A busy week on site has seen us transition from foundations to solid structure.
First order of the day, getting prepared - ICF blocks, braces, window formers and other equipment moved onto the slab.
Building the walls up - basically a giant lego kit!
Blockwork finished and scaffolding going up.
Although the ICF blocks interlock with each other, the walls themselves (6 blocks high) are subject to a lot of movement. T
(I know, I know...the photos didn't paste in and I will have to do them one at a time...I'll get 'round to it I promise...managed the first dozen, more to come)
Part One-Wind And Watertight For Under £6k
I'm new to blogging and probably have nothing much in terms of knowledge to impart but some of you might be interested in building on a low budget so here goes. After many years on the waiting list we got offered a plot on the famous West Highland Way about 3 miles north of the startin
Another week of hard work by the builders and the foundations are complete.
Type 1 up-fill (only 100mm or so required) was spread then compacted down with a vibrating roller. A final layer of quarry dust was added to finish the blinding. In keeping with previous comments about a clean and tidy site, you can also see the digger spreading type 1 around the foundations.
Internal drains and ducts are added, DPC / Radon barrier laid and 150mm PU insulation fitted.
NEW ENTRY
4 weeks after we hoped to have it, our warrant was finally approved. Another weeks delay waiting for the digger driver, but finally work has started in earnest on site.
Strip foundations were dug and concrete poured the following day. A minor set-back during the pour, a hydraulic line split on the mixer forcing it to shut down. An hour later after the mechanic had brought out and fitted a new line, the job was finished.
I'm going to jump right to the current status on site and at some point will go back and fill in the gaps.
A summary of major jobs completed to date:
- access created
- water and electricity on site
- septic tank and 'Puraflo' secondary treatment/filtration system installed and signed off by BCO
- footprint of house laid with membrane and chips
- concrete footings and piers poured
- Douglas Fir ring beam installed
- JJI joists installed on hangers
- A
Originally published on the old forum April 2016.
Had to happen, the lack of a building warrant has pushed our start date back. I had started the process back in November and having been encouraged to do so, handed over the submission of the warrant application to a local surveyor well versed in our chosen method of construction. Without boring you all regarding the reasons why, the application wasn't actually submitted until the end of January and there have been delays in getting
Hesitantly, I offer this checklist because the subject matter is often deeply sensitive: there's so much at stake during the meeting and the build up to it may well have been fraught. Indeed, this blog entry is a pen-portrait of a recent Planning Committee Meeting in my area
All the more need for a rational, carefully structured checklist, therefore.
This list appeared originally on the ill-fated ebuild site. Each comment was referenced to multiple threads, thus adding greatly to its vali
I started the project with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted: the 'contemporary vernacular' style that Skye has embraced is a modern take on traditional proportions, using simple materials to create stunning properties with clean lines that sit well in the landscape.
The best known examples are those drawn by Dualchas architects, with their designs featuring on Grand Designs and in various magazines. I seriously looked into a 'Heb Homes' kit but this would have been way out of my budget.
This is a retrospective look at how the site was when we first started the project.
Our croft is a typical long, narrow strip of land. Crofts were traditionally carved up in such a way that everybody got a share of the different bits of land- a bit of shoreline, a bit of lower good ground, and a bit of rough hill ground. In our case, the croft is 27m wide and nearly 500m in length! If nothing else it ensures plenty of work for fencing contractors.
Our strip has two public roads running
This blog was originally begun over the now closed eBuild forum. I will be transferring most of the my blog posts over here in due course and taking the opportunity to tidy the blog up a little and fill in some of the gaps along the way.
In 2013 I became the owner of a house and croft on the Isle of Skye, and set about looking for ways to make the most of this opportunity. In particular I was keen to set up some form of income generation to supplement my earnings.
The first idea
The chant "Yer wanna get a digger mate!" started in 2014, and I finally got one two years later. The chanters were right. But what I didn't hear was what they were chanting (sniggering) under their breath. "You're gonna get covered in grease".
Let's start at the beginning. How much does a digger cost to hire? £70 per day. How much does it cost to transport it to and from your house / plot? £25. All plus VAT. Bang goes £300 / £350 per week. And it rains, or there's a delay, and it sits there
Initial post date 21 Jan 2016
The initial brief for the house was:
Passivhaus standards
U-value of walls of 0.1W/(m2.K)
Passive slab floor with 0.1W/(m2.K)
low U-values, typically 0.85 to 0.70 W/(m².K) for the entire window including the frame, Triple glazing with built in blinds.
