'Forewarned is fore-armed' say some. Others 'do your due diligence'. Bottom line - do some background research. Here's mine. (With as many internet links links in as I can to help you with yours) If you can pick a hole I what I write, or see that I've missed something, I'd be so grateful if you could tell me.
Method
We already know that we have to pile. Does the SI report give a hint at which type of pile?
Have a look at this Phase 2 SI Report: Concrete Design page 12, point 7.4:
Well, progress of sorts, with BR agreement to the plans and finance decision in principle all fine. Getting builders quotes has proved very problematic for some reason, which wasn't an issue I foresaw. Out of 12 who responded via those check-a-trade and trusted people web sites, only 2 eventually came through with anything, one very detailed and very good, who is so busy they could only offer to do the founds, another who I really liked when I met the owner, but whose quote came in one day and
Just a few new photos of current progress. Tanking was completed and polished concrete slab finished at 2am on a Friday night a few weeks ago. Which meant standard house construction could finally begin. Things have progressed well with no major snags at this stage, up to first floor level now ready for block and beams delivery on Monday. The Steels that arrived were a fair bit more substantial than we were expecting. Lots of fiddly work at this stage but after the 1st floor is in place I'm hopi
Work continues on site with our foul and surface water drainage now installed;
Following an initially negative assessment of the treatment plant design by the digger driver, its installation worked out far better than he or I expected, causing him to take back everything negative he had said. A hole was dug out to the required depth and the conical shaped treatment plant lowered in. Naturally it pivoted about on the point of the 'cone', but all it required was four le
Things have been moving forward last month with the render on the gable wall finished. I think it looks great and so I was able to get it painted as we have had such good weather! Three coats on the new bits and one coat on the rest. And the idiot that I am, I have no photographs of the finished work from up the scaffolding. You will just have to take my word that it looks really good!
But with autumn here and winter arriving far too quickly, it was becoming clear that we needed
A busy couple of weeks on site has seen the majority of the timber cladding finished, the rendering completed, and first fix / plaster boarding progress inside.
The render system used by my builder is made by Mapei. Having prepared the area to be rendered (as described in the previous blog entry) a base coat :
was sprayed onto the EWI, then floated by hand to a 6 / 7mm depth finish.
Fibre mesh (which you can see at the bottom of the
Tuesday was the date given and, yippee, he turned up and got started. By the end of day, the render at the top of the gable had been removed so we could see the area that was bowed out. We were all a bit suprised to find that the actual wall was quite sound. we thought it would be fairly loose but it wasnt and the render was sound too. So the decision was made to only remove the top 18'' which is the main part bowed out. The cracked render would be opened up, re-rendered and I will paint the
Time seems to be flying past with not enough progress to show for it. Anyway, a brief update.
I got my 8ft wide triple glazed door (all 240kg of it) installed singlehandedly, showing just what you can do with a bit of patience and some levers, packers, and a bottle jack. Perhaps the reason progress is slowing down is that I find myself standing admiring the view out to the loch too often.
Nearing the end of the chipboard flooring installation, I discovered maybe the first
Well another month has passed and the OH is now only 2 months away from retiring. He can't wait to get cracking on the house full time - no rest for the wicked.
We have been doing various things, fitting in with our usual work but nothing major; we are waiting for the builder to arrive to start the outside work. the scaffolding has been up for 2 weeks and the builder should have been there at the beginning of the month but its nearly the end of Sept and no sign yet. I have been chasing him
Had a few days off so doing the prep for the shed...managed a lick of paint in the loo too
Doesn't look like much but tackled a jungle of bush with a friend's Lidl petrol strimmer
Job done ?
Update
Tried the Glasgow Barras (flea market) for three items I wanted for the hut. An hour of raking through junk and found nothing other than a big teapot...but without its lid.
Headed over to the west end dissatisfied but looking forward to a spicy curry from M
Finally starting to feel like I'm building a house! Steel reinforcing for the retaining wall has been put in, concrete in, first Building Control inspection and first warranty inspection all passed.
Builders lockup is now on site, I'll be taking my caravan down tomorrow so we can have bacon and brew facilities.
Feels nice ice for the property to be moving upwards in direction after so long going down in the ground!
If the concrete is in am I finally out of t
There has been progress on all fronts over the last couple of weeks, inside and out.
Taking advantage of some good weather, the joiners pushed on with the larch cladding.
We still have one wall to finish off and around the entrance door, but due to a shortage of cladding (a slight under ordering) we will not get this finished for another week or so. It looks very crisp at the moment, but we still have various cover pieces at the co
This is the first in a series of postings I will be making whilst on holiday in Sydney and Melbourne, mainly about architectural details which may be of interest to Buildub readers.
My favourite way to meet a new city is to do what I call a random walk, followed by a random journey back to my starting point on public transport.
I will be posting photos and descriptions of anything I find of interest, whether internal or external.
Cycle Locking Point
So, work has finally started! After initially thinking I had purchased a fully excavated site, 2 days and 700 tonnes later, I understand why everybody says ground works are the worst part! That is of course except for the opportunity for me to spend 2 days having a great time driving a 9 tonne dumper. ?
Slightly hairy moment when I bumped a tree, showered myself in apples, lost the use of the brakes... Spotted an apple had wedged itself under the brake pedal as I was rolling downhill
With spectacular timing, our window order went in too late to beat the summer factory close down, resulting in a 4 week delay on top of the normal 6 - 8 week delivery time. Better late than never, our windows arrived a fortnight ago, all the way from Poland.
Having a passionate hatred of UPVC windows, we specified 3G aluminium clad timber windows. I obtained a few quotes from different manufacturers / suppliers, but in the end, after pushing hard on price, we went with Rationel, (
Our Journey North of the Border -
Around August 2015, I started a blog intending to detail our experiences, as we set about securing a plot of land and planning permission ahead of our self build development.
By way of a reminder and introduction, this was the first and only instalment since.
Well this is it, we have finally reached a tipping point. Our retirement plans, which were no more than mere dreams and aspirations some 7 -8 years ago, have now become more focussed followin
Since the roof was finished, things have slowed down on site while we have been waiting on our windows. There has been some activity, with the garage being progressed and some EWI fitted to the external face of the ICF walls. Rather than tinker at the edges, the joiners have now been off site for a couple of weeks pushing on another job in readiness for returning to our site next week. Our windows are as I type this, sitting in the delivery depot in Kirkwall awaiting delivery to site.
It has been a while since I posted and things are progressing, so expect a flurry of posts in the next few months as things are decided before we go to contract, however I have been working on some minor detailing. I have decided that I want to extract toilet smells directly from the pan (see JSHarris blog part 32)
I have 6 toilets in the house, in 3 pairs (see the plans on blog 02-The Planning Saga) so can use 3 extract runs, one to each pair, the simple bit. I then need to work ou
Sometimes I wonder if this building lark is the right thing to do - both myself and the OH had a disturbed sleep last night. He was up around 3-4am, unable to sleep and around 5 it was my turn, worrying about the water in the cellar. And we are just renovating; what will it be like if we get to do our self build - one night without sleep and I'm a very grumpy bear, how will I cope with a couple of years! Maybe I should ask how will the OH cope with a grumpy grizzly bear....
Anyway,
We had our visit from our 'expert'; the ex - brother-in-law, who is an experienced renovator of old buildings as well as a building engineer to help guide us in the work that needs doing. It was quite interesting and unexpected at times. where to start? Maybe the gable end.
We knew that the gable end wall needed to have the render removed and replaced as it was quite badly cracked. we also had been told by the Surveyor that the top of the wall was bowing out slightly and needed
