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The Fun Irish (House)

A blog by mike2016 in General

  • Entries

    42

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About this blog

The slow crawl towards building a new home in Dublin....

Entries in this blog

flooring

Internal Finish - Upstairs!

Decided to buy the materials I need to finish the direct surround of my house before Diesel shortages and goodness knows what else takes hold!  50+m2 of paving blocks, 3 tons of paving grit and a full load of type 2 MOT to spread around the house next month!! I plan to get bound resin for the driveway, either do it myself or pay someone (£150 per square meter though and 50 m2 so 7.5K and thats with me doing all the edging and subbase prep!!).  Still there's a couple of wheelbarro
home assistant

Snags and Home Assistant

So living in the house for the past month and a bit has allowed me to ease off the pressure a bit and start snagging / finishing some of the details.    I have underfloor heating under the main bathroom tiles but it wasn't working well. Barely noticeable at 40oC !! Turns out the electrician wired in both temperature sensors and it was adding the values together so after Schluter tech support suggested I check - I removed one pair of wires, lo and behold I have a warm floor. Really nice
moved in

Moved in - snag lists

Last night was my first night sleeping in my new house, finally! Got 1 bedroom mostly finished. Ikea wardrobes, painted, blind and floor installed. Just enough to call it a home! Lots more to do but it saves rent and commuting time. I plan to take it easy for the next fortnight as the last two years have been creeping up on me. Small projects for the short term.  Getting internal doors installed (by someone else!) currently. Put some acoustic insulation around the linings and cut it back. 
kitchen

August Update

Summer nearly over?!! That was quick! Weather has been brilliant though! So where are we 2 months on? Here we go:    Bathrooms are tiled and ready for plumbing the fixtures in. The plumber returned briefly and I now have a working toilet! Portaloo returned! Just no running water, well kinda! I got the water connected to the mains but it's not plumbed upstairs or anywhere yet. I put a speedfit valve on the 25mm mpde mains coming into the house so I can at least use it to fill buckets, b
drains, fermacell

Inside to outside to inside again

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
1st fix, fermacell

Two Weeks Holidays and I only got to see 1 movie.....

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
first fix, insulation

Half Way to 1st Fix

Well, it's been a busy month. I'm taking weekly Pilates to keep my back in check and so far so good. This is the first week I've taken off without any incidents to progress the house. This is the list of what I'm managing currently just to tickle my brain in a years time! Plumbers due to start any day - prep bathroom fixtures - a lot of boxes onsite!  Met Electrician to get quote Electrician recommended kitchen design be finalized - booked appointment in showroom Wen
condensation, window

Condensation Alert!

I've two last major areas to details for air tightness and insulation - this post relates to one of these - a single rear Oriel Window, an architectural feature that juts out from the rear of the building and is finished externally with a metal standing seam. The plan agreed was to create a 20mm lip of metal for the window to sit against. I was right about to commence work when I noticed dampness and beads of moisture and sure enough despite the window being surrounded by a later of insulation,
update

The Devils in the Detail !

I've been out with my back for a bit but now taking Pilates classes and everything feels fine so far. Been crawling around the new attic and installing the Intello membrane and taping for air tightness lying down and in difficult positions without issue. Phew!! I've put a call into the Plumber for first fix and will see when they are next available in 2025. Once they are available I'll book the Electrician.    Updates are as follows: Interior stud work for outside walls nearly
back pain, health

Bad Back 1, 2 & 3 !!

Not posted an update in a while but was focused on getting the outside of the house rendered, painted, guttered and drill vented before the scaffolding came down. It was off hire on a Monday and I worked 11-12 hours days on the Saturday and Sunday to get through a few tasks including chain drilling the MVHR vents (2) among other things. Basically anything at height. Anyway, while peeling the masking tape off the soffit while lying down on my side I moved to all fours to get up and my back went i
shading

Brise Soleil - how I learned to stop worrying and love the metal

One aspect of the Passive House PHPP I paid close attention to was overheating risks. As a result we looked at shading and extended the downstairs porch to shade the downstairs bedroom window. The upstairs we though about using Brise Soleil and have 3 canopies over the 3 main windows. I've been working on this for about 8 months with more than half on design and structural engineering and manufacture taking place in June. Then I spent most of July / August trying to get them to fit before bring
brick, block, mortar

Brick, Blocks and Mortar!

Just an update - had the last two weeks off. Ran a bit low on energy for first week and took a few days off from the build to step back and recharge. The bricklayers arrived onsite and I was able to collaborate with them and address any issues or questions they had as they started off. We're currently about 3 days from finishing - half way up to the 1st floor and it's giving me a massive appreciation for the hard graft/work bricklayers face every day. There are two of them and their labourer qui
battery power, site power

OnSite Power Management

I meant to post this for a while about how I'm supplying power to my site during works. In the Republic of Ireland you can't get a temporary electricity supply like the UK, not unless you're a big developer anyway. You may be lucky enough to be building next door to a house you own, or have a friendly neighbour but in my case while I could go borrowing a lead the odd time, it would start to annoy people I'm sure.  I did consider a generator at one stage, the old Honda route but I upgraded m
project management

Project Management

With any self build, unless you can afford an Architect/Builder to oversee the whole project, you're going to be chasing people, materials, answering questions and more.    My own project is up to roof stage, timber frame is finished, roof finished but outer brick/block leaf is next, then soffit, fascia, gutters, then porch, then windows & doors. Each have their own challenges. On top of my day job!    I've a delivery of lintels tomorrow and I only thought to ask what siz
Roof

Roof Cutting in

This week the roof was cut in. Can see the spaces for the Velux rooflights and get a different picture of the inside - the vaulted ceilings in the rear living area in particular. The builder recommended a ceiling in the upstairs  bedrooms at around the 3 meter / 9 foot mark which is high enough even if you're bouncing on the bed! Still leave a bit of space for storage so may leave a small hatch and floor this area after setting it up. It's a warm roof so this is all conditioned space. Next week
timber frame

Timber Frame arrival & erection!

