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Small Scale Engineering offers you the following services:

Engineering, fitting & turning on once-off and short run pieces
All types of welding including bespoke, metal furniture manufacture
Prototype manufacture
Home maintenance, restoration, repairs and renovations
General handyman

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Small Scale Engineering is also building a house out of shipping containers. Follow the project on our blog:

The Latest From the Container House Project

- Workshop Setup Tips
  21st Apr 2021DIYSince we completed the North Container and we have a bit more living space, we’ve been spending our time shuffling everything around. The goal is to make a more permanent workshop for Small Scale Engineering. For our readers that have dealt with the business side of SSE, you probably know that we have a metal-working workshop in Epping, Cape Town. However, most of the wood work happens at home. Kevin has been thinking about the best workshop setup tips as he constructs an awesome word work workshop. We thought we’d share his thoughts with you. Workshop Setup Tips Begin With Planning Everyone’s workshop requirements are different. Your workshop space might be a portion of your garage, a shed in your back yard, or rented commercial space to run a business. You might require workshop space to maintain your cars, to enjoy some recreational time on a hobby, or run a business. You can make almost any space into a functional area with a bit of thought. Kevin’s first workshop was a tiny shed in the backyard. In the shed he set up a wood-working lathe. The lathe took up the whole width of the shed. Even though the shed shook alarmingly and (probably) threatened to fall down whenever he used the lathe, he still managed to turn a few pieces that he made as gifts. Now of course, with Small Scale Engineering making unique pieces for clients, a shed isn’t going to quite cut it. Kevin’s first tip is to not be hasty. Think about your requirements and your limitations. From this starting point you can plan your dream layout. However, when you get to the bit where you’re setting up the workshop, keep flexible, because you might run into a problem, or have a better idea. Packing Space Every workshop needs packing space for tools and materials. Don’t be afraid to scratch for scrap and off-cut pieces of wood. These scraps can be used to make perfectly serviceable drawers, cupboard doors, etc. Kevin’s preference for most of his storage is drawers for their packability and reachability. It is easier to get small items out of a drawer than it is off a shelf in a cupboard. Drawers can usually store more than cupboards. If your workshop will be a dusty environment (such as for woodwork), you will want cupboard doors that seal well to keep your tools clean of unnecessary dust. And remember, your cupboard doors can also be used to store items, just by mounting a few brackets and/or hooks. Don’t forget to reinforce with extra hinges to take the additional weight, and plan your shelving accordingly. Old cupboards (such as those removed from a kitchen installation) are great for modifying to suit your requirements. It is very unlikely that your workshop will need to look like it just stepped out the pages of a design magazine. Working Space If your workshop requires space for big machines, don’t lock in their positions in before you actually use them. After using the machines, you might decide the position is not quite right and a better position might be found somewhere else on the floor. Don’t forget to make sure your workshop has adequate lighting and plug points. Again with big machines that are difficult to move; you’ll want them situated near an electricity supply. Good lighting, and not having extension cords lying on the floor, can help improve the safety of your work space. Have a dedicated space for your safety equipment. This might be PPE, a fire extinguisher and even an appropriate first aid kit. Access to clean water can too be considered a safety requirement, should you need to clean a cut or wash something out of an eye. Of course, this is a legal requirement in a business environment, but is sensible in any workshop. Keep your work space area as clean and clear of clutter as possible. Pack away unused tools so that you can easily find them when you need them. This helps keep frustration levels in check. Just remember that it will be a lot easier for you to sweep a counter top free of dust, then it will be for you to remove weeks of dust from your expensive electrical equipment. In short, this is the perfect opportunity for you to practice thinking outside the box. Do you have any workshop setup tips to share with us? Workshop Setup Tips on Pinterest I’ve found some interesting workshop ideas on Pinterest to inspire you....
