilling the mounting holes that will join the frame elements to the elbows.

 The 4 upright elements, and the 2 short floor frame elements are ready. In the background you can see the 2 long floor frame elements which still require 116 holes drilled. 104 of them require thread tapping as well. Will be a busy day tomorrow.

The first Gardenqub - tech

For the benefit of the technically minded, thought I would share a couple of images of the overall plan of the first full size Gardenqub prototype to give you an idea of dimensions and scope.

This is the main side view. This client (guinea pig) has asked for a XL version of the Gardenqub. Initially my calculations which were verified by a certified engineer went as far as a 4 x 4 x 2.8m size. This one will be 6 x 3.8 x 2.8m.
To accommodate this I have changed the design to strengthen the frame elbow elements, and added a middle support to the floor frame element which you can see at the bottom of the plan above. Also note the floor joists. These are 100 x 200mm laminated timbers at a max 400mm centers.

This is the side view.
The thing to note is the splaying floor joists. Since the frame elements are 150 x 150mm square pipe, the 200mm high joists with the 21mm flooring would have added an ugly 71mm of timber hanging out below the lower frame elements.
To get around this, the joists 'splay out' to their full depth which you can see in this section view.
To avoid this visual problem on the end joists, they are not 200mm but thinner at about 120mm but they are bolted to the short floor frame element in 3 positions in addition to the joist hangers.

Finally we have the plan view.
Of interest here is the width dimension. Or maybe better defined will be the dimension which spans across the flooring. In order to avoid any split floor boards, I calculate the exact width of the Gardenqub to accommodate the nearest number of full boards. This will ensure a beautifully symmetrical finish.

The Gardenqub is a kit form free standing Pavillion with the interesting feature that the flooring is integrated into the design unlike many such kits that require you to first level off and prepare a flat area in your garden.
My goal was to be able to stand one of these with only 4 points of contact to the ground (This XL version requires 6, see above).

The challenge is the flooring. As I mention above, this floor is held up by massive 100 x 200 floor joists with some special mods. Any of you who are technically minded would wonder then what holds up the these monster joists! For this there are specially designed joist hangers made from 8mm steel! The next post will have more on these.

Gardenqub progress update

Hi Everyone,
The Gardenqub is taking shape!
What have we achieved?

The foundations are set out and dug.
Note the offset string lines locating the centre of the footings.

 A close up of the sting lines and the dug foundation. Foundations are 60 x 60 x 60cm

 

Concrete is poured and a starter pipe set in the center of the Gardenqub foot.

All foundation pipes are set to the same height.

  Here you see all the foundations set.

Foundations are backfilled to a level just below the top of the foundation pipes. The rest will be filled with stones so as to allow water to drain away from the Gardenqub feet once they are set.

Power conduit is laid to one of the Gardenqub corners.

This is the completion of the foundation work for the Gardenqub installation.