The timber frame arrived this week from the factory. There was a large crane onsite all day yesterday. Got decent weather, no wind and only a bit wet in the morning. The lads have the walls fully up, 1st floor done and a ridge beam in place. They are starting cutting the roof today as that is built in situ. Really surprising walking around the rooms after looking at drawings for years! The window openings are a LOT bigger than I ever thought though, huge would be the description! Had a lodger ar
foundations

2nd Foundation Completed!

Finished the Kore Passive Raft Foundation this week. Just in time as it's currently sleeting it down out there! Cold enough to make a pour more difficult. they set in a 70mm rebate for the lift & slide door and also cut out the kore to let the concrete out to the edge (up to shuttering) for a steel post to carry the blockwork over the two corner windows. We'll insulate around that later. the Kore went in really fast, then rebar, ductwork for the kitchen island and getting it finished before
foundations

1st Foundation Completed

Concrete was poured via a pump on Monday. Finally have a Concrete sub foundation!  Took delivery of the Kore insulation for the actual foundation. Lots of angles sheets, L shape and other ones. I've 88 silver EPS boards too in packs of 8. They needed 2 men to move, the others could be handled one by one. The delivery driver helped offload as getting a forklift and driver for 4 Pallets (@150kg each) was going to be expensive and on too much short notice to arrange insurance for me to drive o
Groundworks

Groundworks - muck out, hardcore & Foundation Screws

Everything kicked off on January 8th 2024 finally after 8 years of faffing about and trying to line up finances, finding someone to sign off building regs and a year of selling the old house eventually succeeded.  There was about 120 tons of muckaway judging from the number of trucks. The guys brought a 17 tonne digger and were glad of it. The big roller they didn't use in the end but went with a more compact diesel unit. hardcore was added and leveled.  The trickier element was gettin
insurance

Site Insurance - The first or final hurdle?!

So the site is almost ready to start, my house is sold, moving out this weekend. Got the last tree stump ground out so there's nothing blocking the foundations. But the reason we write some of these blogs is to vent frustrations and in my case today it's about insurance.  My site has Made Ground. I went through the trouble of getting a ground analysis with dynamic probing and there is good load bearing at 2.2 meters but it's poor above that. I switched Structural Engineers and Tanners in Co
Wall insulation

Wall Build up (Choices)

Still in the Sales cycle for my old house (3rd try!) but while I'm waiting I'll be doing site clearing work next month and I want to take a moment here to make final decisions on my wall build up as this moves the locations of my floor penetrations by 100mm.  Target U Values are as follows: 1. External walls U value = 0.1 W/m2K 2. Sloped Roof U value = 0.1 W/m2k 3. Floor U value = 0.07 W/m2k This is based on PHPP calculations, they are more strict as my house is quite sm
ground screws

Pull Test - Ground Screws

So - Attempt #1 of trying to build my house failed - Made Ground (Poor soil bearing), a buyer who wouldn't grant me legal permission to access the mains water after I sold and changed their mind after I'd let go all the builders, and my planning permission extension was refused.    Attempt #2: Re-Applied for Planning permission from scratch - preliminary decision due July, final decision August 2023. Place my house back on the market in the meantime somewhere between tho
foundations, soil testing

Stabbed by the soil investigation!

Well, everyone is back from holidays today and my Structural Engineer made a comment about the Ground Investigation Report I've been digesting all day. Turns out my soil is very poor despite hundreds of houses being constructed all over the rest of the estate 25+ years ago, I'm the one with a problem now! I'd have to dig / excavate nearly 2 meters of soil to reach sufficient bearing capacity which means my plans to start groundworks next month are almost dead. If you see results like mine....RUN
preparation

Selling up and Moving out!

So I'm in the middle of the sales cycle for my Home. The first buyer pulled out but after a month I lined up another. The market is doing well enough despite % increases. So I had the estate agent around today to perform a valuation, the Surveyor comes around on Monday for 90 minutes to inspect the property and I'll be ringing the solicitor to get an update on where the contracts are at! I'll feel a lot better with them signed and a move out date to close the deal (hopefully!).  In the mean
driveway

Driveway to Darkness - Part 2

I've been looking forward to getting to a point where I can park my car in my driveway again, and finishing my July Post with a part 2 here to mark a finish to my Driveway project finally! Took a bit longer than the two weeks I was hoping!! I just finished adding up the damage and it was @ €7.2k all in all. I think the length of time increased the costs as there were days where I couldn't get to use the compactor and I had to get it back a few times to progress the project on. Some notes observa

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