Week 18 - Progress on many fronts
Entry posted by Benpointer in General
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Week 18 - Progress on many fronts
It feels like the build has entered a different phase now that the structure is fundamentally in place and watertight so I am going to drop to fortnightly blogging, hopefully with enough progress to ensure there something to cover in each blog:
Since the last blog (week 16) we’ve been busy on a number of fronts, a lot of which is geared to being ready for the plasterers who are due to start on 8th October.
First fix electrics
I think we must be closing in on a kilometre of cable now installed: power, lights, room stats, data, PIRs… there seems to be a lot more to do than there used to be when we did our last big project. Our electrician Darren has been toiling away every day and making good progress - he’s certainly far enough through that for the plasterers to start. Not very photogenic though, first fix electrics, but here goes anyway:
Carpentry
We’ve got a surprisingly long list of jobs that need to be done by Alan and Chris our chippies, including wall and ceiling battening, walls and ceiling studwork to create space for ventilation ducts and plumbing, pocket door frames. A bout of covid has put them behind schedule but they still seem (reasonably) confident they can be ready for the plasterers.
Double-skinning the wall between the Bed 1 ensuite and Bed 2 - to allow for a bathroom niche and for sound insulation between the rooms:
Top part of wall is external, so has extra insulation; lower part is not (it's a complicated roof!) but has extra studwork to avoid a step in the wall:
MVHR
Mrs P. and I decided to have a go at fitting the MVHR unit (ok, I decided, Mrs P. humoured me).
Through the outside wall:
Reaching high enough to cut the holes for external ducts is surely what a scissor lift trolley was really invented for:
The scissor trolley only gets you so high but never fear, I bought a new toy - a bargain Nano Power Tower for £305 off of eBay!
Next project: wheelchair ramp to get onto it.
Moving on - remember the zinc roof?
Well, so did we. And now the render is dry, Tom from Wessex Metal Roofing came back to fit the down pies and remove the remaining plastic protection. We really like the roof.
And the drainpipes:
Garden started!
Well sort of… the paddock area has been seeded.
Before:
After:
Watching grass grow - far more interesting than watching paint dry.
We’ve been shopping
We’ve decided upon and ordered all our bathroom fittings from Island Bathrooms in Salisbury. We liked the service from them and the prices seem quite keen. Previously, we’ve used the likes of Victoria whatsitsname but it was quite nice to have someone who was prepared to come and look at our bathroom spaces and advise accordingly.
We’ve also ordered our kitchen appliances - nine in total. I created a list and sent it out to eight suppliers, a mix of the big online retailers and some local. In the end it was Knees Electrical who are online and quite local (Trowbridge) who came out best, both in price and helpfulness.
So with all that spend, it was nice to receive our £7,500 BUS grant for the ASHP. I was quite impressed at how quickly we got it tbh - thanks once again to Paul Thorney at Air2Heat for getting the application through promptly.
Ceiling insulation
Week 16’s blog ended with the note that we had had to part company with the contractors who were supposed to fit the additional ceiling insulation.
At that point we’d abandoned plan A and were looking at plan B - ask the plasterers to fit insulated plasterboard, or plan C skip the additional roof insulation.
In the end we have gone for plan B and will fit 37.5mm insulated plasterboard to all the ceilings to ensure we meet the building regs 0.16 u-value. I had thought that the blown cellulose within the roof would have been enough but there is no heat loss modelling readily available for open web joists filled with blown cellulose so we have to fall back on treating them as solid timber joists, which brings the roof u-value down (or up rather!). The safe solution, which our SAP man is happy with, is the extra 25mm of PIR from insulated plasterboard.
So that’s what we are doing. Even with the price of insulated PB, it still works out cheaper including fitting than plan A.
Next two weeks:
The next two weeks should be exciting if things go to plan.
We are due to have our Aerobarrier airtightness test and remediation done on 6th October. I honestly have no idea how it will go. I have doubts about the quality of the work done by the membrane team (the team we parted company with) but I am hoping Aerobarrier themselves will improve any deficiencies.
The plasterers are due to start two days later. Before then the first fix electrics should be completed, studwork should progress as will routing the internal MVHR ducts, largely through that studwork.
Looks like we will continue to be busy!
Dashboard:
Contractor days on site this fortnight: 15 (I'm not counting Mrs P!)
Contractor days on site since build start: 279
Budget: Slight improvement - still over budget but within contingency.
Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
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Replanning the approach to ceiling insulation.
Current top issues and worries:
- How well the airtightness test will go.
- Keeping ahead of the plasterers.
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