In our Newsletter on June 19th I gave an overview of the project I am currently working on in Port Macquarie to convert a garage to a granny flat. Click the previous link to see a photo of the existing garage plus plans for what it will become. Unfortunately we barely got started on the project a month ago and then I had to return to Mittagong for a while due to circumstances beyond our control. But I’m back in Port Macquarie now and getting stuck into it.
First we removed all of the interior linings and all of the old fibro that contained asbestos.
Removing asbestos and interior linings from the old garage.
Next we removed the old timber floor in the area where the new bathroom will be so that we can lay a fibre-cement floor to make a solid base for tiles.
Flooring removed from the new bathroom area.
Then we installed insulation under the rest of the timber floor.
‘Expol’ insulation installed under the timber floor.
The west wall of the old garage is very close to the boundary so, in order to turn the building into a dwelling, we had to remove the west wall completely and reframe it to create a fire-rated wall.
Removing the old west wall.
The new west wall ready to be fire-rated.
And today we cleared everything out and had the pest controllers come in and spray the whole place to get rid of a fairly bad cockroach infestation and to protect it against termites. I don’t like using chemical treatments unless absolutely necessary but, in this case, the original structure wasn’t built with proper termite barriers and it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to install reliable physical termite barriers all the way around. Plus, you wouldn’t believe how bad the cockroaches were.
Pest controllers spraying for termites and cockroaches.
So we’ll let the chemicals dry out over the weekend and get back into it next week.
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