- Container House Reveal: North Side Video
  7th Apr 2021InteriorIf you have been following our blog you’ll know that the container house reveal for the north side of our house was eminent. Well, here it is! This side is 99.9% complete. There’s a tiny bit of silicon sealing work that we must complete, and some possible snags (we shall see). But otherwise, totally live-able and super comfortable. Our hard work has paid off and Kevin and I secretly think that this might end up the most comfortable sub-section of the project. With the sun lower in in the sky in winter, the north side at this time of year gets more sun. That means it gets the sun’s warmth in winter and stays in the shade for longer in summer. Just what you would want. Below are some highlights of the work we completed on the north side. Otherwise, scroll down to the end of this post for the video: Container House Reveal Project Highlights Oops! Look at that gap! We experienced some unexpected issues when fitting the second-hand shower enclosure. Cindy and Kevin had tonnes of fun designing and manufacturing the custom bathroom fittings. We experimented on a new kind of wall finish using hessian, that worked out really well! We were really excited the day we fitted the aluminium sliding door. It really opened up the space. We were pleased with how the marble tile back splash turned out in the north container’s coffee station, and just can’t stop showing it off! North Side Video Reveal! Here’s the video we have all been waiting for… If you missed it, here’s the video for the south side reveal....
- Marble Tile Back Splash
  31st Mar 2021DIY / InteriorThanks to a very generous donation, we have a couple of boxes of real marble tiles. That means we have the opportunity to install a marble tile back splash. What better place to make use of this opportunity, than in the north container’s coffee station? Cupboards are built. Deciding where best to fit the gas stove and sink. The marble tiles we received are absolutely beautiful to look at. They were left-overs after another project and were just taking up space and collecting dust in our donor’s home. So, of course, we were very happy to take over these tiles. We spent several months admiring them while we decided what to do with them. We have enough to do a back splash or two and will probably look at using the majority of them in our kitchen. However, we also decided to use them in the north container. The greys in the marble were just perfect for this coffee station space. The purpose of the coffee station is a small space for Cindy to make herself tea and coffee and cereal in the morning. Nothing big or fancy is required. Kevin designed a compact space. Once Cindy approved it, we purchased the mealmine boards so that the cupboards could be fitted. But, as I am sure you can guess, we hit a snag. The Problem The coffee station is built right over a huge dent in the side of the container. Most of the other dents Kevin panel-beat out of the shipping containers using a sledge hammer. This made a terrible noise but was quite effective. Somehow, we missed this dent and when we finally realized it was there and just how bad it was, it was too late to do much about it. The good news is that we mostly managed to hide the dent behind the coffee station cupboards, but it did cause us a bit of an issue. The interior cladding where we would install the back splash had a big step in it where two boards joined near the dented area. Back splash ready for installation The Solution Kevin’s solution in the end, was pretty simple. He cut out a template out of fibre cement board to the exact dimensions required for the splash back. He then took the template and tiled it with the marble tiles, using a flexible tile adhesive. From there, it was easy to take the full board, with tiles attached, and glue it onto the wall with paintable silicon. To be honest, now that it is up, you’d never guess that this is how that marble tile back splash was completed. As you can see in the photos, the coffee station is located in a corner. The other side was much easier to tile as this wall, is in fact, the back of a cupboard. Therefore, it was perfectly straight. For this side, Kevin was able to use the flexible tile adhesive to stick the tiles directly to the back of the cupboard. Half way there! Marble tile Back Splash If you recall a previous article we wrote on tiling with marble, this is not the end of the tile installation. Once the grout is in and dry, we will still need to seal the tiles, using a marble sealer, to protect the tiles from soaking up oil and other food preparation liquids. We are very pleased with the marble tile back splash installation. It looks great next to the pink beech solid wood top. What a perfect little space for preparing a steaming mug of coffee on a cold wintry morning....