Underfloor Heating with individual room/hall/passageway controls
Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation with demand control
Ground Source Heat Pump and Solar water heating
Photo Voltaic Tiles (not p
Initial post date 21 Jan 2016
Our planning application took just over 3 months, however there was a lot of work done before this. As I said previously over an extended period the plans bounced back and forth between the Architectural Technologist (AT) and myself, with the occasional face to face when I was up at the existing house.
The initial submission consisted of the topographic survey and photographs I posted last time, a OS map (very out of date, but required), Application form and
Initial post date 08 Jan 2016
My plan is to knock down the existing bungalow and re-build it with a 2 story house. This blog will be a record of the journey (hopefully), I will pass on any lessons (good and bad) and also ask the wise collective for advice (some of which I may take).
The first question is why? We have a perfectly functional 4/5 bedroom bungalow that my mother lives in. I own the house (having bought my sister out of her half) and I wish to build a house to retire to. I am
Originally published on the closed forum March 2016.
In submitting our planning application, I had purposefully had the external walls and roof depth drawn as 450mm thick, reasoning that this would let me investigate construction costs for a variety of different construction methods. First port of call was MBC, but our geographical location meant that was a non-starter for them. Next, I got in touch with Danwood, who were happy to travel and build on Orkney, but were not prepared to build
I'm sometimes accused of overthinking stuff. And I'm a little weary of it. Here's why.
Expert status in many areas is thought to develop after about 50,000 hours of practice. And one of the common characteristics of expert status is the reduced need to think about the hard-learned craft or subject. It (irrespective of subject matter) becomes hard wired.
Take my digger. Just bought it a few weeks ago and while using it in the first couple of hours I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. My
Originally published on the closed forum, March 2016.
So armed with our ideas, and having read through the guidance documents on housing in the countryside http://www.orkney.go...Countryside.pdf http://www.orkney.go...ctober_2013.pdf I contacted the council to see if I could speak to the planning officer who had dealt with the outline planning application for the site. Having read all of the comments on here about pre-planning processes, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Orkney
Hello Build Hub!
First Blog entry in our new home.
So things have stalled quite a bit over the last few months. Block layers have left site as they don't want to do the peaks without roof supports.
Trusses have been measured up wrong which has caused some amount of delays. Also having issues sourcing scaffolding but finally have that issue resolved. Just need to get the scaffolding to site.
There have also been some issues with our window cills. Got measured up for window
Posted by DeeJunFan, 08 January 2016 · 505 views
Hello All,Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.Was trying to get a blog entry done before Christmas but no luck so here goes.Block work is now complete, slab wrap put up and slabs laid.Here are a few pics showing the house and some of the key views.House itself Entrance ViewLiving Room ViewDining Room ViewSun-RoomSlabs In ProgressSlabs Complete I have only seen the pictures as yet. Stuck in Belfast earning the money to pay
Posted by DeeJunFan, 16 November 2015 · 426 views
Hi Guys,After the disaster that was last weekend during the week we eventually got caught up on the jobs with the foundations.Got the Radon barrier down, A393 Mesh installed, point to not was the amount of overlap needed. Meant a quick re-order for another few sheets.BC were happy with a smaller mesh and a 4inch slab but decided to stick with the larger mesh and go with a 6inch slab. Got the timber delivered and me and my father start
Posted by DeeJunFan, 09 November 2015 · 437 views
Weekend turned out to be a complete mess. Just about managed to get a delivery off loaded but no work done on my site. Went and gave my brother a hand fitting his HRMV unit. got a lot of the vents placed and the unit suspended from the rafters. Nearly lost a finger unloading the mesh.Have started getting the footings filled in, was hoping to get the quarry dust in over the weekend but its starting in earnest today.Hopefully have all f
Posted by DeeJunFan, 04 November 2015 · 420 views
Hi Guys,A slow enough last 2 weeks, our block laying contractor is currently working on a major job and has been doing our footing walls over the weekends. Digger man has been on holidays so it all worked out ok.Our site had to be grading a fair bit towards the front of the house which left the footings around 1m deep at the front and only around 300mm at the rear. I was a bit concerned that we wouldn't be allowed to do a poured slab
Posted by DeeJunFan, 13 October 2015 · 521 views
So the first week of the build has been completed.Grass has been turned to dirt and a LOT of dirt has been moved about. from the picture below you can see the gentle slop from left to right. to my untrained eye this didn't look like much but it took a good amount of digging through pretty hard ground to get the site levelEventually started to mark out on Saturday afternoon after my debut as a dumper driver (lots of fun)Marked out the g
