2021-11 Greenhouse Initial Build and Attic Work

November was cold but this was our second Swedish winter and we were a lot more prepared this year. The clear skies in the winter are awesome for looking at the night sky.

Greenhouse Build

I’d promised myself I’d get a greenhouse built for my girlfriend and was rushing to get it into the group before the permafrost came. I was just using the anchor option on the feet with a buried-earth foundation. A year later I’d take it out and put in a dedicated foundation but at the time I thought it would be ok. I’d also used up all the years money on the solar and the greenhouse.

Doing up hundreds of tiny steel screws after work in the darkness and in below-zero temperatures is a nightmare. We got it done, however.

Runoff Drainage Fix

We had some success with the transport agency. The drainage ditch between the house and the road nearby had filled with earth over the years and we ended up with a lot of water backed up above and around the property.

Higher groundwater levels can cause problems such as for the foundations but also during heavy rain the backed-up water was almost flooding the main road. So I got in contact with the transport agency in June and asked what the responsibilities were and if it was possible to clear out the ditch before winter.

I heard nothing for a few months. As winter set in I sent a polite query as to the previous ticket. About a week later a random car parked in the drive, and a man with a GPS pole spray painted boundary lines. An excavator and a small team of workers arrive a couple of days later and they attacked the ditch. In the aftermath, seeing all the water drain away was awesome.

Animals

The years mouse war was mostly over. There were deer in the field and regular patrols by the local cats.

Epic Attic Clearout Attempt

The attic was full of sawdust. This is a cheap insulator, but not a great one. It could be also hiding a lot of things I might need to know about. I vowed to work to remove it all and modernise the attic with stonewool insulation and address any problems I found.

This was an epic task. It involved putting on all your PPE, getting into the attic with a work light and slowly filling plastic bags with sawdust. After a couple of hours, I’d call my girlfriend and we’d unload about 60 bags of sawdust at a time from the attic through the access hatch. Ripping open the bags on the metalwork of the loft hatch was also annoyingly frequent.

The attic had also been a final resting place for any carpentry offcuts for work in the attic, and contained about 3 different water expansion tanks where they had aged and been replaced over the years.

It took multiple sessions to get to the point where the ceiling was visible below. I used a vacuum on the final parts.

From the photos, you might notice the 1940s framework is a bit sparse. It would be normal to have a lot more framework on modern houses. There are also interesting modifications. The upstairs walls open into the attic without any firestop. I put rockwool down for now but ultimately this will need professional assistance.

The access is a real pain currently though. plywood sheets and insulation bags can’t come through the attic ladder door. The end door visible in the photos is sealed up outside by metal siding. It’s not impossible to make the gable doors workable again but it means yet another medium-to-difficult project would be needed.

Asbestos Found

Asbestos! Awesome. There I was thinking we hadn’t found any asbestos and then deep in the attic I discovered an old chimney flue. It was made of wood but lined with asbestos plates. I think inside would have been a steel wood stove pipe with the asbestos acting as insulation. At some point, the face had been removed and the vent repurposed for the routing of the sewer vent pipe for the upstairs bathroom.

So this is not a great find. The key with Asbestos is to not disturb it, or safely remove it. At some point, I’ll seal the asbestos in plastic and with the appropriate PPE precautions, I will remove it as one wooden long tube. I’ll then process and take it to the local council (kommune) facility which processes asbestos. For now, I left it alone.