A riveting experience

With the plinth walls rendered and painted we have been able to get on and install the guttering. We are using zinc guttering from Metal Gutta. The sections of guttering are riveted together with stainless steel blind rivets (also know as pop rivets). With no experience of riveting and inadequate tools (no really, not a case of a bad workman blameing his tools) our initial progress was slow. First up we tried the hand riveter we purchased with the guttering but it was not man enough for the job (stainless steel rivets are strong). Next I bought a rivet attachment for the electric drill. This worked well enough until it jammed when Mark tried to insert a rivet without removing the mandrel from the previous rivet. Finally we borrowed a powerful Lazy Tong riveter that originally belonged to a ship builder. It made the task much easier.

Sealant was applied to the joints to make them watertight.

We have installed some temporary pipe to carry the water away. Eventually downpipes will lead to a rain garden SuDS.

suds

#strawbalewoodlands #strawbalehouse #guttering #riveting