1/19/2024 0 Comments Tardis blue mountain dew![]() I was warned that most waterproofing was designed to be covered pretty much immediately, so I put my research hat back on and found waterproofing that is UV stable and foot trafficable. However, given my usual rate of progress on this build, and the fact that my next priorities were for hot water and heating in the form of a wood stove, I knew I would not be tiling the deck anytime soon. I’m not leaving it as a car park, it will be all tasteful tiles one day. The deck with the FC sheets on it, looking more car-park-like. ![]() It created that lovely industrial car park look that everyone craves when they design a sundowner deck. In this case the material was compressed fibre cement board, with fireproof sealant between the boards of course. It only requires a non-combustible material over the top of that to achieve an FRL of 60/60/60. Then, we snuggly wrapped the timber deck structure in Firefly super-duper-flame-zone-proof blanket which is also being used on all the walls. If you’re looking at spray foam you might well end up on one as it’s much more widely used there. A caution on R values, I learned the hard way that R values in the US are a different beast to those in Australia so bear that in mind if you end up reading about spray foam R values on American websites. Then mineral wool insulation was packed in to ensure the room below stays cosy, There is already spray foam on the inside of the ceiling below to prevent any condensation on the corrugated steel sheet, plus I threw in some internal insulation batts above the plasterboard so my ceiling/roof has an awesome insulation value that is fit for the minus 9 degrees celsius wind chill temperature that we had last week. To help solve the water pooling issues that plagued the place, a good amount of fall was put into the deck so the water runs away from the container behind it. There is no structural strength in the steel sheet of a container roof so the first step was to build a timber deck structure that sat over the top side rails and corners, which are load bearing. I can say that because my team of carpenters built it for me, ha. In practical terms, after all the research it wasn’t all that tricky to build. Therefore, it ended up as a structurally sound horizontal wall wearing a flame-proof wetsuit. On top of that, it needed to be outrageously waterproof to make sure that no drips ever considered entering my house again. For part iv, I used the same BAL FZ cladding as I planned to use for the walls, wrapping it up over the deck. So the build criteria ended up as something that: i) passed building code for structure as a deck/patio, ii) had all the insulation and layers necessary to perform as a roof since it sits directly over a room, iii) was non-combustible like a deck, and iv) passed the minimum BAL FZ (FLR) rating of 30/30/30 which complies for both walls and roofs. However, external floors are not a thing in BAL FZ, so it couldn’t be an outside floor because there were no guidelines to build one and nobody would guarantee their product for that application (I did try to convince one manufacturer, to no avail). The logic went like this: an enclosed deck only has to be non-combustible, that’s it, however a roof has tonnes more specifications around it for BAL FZ, some of which are a bit much for a deck, and because you walk on the deck it can’t really be a roof no matter how much it would like to be. In the end, I decided to go lateral and treat it mostly like a wall. In fact, if you try to find “external floor” materials that comply with the bushfire risk rating that is BAL Flame Zone, your mind will be compressed to the size of a walnut from sheer frustration. This caused chaos when reading the bushfire risk building regulations as the requirements for a floor, roof and a deck are all different. The deck that suffered from a severe personality crisis because it is also a roof and a floor, depending on whether you’re in the room underneath it or walking on top of it at the time. The sundowner deck that sits at tree canopy level so you can look straight out at the birds. This is not just any deck, not like the small entry decks downstairs that are made of Innex decking, this one is THE deck. Structural stuff first, but if you get through it all then in the following post you’ll be rewarded with a gorgeous copper shower recess inside a stylish rustic-vintage bathroom that oozes character. It’s exciting to see my vision coming into reality, room by room. The upstairs deck is a surprisingly decent size, my carpenters dubbed it a “car park”, and since it has finally obliterated any chance of water getting in between the containers, I have started on the interior fit out. The upstairs deck is on, as well as gutters plus a test run with some flame zone cladding going onto one wall. ![]() A lot has happened during the gap though, things are coming together. As usual, due to life and work, there’s been a big gap between blog posts.
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