Filling the Void
In lieu of the usual technical postings I thought it would be better to talk about something rather than nothing (did any of you notice I recently went quiet for two weeks? The longest I've ever gone quiet for on here). So, I'll fill the gaps by talking about things not so techy while I wait for my unusually busy spell to end.
Keeping me busy in my spare time at the moment is building the new garage, as you're no doubt aware, so that's what I'll be talking about.
Last time I mentioned the garage (on Friday) it had been reduced to a hole in the ground. Since then the footings have gone in and it's now built up to ground level and has been back-filled.
Before it was filled in I made sure I ran a pair of Cat5 cables in some armoured cabling from the house to the garage. One for phone and one for network. Tip: If you're doing this put the cable in the conduit/ducting while it's laid in a straight line on the floor and before you lay it in the trench.
You can see its current state in this photo. Felix is with his uncle Leo, who's building him a seesaw to run the wheelbarrow over. The kind of thing childless uncles do while the parents standby nervously. Needless to say Felix loved it.
To the left of Felix's head is a brick stood on its end. I'd put that there as a rough idea of where the dividing wall will go. To this side of it is the garage and to the other side the office. Rather than split it in two I've gone for a larger garage/workshop area and an office that will be about 2.3m by 2.7m. Ample room for a desk and a chair.
Later today more concrete is being delivered and the floor slab will go in. Should start to look something like by then.
In total there will be 4.6m3 of concrete in it. According to Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs this is equivalent to 4.6 tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. There goes my "carbon footprint". For somebody who refuses to drive to anywhere less than a mile away this was something of a dent to green credentials.
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2.7 square meters? Nice. My current office (at Buchan Acres) is about 1.5m square. It meant assembling the 2m tall Ikea unit was - ah - 'problematic'. Stick in a wider door than normal..
And still I have two laptops, two desktops, two printers, 400+ books and a safe.. Its 'cozy'..
I got gigabit ethernet 8 port switches for £20 from aria.co.uk, BTW. Invaluable. And B&Q do decent RJ45 faceplates, etc.
--* Bill
Depends how you think of it Bill, but I'd say that (at 2.3 by 2.7m) it was "6.2 metres square" and yours is 2.25 metres square if it's 1.5 by 1.5m.
Jake, don't think of the green impact today, think of the green impact for a lifetime of not driving to the office, not taking the train, bus, cab... you'll be saving untold tonnes of CO2... which is so much less harmful that cow, sheep and pig flatulence any way I wouldn't give it a second thought (methane - 27 times as powerful as a green house gas). Just think in terms of ROI if anyone gives you a bit of grief over your thoughtless pouring of concrete. ;-)
Ah, but there's "metres square" and "square metres". In common parlance, such as one would use in the building trades, "x units square" is a square of x units by x units. In the scientific/engineering sense, there would be a "d" appended to the end of "square" to denote that the x is enumerating the number of square units, eg. "6.2 metres squared" -- and that construct is generally limited to units that do not represent actual area measurement ("metres per square second" sounds silly no matter whose ears you use). Here endeth the pedantry. Pity, really, as I love to wallow in a warm pool of the stuff.
So what are the building laws like where you are?
In a USA city it can be kind of sticky getting buidling permits (which cost money) and waiting for the inspector to come by to see if you did the job right.
Try thinking of the C02 released baking all of all those bricks you are using ;)