Chamonix studio renovation - build thread

[Gruffy]

Day 11

Paul the joiner has arrived with the stairs, glass and stone veneer. Top half of the stairs are in by lunch time.

[Gruffy]

Making good progress now that most of the electrics are done and there's three of us working on it this week.



Plumbing and electrics for the kitchen, ready for a false wall to go in.


Repair job on the neighbour's wire I cut on Friday.

[Gruffy]

I've hit my first major problem. The glass for the stairs is in and rock solid. The glass for the mezzanine is in, but with too much play (10mm at the top edge). More details on this thread. Can anybody offer advice?

[DoubleSix]

Can you not attach a length of wood under the joist that the glass can then sit on, giving you the full depth of the joist as lateral support?

[Gruffy]

Unfortunately the glass is already cut to the correct height above the floor (1m for French regs). The ground floor ceiling is only only 2m as well, and I'm 1.94m tall.

[anonymous-user]

Just to clarify, is the glass sitting on the White bit of wood we can see and held in place by the larger piece in front?

[barryrs]

10mm at the top only equates to around 1.5-2mm at the point that the glass meets the timber base plate and the timber could could be out by that much.

I would try a firm 5mm rubber foam between the glass and timber and bolt the timber plate up tight as i dont think screws will cut it.

[DoubleSix]

Doh of course.... so hammering in wood fillets does not provide adequate rigidity as it is??

Edited by DoubleSix on Tuesday 8th October 11:23

[Gruffy]

barryrs said:

10mm at the top only equates to around 1.5-2mm at the point that the glass meets the timber base plate and the timber could could be out by that much.

I would try a firm 5mm rubber foam between the glass and timber and bolt the timber plate up tight as i dont think screws will cut it.

Sounds like a good plan. We'll give that a whirl.

[Zippee]

Gruffy said:

I've hit my first major problem. The glass for the stairs is in and rock solid. The glass for the mezzanine is in, but with too much play (10mm at the top edge). More details on this thread. Can anybody offer advice?

Looking at the pic I'd say 100% you have play in that outer joist, It's only fixed at the bottom of the timber and will have a fair degree of flex there. Can this be strengthened/fixed higher up?

[Gruffy]

It's also screwed through the glass in three places (along the pencil line), but I think we can use wider bolts and fill the 20mm holes a bit better. We're going to build up the fixing to about 220mm tall tomorrow, use better material underneath the glass and chuck a load of silicon all over the place. Hopefully that'll sort it.

Edited by Gruffy on Tuesday 8th October 21:45

[98elise]

Good thread. Getting the maximum out of a small space takes more effort and thought than far larger projects.

[Gruffy]

Exactly that. It's a great design challenge and I'm trying to think ahead and pre-empt any 'I wish I'd thought of that when I was building it'. There's bound to be ideas later, after I've been living in it for a little while.

[Gruffy]

Day 12

Spent the morning not getting the glass in. The afternoon was spent in IKEA Geneva, buying a kitchen and then smuggling it back into France. 700kg of the stuff. That was a bugger to load/unload on my own.



Day 13

The first half of the day was gathering new supplies for the glass; getting the timber just right. The glass is finally in. Approx 4mm play at the top (1m out of the floor). I'm happy enough with that. 16mm bolts right through the 140mm joist. That seemed to do the trick.

Edited by Gruffy on Wednesday 9th October 18:21

[5potTurbo]

Impressive stuff so far, and a great use of space.
I particularly like the glass screening as it opens up the space.

[Gruffy]

This is the reason I was so keen to avoid a handrail. It's only a tiny strip but I think it would create a barrier that really closes the space in. Very pleased to have been able to avoid that and to have the glass drop right into the floor with no skirting.

[DoubleSix]

Great work. I hadn't realised you were just using screws. A proper bolt through the joist (presumably with a dirty big washer) is the way forward for sure.

Looks great, you must be chuffed with the end result!

[Gruffy]

Joiner used screws in the staircase (rock solid) and got cocky, not accounting for the fact that the staircase was CNC'd in a factory. Considering we were trying to save money by not using the ali channels, I'm very pleased with the end result. I have the stone veneer to fix to the front of the floor. Should look lovely once it's all tidied up.

[Gruffy]

Yes, big ol' washers. Also wrapped the bolts with insulation tape to bush the glass drill holes. Cranked it all up super tight.

[Gruffy]

Day 14

Cracking progress today. The stairs were finished, including the media cubby and all the skirting.


We got the electrical conduit all tidied away readied to be wired into the RCD in the morning. Here are the bolts for the glass. That's in a treat now and looking good.


We have the false wall for the kitchen in along with the inset shelf and the box out for the waste pipe, which runs to the bathroom. Here's the cubby underneath of the stairs. Come rental time I think we'll claim it sleeps 5


I cut a hole to run the tv cables.