Let there be light, and there was light...

June 2024 and I finally managed to get some lights installed and operational. The fitting of choice was the Pierlite 27 watt Eco LED Panel installed into the Robus metal housing.

The white Robus housings will be painted black to match the ceiling, thus 'hiding' the frames when the lights are turned on.

The lights are operational, now work can continue any time!

Stud wall completed.

In early February we finished the stud wall that was required to line the angled wall as it was difficult to run the top hat with just the portal frames and then against the door frame. So that flimsy Rondo stud framing was installed and the Villaboard and Termiflor does end up giving it some rigidness.

The wall was sealed as per the rest of the walls and joins.

For some reason, I don' t have a photo of the wall partially built, but you can see the stud framing on the far left of this image.

Adding some climate comfort.

Two Mitsubishi Heavy Industries cooling only split systems were purchased to install on the eastern wall of the train shed. Two Unistrut based brackets were fabricated and mounted to the eastern outside wall to support the compressor.

The Unistrut frames on the east wall.

The internal was primed and painted prior to the condenser units being fitted.

Sunshade / drip and rain roofs were also installed to protect the outdoor compressor units.

The indoor units fitted off and operational.

The outdoor units with the sunshade / rain roof lowered to the correct position.

Top Hat goes around, and the lining goes up!

Finally, near the end of November 2024 I was able to get some further progress and run the top hat rails around the internal walls and insert the Earthwool and line the walls. I had a chippy mate assist me with that. You will notice from the images that I have used Villaboard, or cement sheet, to line the bottom of the internal wall. This came about as the 100 Year Flood Level for Port Hedland is about 20 inches, or 500 mm above the floor level in the shed. So, as a worst case scenario, a major flood of the town from coastal inundation caused from a very bad tropical cyclone should, at least, not lead to any wall damage.

Five top hat rails up around the walls with the batts installed between the Thermalbreak and the top hat.

As the top hat is screwed to the portal frames, when it came to the north wall they were required to be offset as this image shows.

With the cement sheet, to reduce the mucking around with cutting, waste, etc we just installed full sheets and then overlapped the Termiflor. The Termiflor sheets at 3600 x 800mm. These sheets were cut in half and butted up to the ceiling so provide an 1800 mm drop from ceiling height that is 19 mm thick. This also adds to the thermal rating and allows pretty much anything, within reason, to be just screwed straight to the wall without trying to find studs or other anchor solutions.

During some 40 plus degree days the shed only got to around 32-33 inside whilst outside was 45-46 degrees. This was before the air conditioning units were installed.

To continue with the hermetically sealed concept, the wall was sealed to the sealing, the overlap where the Termiflor and Villaboard was likewise sealed and then the Villaboard was sealed to the floor slab and the butt joins were also sealed. As the Termiflor is a tongue and groove join, and will be painted, these joins were not sealed apart from where gaps were present.

Next up, providing some climate comfort...

Sept, Oct and November 2023...Top Hat, Earthwool and Termiflor...

With other activities like drains and sewers and the like keeping me busy for a few months the only advancement for September was the arrival of the top hat to allow the internal lining to start at some point in time...

So, I ended up buying 25, 8 metre lengths of 64mm Top Hat for the princely sum of $1900 dollars from a mob in Perth that was selling it on special, Dynamic Steelform in Forrestdale.

And it cost $640 to get it from Perth up to here in Port Hedland, so $2500 just for the Top Hat...

Twenty-five lengths of 8 metre TOP HAT!

For the insulation of the walls, I obtained 16 packs of Earthwool R2.7 HD High Performance Batts (90mm thick and 580mm width) through Perth Insulation Centre for $1800, and then road freight on top of that to get them to Hedland from Perth was again, another $700 buckeroos. But there was a slight issue with some wet bales so the company waived the cartage fee in the end.

Photo shows the liquid sunshine leaking out of a couple of packs of the batts...

And finally, the final piece of the shed lining puzzle game was the 19 mm Termiflor or yellow tongue flooring. A pack of this stuff was sourced from Perth Building Supplies for $2200. Which gets you thirty sheets of yellow tongue Termiflor 3600 x 800 x 19mm. And delivery to Hedland from Perth was $800.

For some reason I have no image of the pack of flooring...

So, towards the end of November, we were back making progress and started lining the shed...

Next post, the top hat goes around, the bats go in and the Termiflor goes up!

Ceiling painted Black...

With the shed hermetically sealed, the concrete sealed, and the power cables roughed in to where the switchboard will end up it was time to give the ceiling a lick with some flat black paint and then install the black 84-inch Martec Albatross ceiling fans, three of them to be precise.

These fans do an amazing job and shift a lot of air and as there is no permanent power connected to the shed as yet, I can run them off an extension lead and enjoy some air movement.

The post should have been September 2023!

Link to the fans is here, it will open in a new window or tab: Martec Australia

Next up is a couple of months to do the second house dunny, patio drains and the new floor in the house...

Floor sealing back in August 2023...

Well to say I have been distracted is an understatement! Kitchen and laundry renovations, converting an unused void into a second dunny and then moving all the furniture to allow a new floor to be installed in the house and how time slips by. And then a false start, and it was back to the house to do bathroom renovations...

So, this will be the first of a few rapid-fire posts to get back to speed.

Well with the ceiling up and 'flushed', the hermetically sealing completed and the mains power cables run in, it was time to seal the concrete floor. I used a Dulux product 'Avista' and applied four good coats to the super smooth concrete slab. I did not wash the slab or prep it in any special way, just dust mopped it and then rolled the Avista semi-gloss down.

The tin has an exploding lung picture on the can, and it was rather overpowering with the toxic fumes, so it took several mornings to get the entire 100 square metres sealed.

I am very happy with the finish, concrete stains and all. It was by far, thousands of dollars, cheaper than even the cheapest 'budget' concrete polishing.

Okay, whilst the sealer dries and the shed vents the fumes, I'll work on the next post!

Running the mains and the fibre optic into the Shed.

Due to a slight oversight, as the conduits were installed some years prior to the shed actually being built we had a small problem as the conduits were only 32 mm. And running 16mm2 three phase from the house to the shed presented and issue as that cable is not allows in 32 mm conduit as per the good book.

So, to overcome this it involved splitting the orange circular and running the three phases, neutral and earth across two 32 mm conduits and running in a fibre optic for connectivity as data cabling cannot be mixed with power circuits, but fibre can!

The orange circular 16 mm2 exits the house and is split across the two conduits to the shed with the fibre optic as well.

The inside of the shed where the switchboard will end up eventually. Spoiler alert, as I am so far behind here it is already completed! Hahaha.

Okay, sealing the floor should be next...

Hermetically Sealing the Shed.

Well, living in the Pilbara with the humidity and cyclonic rain, sometimes, I had always intended to completely seal the shed to eliminate drafts, vermin, liquid sunshine and of course those pesky little 'dust' particles that have a habit of getting in everywhere up here.

So, to hermetically seal the shed, it was several rolls of Gorilla tape to 'join' all the ThermalBreak insulation, and then Sikaflex to seal the slab to the ThermalBreak all around the bottom of the shed as per the below image of the northeast corner.

Next up, sealing the concrete floor...