- Tips for Hanging Cupboard Doors
  17th Mar 2021DIYCupboard doors are one of the best inventions ever! And I would know. Currently, our clothes are being stored in a cupboard without doors, and dust is a huge problem. It is amazing how this seemingly-minor inconvenience can give you a new appreciation for something as everyday as cupboard doors. But we have started hanging some of our doors. Therefore we decided to share some tips for hanging cupboard doors. Cupboard doors are great, and if they are installed well, they’re even better. Pot Holes The type of hinges we use are the “pot hole” type of concealed hinge. Therefore, our first tip has to do with the “pot holes” or the hole drilled into the cupboard door, where the cabinet hinge sits. When we order the melamine board doors from the wood suppliers, we usually order the doors to be cut and edged without the pot holes. We prefer to drill them in ourselves. However, as this is a service the wood suppliers offer, it is easier for most people to order the doors with the pot holes already added. We choose to drill our own, as sometimes the pot holes can clash with the shelves we have planned. We often build shelves in (rather than just sitting on shelf pins) to provide more stability in a large cupboard and we don’t want a hinge right where we were planning to put a shelf. This is how we drill the pot holes in the cupboard doors This can be a particular problem if you build the cupboards sometime before you order the doors. This you might do if you are using reclaimed melamine to make cupboards, or have to wait to order the doors because of finances. If you decide to have the pot holes pre-drilled, you may need to be a little flexible in your shelving plans. Or, give specific instructions to your supplier as to where you want the pot holes drilled. If you have large cupboard doors that you feel will require more than the standard two pot holes, you’ll also have to specify how many pot holes they should drill into the doors too. We use a small drill press contraption to drill our pot holes in cupboard doors Straight Hinges Here’s a top tip for making sure your hinges are secured straight. You’ll want to do this as it will improve the life of your hinge. The hinge will be subjected to less stress. We use another door or piece of off-cut wood, with a straight edge, to push against at least two hinges. Doing this will ensure that the hinges are 100% straight. Bottom left: Skew hinge. Top & bottom right: Nice and straight. How Many Hinges to Use Per Door? There’s nothing worse than a door that is half falling off its hinges. The obvious way to prevent this, is to make sure you have enough hinges to support the weight of the door. Each type of hinge of this variety can support different weights. It depends on their function (for example, some open wider than others), and the manufacturer. So, it is difficult to know how many hinges you need without knowing the type and manufacturer specifications of your specific hinges. Therefore, if you feel you need more hinges, add more hinges. An example: for a large bedroom wardrobe door, we will install up to five hinges. Adjustments. A really excellent feature of this type of hinge, as we have been discussing, is that they are fully adjustable. Therefore, that means you can get really good results with a bit of adjustment on the hinges. What you are looking for is: The tops and bottoms of the matching doors to meet on exactly the same level. You don’t want a step between the left and right hand door on a cupboard. The gap between matching sets of cupboard doors to be small and even. Ie, the gap between the left and right hand door must be the same at the top as it as at the bottom. And you want that gap to be fairly small. The gap between the cupboard door itself and the edges of the cupboard sides to be minimal. The good news is that these concealed hinges are fully adjustable. Once the hinge is secured to the door, use the larger mounting holes on the cupboard side to attach the door to the cupboard using the appropriate hardware. As those larger holes give you a little bit of wiggle room, you can adjust the door to the exact height you require.Once your adjustments are made, use the smaller holes (and hardware) to lock the hinge (and therefore door) in place. The other two adjustment screws found in the hinge allow you to move the door closer or further way from the cupboard itself, and to the left and right. You can make these adjustments until you feel it is perfect. Making adjustments makes a big difference A good installation along with some well-designed door handles will go further than you would expect in making your cupboards look good. Don’t forget these tips for hanging cupboard doors the next time you find yourself with a hinge in your hand!...
