Our Dream Renovation: 08 Lock Up

lockup stage is a very fun and exciting stage for any project!

At this stage you are able to really finalise the look and feel of your new home. The finishes you select is what will set it apart from the rest, remember that!

I myself was very keen to get started on locking this place up. For me, I love working on finishes and the finer details of things. This is my favorite part of being a chippy/builder.

Installing The Metal Roofing

In all builds, the first step in the lock up stage is to get the roof on. This is for a few good reasons, however most importantly to get the weather away from your structural framing members, especially the rain.

So we worked on installing the fascia and guttering first. Then laid out the Anticon roof blanket and started installing the metal sheeting. Finally, we got onto the fussy part of any roof install, installing all the flashings and capping!

Materials Used

We didn’t stray to far from the norm with a material selection for the roof. We selected the Klip-Lok 700 system as we liked the idea of concealed fixings and not seeing the screws. The colour we selected for all roofing materials was Surfmist, how original I know!

Tips & Tricks

With metal roofing I always recommend installing a roof blanket. mostly because of the thermal benefits it provides to your home. However, it also helps silence the pinging sound of the rain on the roof sheets. Which can be quite loud and disturbing at times without it! For this reason, I also like to install this roof blanket on patio/awnings and alfresco roofs wherever possible.

When selecting your guttering, I always like to make sure the gutters have overflow slots and that these slots are lower then the back side of the gutter. This can save a lot of pain down the track if a gutter blocks up and starts sending water back into your eaves/home!

Installing The Cladding

I am a big fan of the James Hardie product range. So because of this, we decided to select the James Hardie Newport linear cladding and the Axon 133mm vertical panel cladding for our home.

Our roof design was a split skillion roof with one side lower then the other. This detail is what we used to differ the two cladding types as well. The lower skillion roof we installed the Axon 133mm vertical panel cladding. The taller skillion roof section we installed the Newport linear cladding board.

We love the final look of this design as it creates a unique look to our home. The two types of cladding, along with the two colours chosen gave our beautiful new home a modern, yet coastal look.

Newport Cladding

The Newport cladding is a linear board that is shiplapped over each other. this stops water ingress in behind the cladding as well as enabling you to conceal the fixings.

Newport Cladding Install

A basic quick install guide for how I installed the Newport cladding on our home:

1. Ensure wall frames are straight and true.
2. Install breathable wall sarking.
3. Install snakeskin around all windows and doors. This will greatly help reduce water ingress around the windows and doors. Ensure the side pieces of snakeskin are under the head piece and over the sill piece. This ensures water flows over and out not under and in.
4. (Optionable) Install a H3 primed architrave around your windows. We preferred the 66x30mm size. Otherwise most windows have a section for your cladding to go in and behind. We feel the architraves are a much better look, but that is our opinion.
5. Ready to start installing the Newport weatherboards!

Quick Tip: How you start the weatherboards is crucial to the finish of the job. Set out the boards so you don’t have any small cuts to install and make sure you start spot on, straight and level. Start right, finish right!

Axon Cladding

The Axon cladding is a sheet panel type of cladding that is roughly 9mm thick and available in 2 different finishes and various lengths. We chose the smooth finish, 133mm spaced vertical joints for our home. We love the look of Axon cladding we actually decided to install this on the wall behind our bed head as a feature!

Axon Cladding Install

Axon cladding being a sheet panel clad is a little different to install then linear board cladding. Again, here is a basic install guide of how I installed the Axon cladding on our home:

• Check wall frames are straight and true.
• Mark out your cladding set out. This is important because each vertical joint needs to land on a stud. If there is no stud where a join lands either change your set out, or install a stud at that location.
• Once the wall is marked out and all joints have a stud positioned behind them install the breathable wall sarking.
• Install snakeskin around all windows and doors. This will greatly help reduce water ingress around the windows and doors. Ensure the side pieces of snakeskin are under the head piece and over the sill piece. This ensures water flows over and out not under and in.
• Install your Axon cladding. Remember the nails you use are exposed so ensure they are sunken so they can be filled. I used the Paslode finish nail gun loaded with ND nails. Ensure each joint has a bead of Sikaflex installed prior to joining the sheets together. This will stop water ingress if done properly.
• (Optionable) Install a H3 primed architrave around your windows, ensure you have installed a bead of Sikaflex to the back of the architrave prior to installing. This will help stop water ingress and is the best practice. This step can be swapped to have the architraves installed before the cladding, however I believe my sequence of tasks is best practice due to being able to get a good Sikaflex seal behind the architrave. Also, Axon cladding can be installed into the window box section if you do not want to install architraves around your windows.

The Final Touches

With the major tasks of installing the roof and wall cladding over it is now time to complete the final touches. The last few things left to complete for this stage was installing the eaves and our beautiful front door.

Installing the eaves quickly became a massive task that felt like more of a chore then anything else. I truly started to appreciate the size of the build more after the eaves were installed, we had eaves everywhere!

On a more happier note, I really enjoyed installing the front door. It really gave the house a more grand look.

To really complete the lock up stage we needed to have installed the garage door. However, as all the rails for the door gets screwed to the walls and ceiling, so we needed the gyprock installed first. The garage door install was booked straight after the gyprock installation.

Wall & Roof Framing Stage Costs

Total Project Costs To Date

• (02) Designing and planning stage: $13,428.20
• (03) Council application stage: $6,171.20
• (04) Excavation stage: $1,163.82
• (05) Strip footings & piers stage: $3,079.13
• (06) Subfloor frame stage: $12,542.85
• (07) Wall & roof framing stage: $32,054.73
• (08) Lock Up Stage: $29,616.33
• Total costs: $98,056.26