The New! Bird Room 2003
Weekend 24th & 25th Plus the bank holiday Monday 26th May 2003

Well the shed arrived bang on time, and was delivered by 9.30pm Saturday.
The weather was O.K to make a start, now with the shed here, I could
setup the floor of the shed on the garden and take accurate measurements,
so I could permanently fix the under bares to the block work.
With the under bares fix solid I now fitted the floor of the bird room on
top and screwed this to the under bares

With a good firm and level base to build off, erecting the shed went like clock work. This shed like my last one has a good strong center support in the middle to stop the roof from sagging (see photo to your right)
Now just for the roof. My wife helped me to erect the shed as I could not do it alone, also my children Thomas & Louise

The roof is now on, and all the sides are fixed to the floor, we now have a very strong shed.
The only thing left to do, is felt the shed/birdroom roof to make it water tight. While I was fitting the roof on this lovely afternoon in the sun I took a photo of the field at the back of are garden to show you (see below)

Photo right
I have now felted the roof and put up the guttering both sides of the shed. On this photo you can see the down pipes connected to the under ground waste pipe, I put in place earlier in this project. Just above the white pipe you can see the black pipe coming from the other side of the shed

The outside of the shed is finished

The weather has been very good over the last three days, this as enabled me the get the outside of the shed finished.
The white you can see on the roof is the sand I use to sprinkle on the black bitumen felt glue which runs out of the joints. To the left of the shed is where I plan to put the outdoor flights, when the black shed is taken down.


Weekend 31st & 1st May / June

Fitting out the bird room has started,
one of the most important things needed in a bird room is good ventilation, here you can see the internal vent and external side of the vent, this type of vent can be closed if the weather is to windy or cold. I have put two vents in the side of the shed low to the ground, the next two vents will be the pop holes for the Java's to get in and out of the external flights

Here you can see I am in the middle of lining out the shed and putting 1" thick polystyrene installation sheets behind the 9mm plywood sheets, also I have covered the floor with hardboard, to make a smooth finish for the floor covering to go on.  

Weekend 7th & 8th June 2003

The shed now has power, I have put the electric to the shed this week, the photo on the right is showing the blue water pipe I use for running the electric cable through in from the house, it keeps the cable dry under ground. Now the power is in the shed I have put some temporally sockets in to run the power tools, also lights. The photo on the left is showing the external light I have put-up, this light is connected to a push switch which slowly release its self over 3 minutes and turns the light off, this gives me time to lock up the shed and get back to the house before it goes off, it can be adjusted for longer periods

 

Photo on the right, is showing the two five foot signal fluorescent strip lights I will be using in the bird room, these are only temporally wired in at the moment.
The photo on the left has been taken using my new wide angel lens I got for my camera, this photo is showing all the walls lined and my sink area in the shed, I still have the roof to finish off over the next few weeks, I will only be putting 1" thick polystyrene glued to the wood, this is only light and will not make the roof sag

At last my first bird room with a sink and fresh running water, if you look back at the start of the project to see how much digging was involved in getting the facility in my bird room, it now makes it all worth while when you switch the taps on for the first time. The sink is now fully working with two cold water taps and the drain plumbed into the soakaway out side. Next week I will put a few tiles at the back of the sink to protect the wood from splashes

Weekend 14th & 15th June 2003

It's been a very hot weekend, but I have managed to tile the back of the sink and put up the secondhand cupboard, also I have put my hospital cage up as well, this is taken out of my other bird room, which will close down when this room is finished.
I have now put all the power points in, along with a fused switch so I can isolate the whole shed if need be. On the photo of the electric's you can see the push switch I mentioned last week. It's the box with the big round disc nearest this text.

Weekend 21st & 22nd June 2003

The ceiling is now finished.
While I was doing the ceiling, the heat coming through was tremendous, using the inch thick polystyrene sheeting as installation has made a huge difference to the heat coming thorough. Now the ceiling is only warm when the sun is hitting the roof. With the ceiling being white it makes a big difference when the lights are on. Also it will save me some money in the winter when the heating is on, instead of the heat going through the roof.

Weekend 5th & 6th July 2003

Sorry about the update last weekend, but there was no work done on the bird room at all, anyway I have finished all the painting. (TIP!! if you are going to paint plywood sheets first of all seal with PVA glue first to stop any brown tannins leaching through the paint)
As you can see I have had the water proof floor covering put down, this makes sweeping up much easier, plus no water from the birds bath will soak through, this was the cheapest vinyl I could find £39 for a 10 foot by 12 foot

Project continued on a fresh new page (cages & flights)
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