- Tiling The Shower Floor With Hexagonal Tiles
  10th Mar 2021InteriorKevin could not wait to get to tiling the shower floor with the hexagonal tiles he spent so many hours cutting to size. Guess what we spent this past weekend doing? Yes, you guessed right! We were tiling. Well, technically, Kevin was tiling while Gwen and I passed tiles and tools, and helped with the cleaning up. But this was super because I also couldn’t wait to see how the floor would turn out. The Challenges It was a bit of a tricky floor to tile because some of the shower floor goes over the wooden planks originally installed in the shipping container. That bit is quite flat and we need to get a good slope on the floor so that the shower drains properly. I forgot to take a photo of the “before”. However, you might recall this photo from the article on the resin floor: On the right hand photo, Kevin is kneeling right in the space we have allocated for the shower. You can just see that we have poured some concrete around the drain area, but a fair amount of the shower floor is right over the wood. To get a good slope, we had to start quite high up on the edges, which meant building up the sides. How were we going to make the step aesthetically pleasing? The second problem was to do with the hexagons. Without fancy computer-aided cutting equipment, it is all but impossible to get the hexagons 100% accurate. We found that using the plastic tiling spacers wasn’t working in this situation due to the slight variations and hexagonal shape. But, that’s no different from many standard tiles for sale on the market so Kevin knew what to do. The Solutions For Tiling the Shower Floor To raise the shower floor, Kevin added a border out of a hard wood and over that he attached a polished stainless steel tile edge strip. Once the wooden strip has been painted with the blue we used in the resin, it should blend in with the wooden floor planks. The resin will also protect the wood from any water that might accumulate in the corners. However, it is very unlikely that the wood strip will be affected by water in any case, as Kevin is making sure to make the shower floor waterproof. He also purposefully used a hard wood that is more water resistant and very slow to rot. Under the tiles he added a piece of steel mesh so that nothing will crack in the shower should we have any issues with contraction and expansion. We used a bonding liquid in the tile adhesive mix.) The stainless steel tiling edge in the photo below still has its plastic covering on to protect it from scratches. We’ll only peel that off at a later stage. Close up of the wood and stainless steel edging strips As for the gaps between the tiles, Kevin judged them by eye. His previous experience with out-of-square tiles made this easy for him to do. He just kept an eye on the tiles as the tile adhesive cured to make sure none of them slipped out of place. Once the tile adhesive was dry, we scraped out the excess from between the tiles to prepare for grouting. Getting rid of the loose (dry) bits to prepare for grout We had a little bit of tile cement left over after completing the floor, so we were able to put the first four tiles on the back wall too! We are beginning to get an idea how the shower will look on completion. Going Forward Our idea with this bathroom was to use as much upcycled and recycled material as possible; hence our 90s theme. However, the more we complete the more we love what we’re doing and the harder it is to go along with our initial plan for bathroom fittings and tiles. As you know, the floor tiles were broken second-hand tiles. The shower wall tiles were left-overs from tiling the north container bathroom. The other second hand tiles we have (that we can also use in other sections of the house) don’t match the tiles we have used so far, very well. So, we are stuck in a bit of a conundrum. It looks like we’ll have to buy some more tiles in order to finish the bathroom; something that will match the tiling on the shower floor and the shower walls. But what should we purchase? Do we buy a few extra boxes of the marble-printed tiles to finish the rest of the bathroom walls? Do we use a plain white tiles; one that will match the white on the marble tiles we have used? It might be difficult to find the right white. Do we perhaps look for subway tiles and forget about the 90s plan? We are worried the subway tiles might look a bit too busy and detract from our awesome resin floor. We are going to have to put on our thinking caps. Watch this space....
