The Astro Pavillion

[Paul Haese]

When Cate and I got married I moved into her house and sold my unit in the city. We only lived 700 meters from each other, so the environment was familiar too me. It is the hills and that means sloping blocks.

After doing quite a few maintenance jobs that needed attention I embarked upon a place where I could do planetary and solar work. My idea was that I wanted it to have many functions. Not only astronomy but it should also be a shady retreat during the hot summer months, give people an extra place to sit when we entertain (we have held some big functions here in the last couple of years and space is always at a premium with one large deck and a patio already) and of course be stylish.

We spent months discussing where things ought to go, what shape the roof would take and colour scheme. Initially we were going to use a hipped roof, then it was just a plain truss and now it is just a simple flat roof. Our influences were from our travels in Asia over the last couple of years. Pavillion living is huge there and we wanted the whole structure to have that feel. Budget has an impact on the final look, thatched hipped roofing was going to cost me a fortune, so it was scraped for a more cost affordable result.

First up was to dig the hole and pour the concrete. Typical block of concrete 1m x 1m x 0.7m. To this I dyna bolted the pier (which I am not 100% happy with but I can sort this later).

I then set about building the actual deck. It has 190 beams, with 90 90 posts and 90 x 45 joists. All built to my usual standard. The decking went on this and was stained with a Sikkens product for decking. It stayed that way through winter.

Then I built the roof structure with 240 beams, 190 Rafters and 70 x 45 battens. Every thing was screwed in place with 100mm screws, to help prevent uplift during high winds.

The roof was then screwed on with a clean sheet of pine plywood under corrugated colour bond. The plywood has a coat of clear varnish to seal it from the elements.

After this I undertook the underground power, which was done last Saturday. The pier now has power and this has negated the need for running out a lead each time. I was pretty tired on Saturday night, despite thinking I would image Jupiter, I fell asleep at 9pm. LOL

Then the final image shows some of the finishing touches. Staining of the beams is on going, as well as the side decking. There will be side decking where the bracing is, and this will help provide a shady retreat during summer. There will be a deck leading up to the sleeper wall and then a set of steps will be cut into that wall and up onto the patio. It all has to be done by Christmas as we are putting on lunch this year and it needs to be presentable. Only another couple of weeks and it will be completed. Don't worry there is another deck that needs doing out the front as well as a large rectangular water garden.

I will post the pics of the completed job.

[TrevorW]

Looks good does the roof slide off

[Paul Haese]

No mate, it does not. For me the planets are to the direct right in the images. I have for the first time lived at a property in the hills where I can see the entire ecliptic. So I don't need to have a roof that slides off. It would have been nice but wind loading issue become a problem with a moving roof.

[TrevorW]

Cheers Paul well done on the workmanship

[iceman (Mike)]

Looks great!