Time moves on and so does the build, albeit much slower than most of the builds featured in blogs.
Over the past 4 months we have dug out, cleared and prepared our 2nd phase ready for the groundworks, as in all the stuff that goes in the ground, costs lots of money and is never to seen again.
The next wall to be replaced and the old roof to be removed.
This is one of the original walls, but it only had 200mm foundation so was not saveable.
A quieter week this week but good progress nonetheless.
The main build focus this week has been on the south-facing single pitch roof which is to be covered using in-roof solar panels with slates around the boundary, then zinc facias to match the rest of the roof.
It seems the zinc roof guys don’t do slate roofs and the slate roofers don’t do zinc, so two roofing teams required. Fortunately, both teams have been excellent: professional, tidy, friendly and turning up when
On your marks: Get set : Wait!
Day 1 of panel erecting was rained off. Humph. I tried to pretend to be human again by popping into town with J for a spot of bargain hunting (for stuff we don’t need, natch) but inside I’m still a self build automaton. My recovery won’t really start till we move in methinks.
Next day we start the day by admiring my new paddling pools. The previous week I carefully swathed the piles of panels with tarps before it rained oodles. Good theo
A longer than usual blog - we’ve had a lot going on this week.
We definitely reached site capacity with five vans and seven contractors on-site on Thursday and Friday. Seven pallets of cellulose bales arriving mid-week didn’t help space management either.
The whole week got fairly stressful but somehow we seem to have got through it. Phew!
Membranes
The plan was for the team from SW Insulation to fit the VCL membrane to the vaulted ceilin
After many years of searching, we finally have a plot!
Our offer on this plot was accepted in March 2024 and we've only just now completed. But we're excited that it's finally done and we can move forward.
Next steps:
We have an architect already and a set of draft plans. We'll be working to finalise these plans and take them to planning. The site has detailed planning permission already, so we'll just be looking to vary the design -- and not significantly so
As mentioned last week, the zinc roofers asked if they could start a week early(!) and so, on Monday morning along they came - Brian and Tom from Wessex Metal Roofing in Salisbury. The first couple of days were mainly rolling out long zinc profile sections from the back of their van, then these proceeded to be fixed on to the 18mm ply sheeting that Alan the Chippie had laid the previous week.
Three triple-glazed electric Veluxes arrived from the builders’ merchants (I f
Last week our timber frame structure shot up. This week was supposed to be the second week of a two-week frame installation but the team finished on Tuesday, having worked through the weekend. And off they went, but not before I persuaded them to stand still for 30 seconds for a snap for posterity. So here they are: Brandon, Jake and Callum - Great work guys!
Their early finish allowed our chippie Alan to press on with the 18mm ply required over the roof for the zinc
Forgive me holy Bill Dub, it has been many weeks since my last confession: and in that time I have uttered much profanity and at times, I have edged a small way towards despair. I used to think I was good at working alone, and I sort of am when I have confidence that I have a good idea of what I am doing. The other thing about working alone is that it’s dangerous - especially with net access and faceache marketplace. Guess who now has a fridge freezer in the site hut (vital, darlings) and a b
…well, the shell of a house at least.
What a crazy week. We chose the factory-built timber frame route because we like the idea that the shell goes up within a few weeks. But the pace of progress this week has been startling.
The frame erection team of 3 arrived at 7:30am on Monday. A big yellow crane arrived at 8:00, with the frame arriving on an artic by 9:15. First off: a careful check shows that the frame fits the footings. Hurray! In fact the footings were withi
A relatively quiet week this week - the lull before the storm (hopefully not literally!)
The scaffolders arrived to put up a single-lift all around the exterior on Thursday and Friday (and Saturday morning as it turned out). I say single-lift but there were due to be a couple of hop-ups for the gables on the south-facing roof. However, at one end the gable is over a canopy roof which means the first lift is 2m away from where the gable will be. We've left that one off for now -
We’ve had another very good week of progress by the groundworks team and they are pretty much done now bar some further levelling of the paddock area and one or two other minor details. We are really pleased with their work and the Building Inspector is pleased too, thankfully, so our foundations are all signed-off 👍.
Bizarrely, it’s only now that we can submit the “Commencement Statement” for our construction to Building Control, which I duly did this week. Also bizarrely, we are
Great progress by the groundworks team in sweltering conditions this week - laying concrete blocks in the sun when it’s 30deg C and 80% humidity can’t be any fun at all.
Despite the heat, by the end of the week our foundation walls are in and ready for the block and beam floor this coming week. We can really see the house take shape now, although quite a few of the foundation walls are just there to support floor beams and won’t appear as internal walls above the floor.