- Up-cycle Second Hand Broken Tiles
  3rd Mar 2021Interior / Prep WorkNot too long ago, Louis renovated a bathroom for one of Small Scale Engineering’s clients. The previous tiler used large, good quality ceramic tiles for this bathroom. Although all the tiles, but one, broke on removal, Louis brought the old tiles back home in the hopes that we might be able to use them on the Container House Project. How exactly would one up-cycle second hand broken tiles? The good news is that although all the tiles broke, the pieces were still quite large. Therefore, we would be able to cut them all down into a smaller tile size. We need something to tile the shower floor of our 90s inspired guest bathroom with its very un-90s resin floor. Kevin decided that these pain but textured grey tiles, would be perfect. The tool for the job – an electric tile saw (The piece of wood attached to the bed is the jig for cutting angles) The Thought Process Kevin’s first thought was that squares and rectangles are too boring. He wanted something more interesting for our show-piece bathroom. He considered triangles. Equilateral triangles are a bit predictable. In order to use isosceles or scalene triangles, each triangle to be fitted to the shower floor would have to be measured and calculated individually, for best results. This is because a shower floor is concave in order to drain properly. In the end, Kevin decided to turn the broken tile pieces into hexagonal tiles. Before Kevin started working on the tiles themselves, he marked out the pattern on a piece of packaging cardboard so he knew exactly what he would need. With this completed, he could get to work on the tiles. The Work Process The first step was to remove old tile cement off the back of the tiles. Only a few still had concrete stuck to it, so it was not too much of a problem. Kevin carefully chipped it off using a small sharp chisel and a hammer. He worked carefully in order to preserve the tiles as best he could without further damaging them. With the decision with the shape made, it was a simple process for him to set up the electric tile saw with a jig to measure out the correct angle required to cut the broken pieces into hexagons. It took Kevin most of a day to cut enough hexagons for us to finish the shower floor. After that, the plan is to spend some time beveling the top edges using a belt sander. Kevin demonstrating how he is going to bevel the edges with the belt sander I think that Kevin did an excellent job. In my (humble) opinion, the tiles look like they were bought in this hexagonal shape. I do not think too many people would ever guess that the tiles were up-cycled from second-hand broken tiles. Best of all; we have just enough to tile the shower floor, with exactly one tile spare. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong in the tiling process! Here goes nothing! Would You Up-cycle Second Hand Broken Tiles? If you’re considering doing something similar to this, I should mention that the second-hand tiles we used are excellent quality A-grade tiles. These tiles have an embedded pattern on the top, rather than than a cheaper printed tile. (The tiles in the photos below are very dusty and are a more uniform colour than all the dust would lead you to believe.) The fact that the broken pieces were large also made this a project worth considering. We would not have considered going to all this effort on cheaper tiles as it just would not be worth the effort. It was a very labour intensive process that did not result in a huge number of tiles. But, please do come back because we’ll definitely be sharing with you on how the shower floor works out with these hexagonal up-cycled tiles. Full of dust from the cutting process...
- North Container Finishing Touches
  24th Feb 2021InteriorEvery day, the north container creeps ever closer to completion. Those finishing touches always take a little longer than you expect, but it is worth the extra time and effort to get it just right. So, this is what we’ve been busy with over the last couple of weeks. Bedroom Walls Like in the south container, we used AcoustiX sound-proofing panels for the bedroom walls. The panels from CDS Plastics arrived recently and we wasted no time in getting them installed on the walls. There was a difference in our installation technique this time around. With the south container, we used off-cuts that were otherwise going to be sent in for recycling, and made a pattern. For this container we purchased full sheets and used acrylic sealant to glue the panels on the wall. As expected, it looks excellent and Kevin can finally get going with the cornices. At night before cornice. Next day, after cornice. (There’s currently a couch standing on its side in the middle of this room blocking the natural light) Built in Chest-Of-Drawers We picked up a number of wooden boxes that were perfect for a vintage inspired chest-of-drawers. With them we made a large chest-of-drawers that runs under the bedroom window. There should be no shortage of packing space in this bedroom! Kevin used some blackwood to make a beautiful top for the chest-of-drawers. I can just imagine how awesome it will look once the window dressings are up with a pot plant or two. We buy much of our wood from ITM Timber Merchants including the planks from which we made this top. We are planning another trip to ITM soon to purchase the wood for the north container’s coffee station tops. Built-in Chest-of-Drawers awaiting drawer faces. Blackwood top Living Room Area Walls & Aircon The living room area is also nearing completion. The ceilings are up. The aircon has been installed. The walls are painted. We bought some webbing in a contrasting colour and attached it to the joins in the hessian finish on the walls. We were thinking of painting it to match the walls, but think it looks good just the way it is, so that’s how it is going to stay. Aircon on the wall! What’s Left of the Finishing Touches Our checklist is getting shorter with every task we accomplish. This is the last of the finishing touches that we still need to complete at this stage: Complete the cornicesInstall the flooring and skirtingsFit the cupboard doors (should be ready for collection this week – end of February 2021)Install the bookshelf next to the sliding doorFit the coffee station’s counter top and sinkFit and paint architraves around windows and doorsHang up curtain rails and curtains It is tantalizingly close to completion!...
