Hen House Part 2

Next up was cutting and joining the sleepers.  This was a messy business as the sleepers were covered in creosote and so had to be handled with care.  It also took two of us to move them about.

The sleepers were cut to length with a chainsaw.   The years of grime cemented to the surface of the sleepers with creosote blunted the chainsaw very quickly and so it had to be sharpened every other cut otherwise clouds of smoke were generated rather than a shower of fine chips.

The corner joints were secured with decking screws and the sleepers joined end to end with 200mm  long 10mm dia. stainless steel dowels which were then grouted into place.   I made a template to make sure the dowel holes lined up.

Once all bolted together, the locations of the 9 posts were set out and the sleeper base 'adjusted' with a sledgehammer until it was square.


Each of the posts will sit on a bolt-down base secured with coach screws.

Next the posts and framing.