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Blogs

Wee Hoose on the Croft

Background and beginnings

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
Salamander Cottage

What they don't tell you about owning a digger

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
Rose Lane re-build

03-Where Next

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
Rose Lane re-build

02-The Planning Saga

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 The initial submission consisted of the topographic survey and photographs I posted last time, a OS map (very out of date, but required), Application form and
Rose Lane re-build

01-History

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
An Orkney Build (in ICF)

Part 3 - Tendering and changes to the design

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
Salamander Cottage

A Note on Overthinking

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
An Orkney Build (in ICF)

Part 2 - Planning

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
Hawthorn House

Block work almost there

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
Hawthorn House

We Have Another Floor

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
Hawthorn House

We Have A Floor

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
Hawthorn House

Wash Out Weekend

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
Hawthorn House

Footings Done

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
Hawthorn House

Week 1 Done

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
Hawthorn House

Build Day Zero

Posted by DeeJunFan, 05 October 2015 · 444 views   Just a quick Kick off blog post.The Day is finally here. After many years of waiting and planning. Digger arrived on site Saturday night and is going to break ground today.This is how the site looked yesterday afternoon so there will be lots happening this week. First job is to move the fence, the site now extends to the gate in the top of the picture.More updates to come!      Comments declan52 05 Oct
Hawthorn House

A Few Decisions And A Bit Of Panic

Posted by DeeJunFan, 11 February 2015 · 865 views   Since my first entry not much has happened apart from a lot of thinking.Legal work is still on-going RE the additional portion of land. Hopefully complete in the next week or so.So far the decisions areStrip foundations. Thermal block above the sub floor to deal with thermal bridge.200mm of PIR with UFH pipes on topthinking 65-75mm of Sand & cement screed with fibers.Thinking 165mm cavity as that seems to be the maximum for catnic
Hawthorn House

Short Start, Long Story

Posted by DeeJunFan, 28 July 2014 · 894 views Hello there, I have decided to try and put together a blog for my pending build. The others on here have helped me a great deal so hopefully mine can be of assistance to someone in the future, but most selfishly of all I hope this can help me get my thoughts and plans settled.The site on which I am building is (was) a relatively small site to the rear of my family home in Mayobridge, Northern Ireland. The process began around 10 years ago wh
Salamander Cottage

Health and Safety: a summary of the research

This article is interesting enough to read in full, but we’ve not got the time….so here’s a copy of it’s own summary (unedited and in its original format) How do workers, their material, equipment and workplace relate to construction accidents? · Problems arising from workers or the work team, especially worker actions or behaviour and worker capabilities, were judged to have contributed to over two thirds (70%) of the accidents. This points to inadequate supervision, education and
Salamander Cottage

Planning, warts and all

We were awarded Full Planning Permission in October 2015. The point of this blog entry is to describe the process of obtaining that permission in some detail. Bits of the process were painful. I describe the lessons I think I learned. We were awarded Outline Planning Permission some time ago. (October 2014). And that was the moment I bumbled into (the now sadly defunct) ebuild.co.uk. That was a key event. We live in what is a variously described as a ‘…charming hamlet…’ or ‘… a beautif
Salamander Cottage

The Planning Committee Meeting

We met under a hundred pinpricks of light, and two snarling lions rampant. It seemed to me that we were going to need the shield against which they were leaning.  The beasts looked angry, angry at the nervous jollity, the back-slapping, the power dresses and forced open-neck shirt paired with mohair suit. When one Councillor cracked a joke the lions retained their severity. And so they should, because this committee is a money factory. Fortunes are made and lost here. Dreams come true, dreams ar
Salamander Cottage

Off Mains Drainage

Let me take you with me on my first steps on the road to cynicism in the building sector. For some reason (sewage smells?) many people appear to delay attention to the soft and smelly until it’s either too late or until they’ve backed themselves into the smallest room in the house; and then, trousers round their ankles, they allow someone to lock the door from the outside. Evidence? Use the search terms refusal and percolation on our LPA website. ‘Refused pending percolation test resul
An Orkney Build (in ICF)

Part 1 - The Vision

Originally published on the closed forum, on 14th March 2016  Having made the decision to relocate to Orkney, we set about finding a site that matched our expectations and desires. We saw some truly outstanding sites but eventually settled on a parcel of land extending to just over an acre, which had planning for the erection of a new dwelling house. The practicality of the location, the far reaching views and feeling of local community were all key factors that we considered in deciding on
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Fun Surveying Site Levels

One of my preconditions it to provide an accurate survey of site levels across my site. The last time that I did anything like this was just under 40 years ago as a young Lt. in the Royal Engineers when I was surveying for a road, but that was using a decent theodolite to do cut and full calcs. Nowadays you typically lasers and GPS, but I didn't want to pay a fortune for something that I could do myself, so I reverted to a variant of a technique that the Romans used and that is to use a water le

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