- Fitting an Aluminium Sliding Door
  10th Feb 2021UncategorisedThis past weekend was a big day for The Container House Project. We spent a day fitting an aluminium sliding door for the north container. This sliding door will lead out onto a small patio area from Cindy’s private living space. This is a big step for the project because it means we can really get to work now on finishing off this section’s interior. We have had to wait for the final finishes as we did not want any grinding or welding work to damage her finishes. We began work early in the day as we had to have the door in secure before sunset. Kevin wanted to leave time for any problems that might arise. Thankfully, very little went wrong and the door installation ran smoothly. Our biggest hiccup was an old drill that’s giving us a some problems with the clutch. (Solution – use a different drill). Goodbye Container Doors Until this step, we kept the original container doors attached to the shipping container. Container doors are heavy and solid. This is an easy way for us to keep the house secure while we are in the building process, so we have only removed doors at the last moment. Since container doors are so heavy, Kevin required some man muscles to help with the removal. Saturday was a good day as Louis and Carl (who works alongside Louis on many of our SSE client projects), were around preparing for a client’s project. The container doors are off! It took about twenty minutes for Kevin to grind off the industrial hinges and for the doors to be lowered to the ground. Once the doors were off, Cindy and I could help with the rest of the work. We helped by passing Kevin tools, helping hold things in place, and complete a bit of painting work. Welding the Frame The next step was to weld a frame in place. To this Kevin could attach the aluminium and glass sliding door that we previously purchased. The inside half was completed before we took off the doors so. Well begun is half done. Currently, it is difficult to source fresh steel in South Africa. There have been delays in imported shipments due to the pandemic as well as closure of refineries in South Africa. Thankfully, we had a couple of pieces left over from previous purchases for the project and were able to complete this step. We’re also being very careful with our scraps and saving off-cuts to use wherever else we can. Once the frame was in place, we quickly gave the steel a coat of paint to protect it from rust, before fitting the door itself. A lick of paint before we install the door and clad Fitting the Aluminium Sliding Door By this stage, the worst of the hard work was over. It was not too difficult fitting the aluminium sliding door to the frame by drilling the inside of the door frame and attaching with appropriate hardware. Once that was done, we quickly put up some of the fiber-cement cladding boards around the door where necessary. Kevin finished it off by sealing the gaps with paintable silicon. Soon we’ll paint the boards in the same blue in which the rest of the exterior of the house has been painted. On the interior, Kevin will fit a bookshelf similar to the one we fitted in the south container to finish it off. It won’t take too long to finish the ceilings, the painting and to fit the floor. Cindy will soon be able to move into her new home! … And it’s in!...
