"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...
David WE Roberts wrote:
http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/z...20all%20Sheds/
In case anyone is interested.

About to start on the door frames.

Nice neat block work ;-)

(I must learn that one day!)

You have no idea how long it took me with PhotoShop to straighten the lines
out! ;-)

Top tip is to look back along the wall and then knock all the wavy bits
straight again with a club hammer before the mortar sets.

Parts of it are delicately curved.

Although the block work seemed to improve as we got nearer to the top, each
time I got frustrated that it wasn't quite true in all three dimensions I
had to repeat to myself "Remember - it's only a f***ing shed!".

Credit also to my Irish friend who has laid nearly as many blocks as I have.
He also supplied the scaffolding tower from which we laid the upper courses.

We also discovered that different batches of blocks can have marginal
differences in dimensions, with the occasional 'tall and wide' block.
This can be incredibly frustrating when you line up the outside of the block
work then check the inside and find the block is slightly proud.
Then you check the top for level (having laid the block on the standard
depth of mortar) and find it slightly high.

Also, not all blocks are completely square so you can't always get a true
level across the top.
Hence the expression - "Sod it, I'll straighten it out in the next course.".
[Which doesn't apply when you are laying the top course which is
consequently a slow and delicate operation.]

Oh, and as I am very short sighted with major astigmatism my glasses enable
me to see fine but do have a side effect of distorting the edges of my field
of vision.
So much so that if I look at a (true) door frame it looks a bit like a bandy
legged sailor.
So I have to get a second opinion to confirm by eye that everything is true.
This does make selecting wood at the wood yard an interesting exercise :-)

Nevertheless we are approaching the home straight.
The current viral bugs which are doing the rounds aren't helping as I've
been laid up a couple of times.
I have the first door frame almost done.
The second one should be a lot quicker (I hope).
The windows have gone back to B&Q because the manufacturers included the
cill in the dimensions where B&Q supply windows and then cills as 30mm
extra.
As I've designed the whole thing around the dimensions of the standard B&Q
windows I need them as specified.
However I can proceed with dummy frames so this won't hold me up.

Thanks to all for the help and advice received so far.

Cheers

Dave R