Western Depot Barn Starts…..
Western Depot Barn Starts to Get A Roof
by: Steve P.
Last week saw more activity at Western Depot on the site update with Bob A and Andy working on the water separator, and Steve P and team working on the barn. Having dug a large hole the previous week Bob A decided that it was time for a trial fit with the 180Kg water separator, so the mini digger was pressed into service. The size of the tank soon became apparent as we tried to sling it and move it with the digger, but eventually we found a combination that just worked, and digger and load headed for its new home.
What started as a trial fit ended up as the final fit after the tank was finally manoeuvred into the hole with no real chance of lifting it out again, so Bob and Andy then set about levelling it and concreting around the base, which with the size of the hole was no small task.
The Barn team were waiting for the right size roof timbers, so in the absence of these Mathew and Peter decided to lay the remaining blocks for the side wall while Vince and Steve painted the rest of the steelwork (with cries from Chris that we couldn’t paint that bit as he was working on it!). By the end of the day the side wall had been completed, and most of the steelwork painted – not sure why we missed out some bits!
Wednesday saw the arrival of the timber for the roof purlins (cross beams) so the team started to drill and fit these to the holes pre-drilled in the steel beams, and by lunchtime the lower (and easier!) ones had been fitted. Work continued after lunch and with an improved technique and some clever manoeuvring by Peter and Vince the right-hand side of the barn was completed along with one of the eaves sections which will provide rigidity to the purlins.
Although it was still raining, and getting late, the team with Reg supervising, decided to continue to get some roof sheets in place, and by the end of the day 3 of the 4m long sheets had been positioned and fastened, giving some shelter in the barn extension area. The slimmed down team continued to work on the roof this week, with more sheets being added and the second eaves section put in place; this should then allow Reg and team to start work on the electrics so that the fabrication shop can be moved into the right had side of the new barn, allowing the left-hand side to then be dismantled and updated.
Bob and Andy continued to work on the separator tank with a significant amount of concrete mixed and shifted to hold the tank firmly in position – main task is now to plumb in the inlet and outlet pipework so that the yard drainage can be improved. With the tank in place and barn progressing well we can now start to look at the foundations for the machine shop extension which will be close to the separator tank, but that is a task for 2021!