- Hessian Wall Finish
  3rd Feb 2021InteriorA good couple of years ago, I found an article on the internet (don’t ask me where), on a hessian wall finish. The article focused on a bathroom renovation and the owners had finished their walls by applying hessian to the wall. It looked amazing. It gave the walls such an awesome textured finish. Of course it stuck in our minds. As our interior walls are boards attached to the shipping container, it’s not a case of us merely plastering and painting, as one would with a brick wall. One can finish the walls that way, but it involves a lot of effort, and from the beginning, we’ve been looking for simpler ideas. In the south container, Louis did use this technique on some of the walls. Other sections we covered with wall paper. However, over the months, we have noticed that the plaster between the boards has developed hairline cracks, due to the contraction and expansion caused by heat and cold. It’s not a huge problem and it is barely noticeable, but this is something we considered when planning the north side. The wallpaper is hiding the cracks in those areas. So, of couse, the hessian idea came to mind. Beautiful rolls of hessian Prep Work We still had to finish the walls before we could apply the hessian. Kevin ground down all the screw heads where necessary. We spent some time filling the holes with paintable silicon. The joints between the boards were smoothed out with plaster and everything was sanded down. Then came the hard part. How were we going to stick the hessian to the walls? Hessian Wall Finish It was quite a tough decision deciding what hessian to buy. There are several options to choose from, depending on how coarse you want the fabric. In the end, Cindy decided on the finest hessian available, and bought enough for her lounge area. Once the walls were prepared, Kevin had to come up with an idea to attach the hessian to the walls. Our original plan was wood glue, so we purchased a five litre tub of glue. If it didn’t work, we knew the glue would be used anyway, as Small Scale Engineering itself currently has several wood-work projects on the go for customers. Kevin stapled the end of the hessian to the top of the wall and let it unroll to the floor, where he cut the length off the roll. From there, he rolled the glue onto the walls with a paint roller, and smoothed out the hessian against the glued wall. However, after priming the hessian ready for paint, we noticed the hessian develop some bubbles. The paint was causing the glue to lose its grip. What worked better, in the end, was using paint to glue the hessian onto the walls. We used a cheap plaster primer and once dry, it stuck in place well. We are using a lot of paint per drop, but at least the area is not too big, and the paint quite affordable. Pretty cool macro shot of the texture so far Shrinkage Should you decide to try this, remember that hessian is a natural fibre and will shrink. It would be a good idea to pre-shrink the fabric, but this is easier said than done with such long lengths of fabric. So, we just let it shrink on the wall. The top part will be covered by cornice and the bottom part by skirtings, so that is fine. We were hoping for a bit more of an overlap between the lengths, but we have some ideas to hide the joins, so we are not worried about that either. Unfinished join between the drops of hessian The Hessian Effect The room is still very much in progress and as such, isn’t very cozy. Just three drops of hessian are up on the wall and the difference is amazing. It looks so much better already. It’s going to look great once the walls are complete. Of course, there are still floors and ceilings to think about too to complete the room. Many people out there are using hessian as a texture effect on the top half of their walls, above the dado rail. They usually glue the hessian in place with something like a flour/water mix. This preserves the colour of the hessian. It is a great idea and looks good in the right space. In our case though, we are wanting to preserve the texture as it’ll hide any flaws in the wall, and not so much the colour. We are going to paint the hessian in the paint colour of our choice, after application. A Difficult Experiment to Photograph This was a difficult project to photograph. Kevin was working by himself the day he worked on the hessian wall finish so it was impossible for him to take photos while his hands were full of glue and paint. Also, how does one take a photo of a wall texture? I’m not quite sure. However, the hessian will add to the end ambiance of the room, so we’re excited about this set of experiments....
- Awesome Wood & Resin Floor
  27th Jan 2021InteriorThis wood and resin floor has to be the most exciting project we have worked on to date. I have been looking forward to accomplishing this task, ever since we decided to do it. It was a total experiment. But I say, chances to experiment are rare, so experiment away! Even though we had been putting this off as we were a little nervous as to how it would work out, I can now say that we are very pleased with the results. Our wood and resin floor looks awesome. Why Resin? Our oldest shipping container has solid wood planks for the floor. The wood is probably mahogany or teak; more likely mahogany. Newer shipping containers have plywood sheets. Plywood is great as a solid base for flooring, but not very exciting for the floor itself. We really wanted to use these planks as the floor in one of the rooms. We couldn’t use it in the home office because of the huge piece of steel embedded in the floor in this area (that would have made the room freezing cold in winter if left