Electricity: Well, we applied for electricity to be connected in March of this year (It is late August as I write this). Made a couple of calls to see how things were progressing, but never got any call backs. It would have been great to have an electricity supply for the a lot of the work, but in the end I had to buy a generator, which has been a godsend. So come August and we are now living on site in a caravan. I've been in for the last couple of weeks and last night my wife moved in too (w
Six years ago, we had a casual conversation with an architect friend about the fact that we'd like to build our own home. Taking the resulting vague, non-committal "hmmmmm" as rampant, unbridled enthusiasm, we started looking for plots. First thought - our very own back garden. It was massive, a pain in the arse to garden, and it would be free!
Back garden plot Pros:
- Free
-Less gardening
Back Garden Plot Cons:
- On a notorious flood plain
In this entry I'm going to discuss in more detail how I came to choose our heating and hot water system, and how it has performed to date.
As other forum members have found, deciding which fuel source and type of technology to use in a low energy house, is a challenge given the different requirements each of us has. We had three stipulations – low running costs, hot water available on tap 24/7 and maintenance of the whole house at an even and constant temperature 24/7.
H
Well, some interesting developments:
1. We bought a caravan! Even though it's only about 8 miles from where we are temporarily renting (though that "temporary" has ended up into it's 3rd year since we sold our old house!) , it's a pain working on the house then having to hide/ lock everything away each time, before going home, then spend half an hour getting it all out again next day, so we gave notice on our temporary tenancy and are moving onto the site at the end of the month. That shoul
05.08.17 - we have FINALLY received our quote for the under-grounding of the electricity wires! 8 weeks and we'll have a date for when the work will commence! Horrah!!!!
Monday and Tuesday were fine to measure, cut and fix 52 rafters. Next is to fit 75mm horizontals and fix Isoroof and membrane.
Just had quote from BPC for MVHR, is everyone happy with the kit supplied? Please PM if necessary.
Thank you.
This was last Monday and was quite a challenge for my Dad and I.
Steel was 10.5m in length spliced in the middle, about 400kg + the added timber ridge and needed to be 4.7m high sitting on two 100mm square posts.
Overall length was 15m.. The night before I realised one of the posts was 400mm to short. We carried on using some blocks until the post was replaced on Tuesday.
Blocks visible in 2nd picture on top of post.
Rented 2 x Genie lifts and away we go. Well, it took all
A bit slow to update the blog, been busy making frames up to the first floor, Caberdek laid to make it all a bit easier to work off, second hand Kwikstage up and 2 x 6m glulams for the ridge. Rafters and counter battens on top for the 35mm Isoroof. Membrane on top. The weather has been great until today. Some photos enclosed.
So, its been nearly a year since my last post and this is what we have achieved thus far.
We attended the NEC show in Feb to confirm in our own mind the products / suppliers we hope to use – namely roof tiles, flooring, rainwater goods & windows and doors. Despite our best efforts to remain focused we had our heads turned by a range of wooden windows – Accoya wood – we made some enquiries and after a few weeks we received their costings - £37k for 10 windows, two French doors and 2 exte
Since the last update, the interior of the cottage has come on leaps and bounds. The rather unusual partitions and ceilings were all framed up and then plasterboarded. I was sensible enough to enlist help with some vaulted ceilings, having learnt the hard way that a 9.5mm board balanced on your head is quite liable to snap in half.
I had originally planned to simply tape and fill, but at short notice heard that a plasterer was up on the island and available for work (his original con
Those beyond a certain again will remember Spot The Ball, the competition on the sports pages back in the 80s/90s.
It was an action photo from a football match with the ball missing – you had to mark the picture with an X where you thought the ball was and send it in with your entry fee. If the middle of your X aligned with the middle of the ball, you won the prize.
Except, it wasn’t quite like that. What actually happened was that judges also guessed where th
So, after a flurry of initial blog posts back in March and April, I went quiet. Real life (home and work) got a bit mental and I just didn't have the time to post more. And, my wife and I have also done a fair bit of reflection on the way forward.
I'd gotten about 2/3 of the way through the journey to where we are today. I've covered finding the plot, and the decision whether to buy it, initial view on wayleaves and servitudes, tweaking the design that came with the plot, clearing to
Well, things, as I suspected might be the case, have gone from slow, slow, slower, to a sudden rate of knots overnight. After an initial bump where we discovered that the architect had drawn the SIPs to start at the beam and block floor level, (but with 2 weeks to go the SIPs designer pointed out that the soleplate must be 150mm minimum above that), we quickly got the builder to some blocks laid to give us the 100mm insulation, 75mm screed + stone floor height needed.
Building regs
Its been a while since the last blog and lots has happened. We'd been busy with other things and planned to crack on with the house but while on the way to our house a couple of weeks ago, the OH was hit by a car which failed to give way at a junction. He was riding his cycle, got thrown up and across the road, landing on his head. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way, and he was wearing a helmet which took a lot of the impact and somehow, apart from lots of scrapes, his main limbs were
I had intended this entry to be about our heating system and DHW, but due to the interest and debate on MVHR silencers, have brought this entry forward.
As reported in a previous blog entry, I’ve been aware of fan noise being emitted from the individual room supply and extract terminals. The valves themselves do go some way of dampening down the noise, so acoustic valves may well be a good solution, but I decided to go down the route of building my own silencer following some discus
As we approached our move in date, our tiler was unfortunate enough to come down with a bug that was doing the rounds. He had to take a couple of days off (and I think probably came back before he really should have) but it did have a knock on effect on the plumber, who couldn’t get all the sanitary ware fitted before we moved in. On the morning of moving in day (and to obtain our Temporary Certificate of occupation) we had one fully working bathroom. At the end of moving in day we had both w
22.06.17 - Scottish Power have come to look at putting power lines running across our plot underground and also at moving an H pole. 2 weeks and we should have a couple of drawings sent to us so we can make a decision as to how we'll proceed.
One of the final significant jobs I had to do before we moved in was connect up and commission the MVHR. All the radial ductwork and individual plenums had been fitted at first fix, however I had left installing and connecting the actual unit until the loft has been insulated, as I didn't want to risk pipe connections being damaged.
The day before we were due to move in, the insulation contractor having laid all the loft insulation, I spent a couple of hours in the loft space above
Working around the joiners as they completed the internal fit out, the electrician returned to complete second / final fix. I won’t bore you with endless photographs of sockets and light switches, but will describe the most notable electrical installations:
LED lighting – after obtaining various samples and some electrical testing, I purchased a quantity of slimline 6W recessed fittings from
https://hartingtonheath.com/product-category/led-recessed-lights/non-dimmable/
