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I have started a mixed hydrocal / wood Ice House kit from Berkshire Valley for a customer. This is actually part of a multi-build that includes multiple sets of the Atlas O Ice House for the same customer.

2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 007

As is usual for plaster kits this one arrived with a broken wall.

2020-08-24 Hollis hydrocal kit [2)

I glued it together then used joint compound to fill in gaps and try to hide the joint glue lines.

2020-08-24 Hollis hydrocal kit [1)

The kit instructions call for gluing the walls together in a certain order. I sanded the sides and back to make them fit better but only glued two walls together. I will let this set up over night then move on. I plan on using either joint compound or Squadron putty to clean up the glue joints.

2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003

In the mean time I started on the wood deck. The instructions call for staining the wood first before gluing however I am not much on staining - prefer to paint so I started on the bents. The kit comes with full size patterns for the three different types of bents. All the wood pieces come cut to length. I made copies for the required number of each bent style then used double side tape to hold down the 1/8 inch sq posts. I used a 123 block to line up the ledger to the pattern then attached the ledger and sway braces. I will let these cure over night then attach ledgers and braces to the other side. Before gluing the wood together I roughened them up with a steel brush then lightly sanded the fuss off.

2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001

2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002

The last thing done today was to set up for the second style bent however I discovered a problem. As shown below the
pre-cut short post is not long enough. it is supposed to go under the ledger. Fortunately I have extra wood in stock.

2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House post too short

The kit also comes with a mix plastic and metal doors - these were put aside for painting.

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Images (7)
  • 2020-08-24 Hollis hydrocal kit (2)
  • 2020-08-24 Hollis hydrocal kit (1)
  • 2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003
  • 2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 007
  • 2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001
  • 2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002
  • 2020-08-25 Berkshire Valley Ice House post too short
Last edited by Joe Fauty
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Did some more work

Glued another side on to the main building. I cut spacers this time to make sure the walls lined up. As stated above every thing is glued with white Elmer's Wood Glue.

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I painted two doors (interesting one is plastic and one metal) plus a plastic roll up door.

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I started with a dark gray base coat then misted on dark taupe followed by khaki. I am going to mix a solution of black paint to make a wash and see if I can enhance the grooves in the 'wood'.

2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001

I started the roll up door with a black base coat then followed up with dull aluminum.

I finished the second side of one bent (see below) then stopped. I was searching the net for finished photos of this kit and ran into one in which the builder (Gralnik??) added an A-frame roof. I am thinking on this but if I do I will need to make new bents with taller posts or see I can cut the post on these bents once the floor is added.

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Images (5)
  • 2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 004
  • 2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 005
  • 2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002
  • 2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001
  • 2020-08-26 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003

Glued the last wall in the main building and started the small annex

2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001

2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002

One thing I learned working with wood was always dry clamp before committing to glue. It is no different when working with plastic or hydrocal. Even after initial sanding I found some air gaps due to wavy edges and promptly sanded those smooth. Not shown is one glue joint on the main building I applied some Squadron putty to. I will take a photo once I sand it down. Depending on how it looks I will apply putty to the other glue joints.

I continued to glue the deck bents. I have decided to build them to instructions then later see if I can build a separate roof structure. I took one roof post from the Atlas O Ice House kit to use as a measuring tool for the Berkshire Valley kit.  This post measures 2 3/8 inches or about 9 feet.

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According to the instructions I am to start gluing the individual bents to the annex and main building in order to complete building the deck however I have chosen not to do this. I will have to figure out another way to complete the deck for two reasons
1. I don't want to ship the structure with the deck attached to the building as I think this will present a major  issue since the deck is made from very light fragile wood.

2. The instructions assume the building has been painted and all the wood has been stained. I plan on building the entire deck first then painting.

Attachments

Images (4)
  • 2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001
  • 2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002
  • 2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003
  • 2020-08-27 Berkshire Valley Ice House 004

The instructions call for gluing the first few bents to the ice house then proceeding. since I will ship the deck separately I made a glue jig instead.

The horizontal outside beams come in 10 and 12 inch lengths (total deck length is 22 inches). I clamped each bent to the jig in its proper location then using super glue and wood glue attached the four beams. I got a little concerned here since the deck started looking like a roller coaster superstructure instead of sitting flat.

2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001

 

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Once I started adding the diagonal bracing things started to settle down. I used super glue here since there is very little glue surface and it would take too long for wood glue to set.

2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003

 

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This is where not gluing the bents to the ice house was an advantage. It was a lot easier gluing the inside diagonals with the deck separate and upside down then trying to glue them with the bents glued to the building.

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2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 007

The instructions call for gluing floor joists. I was not sure how to interpret the instructions so thought it would be a good idea to glue a set of joists against the deck posts then space the remaining joists. I ended up cutting an extra joist to make things look better. right now the deck is built according to instructions. I am going to contact the customer and ask to be allowed to add a roof. If I do so then I will need to trim some of the posts to end up with a flat surface once the deck flooring is attached.

I made also add some reinforcement to the deck joists since I need to plan for shipping. Once the decking is attached the extra wood should not be visible.

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With all the floor joists glue din I went back to the ice house. I had filled in the joints of the main building with Squadron putty. I decided to use spackling compound on the joints of the annex. After sanding both I really could not tell any difference - however the spackling compound is a whole lot cheaper than Squadron putty.

2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 008

After sanding the top and bottom flat I added the roof supports then glued the annex to the main building using my highly advanced proprietary clamping tool.

2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 009

2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 010

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Images (11)
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 001
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 002
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 004
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 005
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 006
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 007
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 011
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 008
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 009
  • 2020-08-29 Berkshire Valley Ice House 010

Did some work on the base and roof structure.

I added the cross bracing on the base

2020-09-05 Berkshire Valley Ice House [1)

Then built the sides for the roof structure. To make the posts line up with the base posts I marked positions on the the '2x12' ledger then used a right angle to glue the posts on.

2020-09-05 Berkshire Valley Ice House [3)

I'm still not sure how I am going to glue the roof posts to the base floor. Every thing is going to be a butt joint. If I had known at the start I was going to make the roof the posts would have been sized to include the roof.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 2020-09-05 Berkshire Valley Ice House (1)
  • 2020-09-05 Berkshire Valley Ice House (2)
  • 2020-09-05 Berkshire Valley Ice House (3)

Below is the roof structure. I used super glue to attached the roof posts -

2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House [2)

then used wood glue to attach the horizontal beams plus some end rafters. Tomorrow I will see if the sub-roof is strong enough on its own not to bend. If not I will need to think of more supporting rafters. Either way I will probably need to glue supports to the sub-roof to keep it from curling up during paint.

2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House [3)

I started to glue in the flooring. As can be seen the scribed wood sections are warped. I used super glue at the ends and wood glue in the middle then weighed down the sections with 123 blocks.

2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House [4)

2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House [1)

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  • 2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House (1)
  • 2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House (2)
  • 2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House (3)
  • 2020-09-09 6 Berkshire Valley Ice House (4)
Last edited by Joe Fauty

I finished gluing in the floor work and added the sub-roof to the roof structure. Again I used super glue and wood glue. Once I get the fence railing on, the roof structure should stiffen up considerably.

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I will sand the roof smooth than plan on using 'tar paper' (heavy black paper I first paint black then gray then sand off the gray in spots to reveal the black again).

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 2020-09-11 Berkshire Valley Ice House 003
  • 2020-09-11 Berkshire Valley Ice House 004
  • 2020-09-11 Berkshire Valley Ice House 005

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