bare). In the entrance way of our house the wood was rotten from holes in the roof. That left our 90’s retro guest bathroom where the condition was much better. So, a resin floor is not very 90’s, but it’s too great an opportunity to miss. The rustic planks after a thorough scrubbing We had quite a debate as to whether to use resin or just varnish on the floor. The wood is decades (probably) old and very rough. It has lots of deep pockets and huge gaps between the planks. If we are to be able to keep this floor clean, some of those gaps would have to be filled in; at least a bit. We thought resin would do a better job at filling in the holes than varnish. Also, with resin, we could add some blue tint for more interest. So, we decided on resin. But Kevin and I, from the start, had differing ideas on how to accomplish this task. Even though Small Scale Engineering has worked on resin projects before for customers (such as this resin table below), this is quite a different scenario altogether, and we were not sure what to expect. In the end, we decided to just wing it and see what happened. A previous resin project for a client of Small Scale Engineering Prep Work How do you clean dirt and loose splinters from old wooden planks? We could have spent several hours with an orbital sander or similar, sanding the floors. This is how you would deal with it in a conventional house with wooden floors. We decided against this as we wanted to keep the rustic texture. We wanted to show off the rough nature of the planks and the large bolts holding it all in place. Therefore, a wire brush was the way to go. Wire brushing this by hand was going to take way too much elbow grease, so Kevin purchased a vicious wire wheel that runs off a pneumatic tool linked up to the air compressor. It still took a while to scrub out the entrenched dirt and remove the loose splinters of wood. Shipping containers are often fumigated before shipping, so we didn’t know what chemicals from fumigation or spills has soaked into the wood. Also, it’s not good to breathe in too much wood dust so Kevin was sure to wear his PPE to protect his lungs and eyes. It was so great to watch the wood emerge from the dirt. You can just see how dirty the floors were to start off with on our blog post on fitting the close coupled toilet. (We removed the toilet before working on the floor. It will be easy for us to refit at a later stage, now that all the plumbing is in place). Resin Floor – First Layer We doubted very much that the tongue and groove planks were water tight. Kevin and I both suspected that the liquid resin would run through any gaps in the wood. We did not want to just throw away the resin like that, so we decided to paint on the first layer. This would hopefully seal any gaps before we poured the next layer. Kevin mixed the Kristal 6 Diamond Coat resin (purchased through AMT Composites) as per the ratios on the packaging and added in some blue tint. Then Kevin got to work with a paintbrush, making sure to seal up the gaps as best he could. At this stage, the resin looked black against the wood and we did not know how it was going to work out. If it remained black, it would have been extremely dramatic and also very awesome, but not quite what we had in mind. A few hours later we checked on the floor. The sun was in a different position and the resin was curing. It was looking fabulous! The curing resin was reflecting light almost like an oil slick and we could see all colours of the rainbow; blues, greens, purples and red-browns. The wood itself was so dry that it sucked in the resin like a sponge. Surprisingly, it sucked in the blue dye as well, only leaving patches of it on the surface where deeper puddles had collected. The end result was the kind of vintage look that many people have been purposefully trying to recreate on DIY projects over the last few years. Resin Floor – Second Layer Once the first layer had cured, we mixed a second batch. This time around, we put in less dye so that the resin would be a lighter blue. This batch we poured directly on the floor. An off-cut scrap of PVC ceiling board made a great squeegee to move the resin around. We did lose some resin through gaps, but not too much We were still concerned that some of the resin was leaking through the boards, so Kevin bravely (snakes and spiders!) put his phone into a hole in the boards that had been cut for plumbing pipes. With the phone in place, he took a photo so we could see under the floor. We did lose some resin, but there wasn’t too much we could do about that. Once again, it was spectacular watching the resin change as it cured and the sun moved, lighting the room differently. The end result is a wonderful floor that I just love and cannot get enough of. However, the resin can take up to 72 hours to cure, and it still seems a little squishy as we post this blog. Something might have gone wrong with our mix. Let’s hope it’ll be okay! Our unique wood and resin floor Resin Floor – Third Layer? From here, Kevin and I are not sure whether or not to add a third layer of resin. He envisioned a floor that was as smooth as glass, with the wood and its textures shining through the blue-hued resin. I think that the result as it is now, with some remaining texture, would be better for traction with wet feet. How slippery is resin when wet? It might not be a problem at all. People would step onto a bathmat when climbing out the shower in any case. So here’s your chance to give your opinion. Do you think we should leave the floor as it is now, or add a final layer of resin to make a glassy-smooth surface?...

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