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Druim nan Darach

A blog by Thedreamer in General

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About this blog

A self build croft house on the Isle of Skye.

Entries in this blog

Roofing 2

In my last post we were waiting on two items arriving from our suppliers: Velux flashing kits and a metal roof to be fitted at the back.   The velux flashings arrived first and we were able to make good progress and finish this side.       Our joiner then came back on site to fit the metal roof. Unfortunately as mentioned in my Terrible Thursday post the flashing arrived at the incorrect angle, the plan was then to use the lead, but thankfully we d

Roofing 1

We started the roofing last week.   We decide to go for CUPA 3 heavy slates, these are a thick spanish slate and designed for the weather we get in the Hebrides.        Let's hope they do what they say on the crate.   The first job was setting out the the various lines using a line and some red brick dye. Our roofer than graded some of slate pallets into different levels of thickness and any rejections.   Now my job was to carry the slates

Larch cladding

Cladding now installed on the utility and porch.       Unfortunately, the rest of the cladding will need to wait until the start of the block work starts in a month or so.   I have also been busy nailing away and fixing what felt like a million truss clips.          

Windows

The windows were delivered last Friday.   They arrived in three pallets, two of them were lifted off by the lorry's tail lift and a pallet truck. The larger pallet had to have the windows taken off manually.   Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the offloading as it was all hands on deck.   I was however involved in the lifting of the windows, on average the windows were about 75kgs each, but the french doors were double at 150kgs.     Here are som

Sarking and Velux windows

With the fabricated trusses already fitted on site. The next job was to create the middle section of the roof, this part was cut on site and it was quite satisfying helping to fit the rafters into place.     We had some good weather for this job and I was pleased once these were all in place.   The next task after this was creating the bridles for the Velux windows, fitting the smaller lean to rafters and then the gable ladders.     After this,

Structural timber 5

This was one of the days that I was most excited about, the raising of the roof trusses.   Our joiners used our trusses as a template for constructing the gable end panels.    The trusses then just went in one by one.      3 lengths of Kerto were spiked together to form our central ridge beam.     The middle section of the 1st floor is being hand cut on site by our joiners. Our children will have a room on each gable. The middle secti

Structural timber 4

The attic trusses arrived today after making a three hour journey from Inverness to Skye.    Offloading took place at our site entrance.     Our joiner did a great job weaving between odd trees on our access.     Trusses unloaded and ready to start being fitted over the next few days.   Had a sneak peak on the top of the scaffolding to get a view from where the treble velux windows will be fitted.       

Structural timber 3

Some day for it.   Today was one of those special days where suddenly years of work starts to come together in front of your eyes.     No machinery here just elbow grease.       It was all going so well until the building inspector turned up.       A few internal load bearing walls to be finished and then on Monday we have the telehander coming to stay for a couple of weeks, followed by the delivery of th

Structural timber 1

Following the completion of the foundations, we now moved onto putting the kit up.   After putting together a list for our timber merchants we are now ready to start. The materials for framing and sheathing arrived last week.   The house will be stick built by a team of two joiners, with prefabricated trusses arriving on site in a few weeks.   Today marked the first day of joinery. The first job was attaching the wall plate followed by cutting the suspended timber f

Foundation 4 - Final stage

It's been a quiet few weeks on the house site waiting for the contractors to come back,  but we have done the following:   Building control and quantity surveyor inspected the works carried out to date The plumber supplied our the internal drainage. Anchor straps fitted. Alum clad, triple glazed windows order finalised and placed Attic trusses design reviewed and finalised    We are now commencing the final stage of the foundations. In filling the

Foundation 3 - Blockwork

Last week we poured our concrete strip foundation and we have now moved onto the block work. Monday was a day of stacking the first blocks, taking measurements and setting up lines. By the end of Monday we were all ready to start with the first course in the morning.        By the end of the Wednesday we were at:       By the end of the Thursday, a lot more blocks were delivered and we were at:     The good weather continue

Foundations 2 - The pour

Yesterday we completed the excavation of the trenches. I had a half day at work and came back to the site after lunch to get started on the pour.     I was slightly worried about the heavy concrete wagon coming down our access and over the culvert, but the driver did a great job reversing and the road passed the test with flying colours. Our digger driver than used the bucket to spread the concrete as required.     Half way through.    

Foundations 1 - Excavations

Today we started on our foundations.    It was snowing this morning on Skye and I took this one just before the digger arrived. Our brickie had pegged out the site a few days previously.         The digger then arrived on site and the snow stopped and sun came out.         I helped to mark out the foundation tracks and then wandered up the access to do a few hours at work. n   I came back in the evening and the

Preliminary/Design/Financing

Where it all began in 2009 on our family croft in Skye. Once we selected the site we put in outline planning for a three bedroom 1 1/2 storey house.           We then undertook the legal process of decrofting the house site to enable a future self build mortgage.  For the next few years very little happened as we needed to save money towards the project.   In 2013 we submitted a detailed planning application for a traditional 1 1/2

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