With a few hot days I decided to plunge into fixing the outside drainage. These had been marked the wrong way around on the surveyors map which carried onto the Architects drawings which made its way into the construction drawings and the groundsworker dutifully connected up as per these last year. It was only a few months ago I noticed backflow of sewage in what I thought was the storm drain and discovered the difference between 4" sewer lines and 6" storm drain lines!! Unfortunately the 4,000
The groundworks team have been putting in the Sewage Treatment Plant and drains this week. We’ve chosen the Klargester Biotec+ 2 STP and that arrived on schedule from Tanks Direct on Tuesday.
Also this week the concrete pads were dug and poured for five oak posts that will support overhanging roof canopies - the Building Inspector asked us to put in 1m x 1m x 1m pads which seems excessive for 150mm x 150mm oak posts taking point loads of 5-10kN but it was that or pay the SE for (p
Well, sort of. Working physically hard is sooo emotionally easy compared to the frenetic whirlwind of strip foundation digging and filling. If that means that to you, I sound an emotional fruitbat then I commend your perceptivenes. I find it impossible to predict in advance the bits that will be most stressful.
In the last two weeks I’ve had all but two days on my own on site, as Steve has been on his hols. So it’s background organisation tasks and planning for the most part. T
The excellent SE we contacted on Thursday to design the depth of our foundations came back on Friday with the answer - deeper than we wanted at 1.95m in the corner closest to the neighbouring oak (15m away) but his quick response has saved the schedule. We need to add clayboards in the corner nearest the tree but overall it could have been a lot worse.
His rapid turnaround was brilliant and it meant we were able to crack on this week. The groundworkers had already discounted Monday
Our groundworkers arrived on site as promised on the Tuesday after Spring Bank Holiday. Raining all day of course! Though tbf it’s fairly light rain. They made a good start removing a concrete slab left over from a long-demolished, clearing the oversight and creating a temporary spoil dump site on the paddock.
Three issues this week:
An unexpected armoured cable is discovered on day two - our groundworker Marcus is unsurprisingly cautious. Quick call to our electrici
We’re starting our build so I thought I’d attempt a blog. I can’t promise to keep it up throughout the build but I start with good intentions. Apologies for the inevitable typos along the way.
A bit of background:
We have previously done a lot of alteration and refurb projects for our various homes over the years, the most recent a major eco- refurb and extension of a 1960s bungalow.
Last year we decided to bite the bullet, sell the house, buy a plot an
We start the week with the latest quandary: how to show the warranty surveyor enough trenches so he can confirm he’s seen 50% of them. He saw some last week and if we dug the rest of them then that would add up to enough. However, if we did that we’d have a massive issue with spoil and we would not get the concrete lorry on to pour, so it would be barrows. Apparently pumping is an option, but we’d need to close the road which is a lot of cost and a great deal of time wasted.
So,
Weeks 35 to 39
The build is close to our existing working barn and home, close enough that as a Cow Shed power and water was fed from the working barn. We have renewed the power cable and water connection so that the new build with its 7.5 kwp of solar can power the working barn. With the solar on the roof the plant room became my priority to get the CU and wiring ready for the solar installation to continue. This meant us plaster boarding in the plant room, a new plaster board li
Clearing the site…
(Last weekend I didn’t think there was enough for a blog entry. But this weekend, after a week and a half at groundworks it turns out I had more in my head to clear out than I realise, so it’s a bit longer than expected…)
After the grunt and sweat and fatigue of manual demolition it felt like one big ‘Hurry Up -Wait!’, the wait partly imposed by Steve (semi retired builder) being on holiday.
The plan was to start groundworks at the beginni
This blog post is out of order, I’ve lots of other content yet to post, but thought it important to capture in the moment.
I’ve spent the last few days preparing my en-suite floor for tiling.
cut out the 22mm p5 chipboard ready for the shower former.
plumb the 40mm shower waste to a 50mm solvent weld pipe, which was a smaller size than the 40mm solvent weld adapter I had. Turns out compression fittings are able to go from 40mm solvent weld (42mm OD) to 40mm
I took two weeks holidays to catch up on some house building work and get some material onsite. Sometimes that worked, sometimes not!!
The Plumber has already been and performed most 1st fix items and I'm centralizing everything back to central manifolds:
Should make replacing taps etc a lot easier in the future I hope!!
I was outside during the recent sunny spell and noticed my Brise Soleil doing their thing - the shadow modelling looks spot on for this time of yea
