Jump to content

Week 28 - Floor tiling, bathrooms, cladding, MVHR, electrics…

Benpointer

Entry posted by Benpointer in General

149 views

 Share

Yes, there’s a lot going on right now.  It’s been a mixture of challenges and progress this past fortnight.

 

Floor tiling

The original plan was for the floor tiling to be done during the first two weeks of November but the screed not being quite dry enough delayed that.  Contractor sickness and the need for the tilers to try to juggle their other booked work around ours have led to us being about 3 1/2 weeks behind now and still not quite finished (a few tiles still to lay and about half the house to grout). The overall impact on our plan is not to severe though as we managed to schedule the decorating in early to gain a week back and overlap the tiling with second fix plumbing.

 

A big plus is that the quality of the tiling is excellent. In years to come, we won’t remember the delays but we’ll be constantly reminded of the quality job the tilers have done.

 

Tilers: Lee and Steve

image.thumb.jpeg.ba9be77d3f5ac94ec26e1e64ea96edd3.jpeg

 

Kitchen floor down - kitchen units arriving!

IMG_4215.thumb.jpeg.6e5fbf4fe51f567f3cef01bac8e83614.jpeg

 

 

Bathrooms

Speaking of quality, we have a first rate plumber working on our bathrooms, namely: my brother Chris.  He came over from East Sussex for a couple of weeks to do the work and the logistics meant he came ‘sight unseen’ which added to the challenge.  

We are trying to maximise the space by fitting a generous master ensuite, a family shower room, and a guest ensuite into a relatively compact area of the overall house footprint. This means a lot of plumbing has to go into the wall between the master ensuite and the other two bathrooms.  The soil pipes, whose location we had decided on during groundworks, proved not to be in the ideal place, but Chris managed to find a way to make it all fit.  We dropped one wall hung WC in favour of a back-to-wall, floor-standing model with a concealed cistern because there was simply no way to fit a wall frame into the studwork and line the soil pipe up.

 

image.thumb.jpeg.23b2c38c591ad360cef5cf6a27c6b986.jpeg

 

IMG_2664.thumb.jpeg.414600f3f19b4ff86e0dbdf00ce74ced.jpeg

Chris has made great progress so far and we are particularly pleased with the mural wall panels that he’s fitted to the two showers. He’s also sorted out half a dozen minor jobs in the plant room, and set up the supplies and waste for the kitchen and utility rooms.

 

IMG_2667.thumb.jpeg.8ae6d7e68e72850cc9862f92bb28cfec.jpeg

 

IMG_2671.thumb.jpeg.a02619cc33775f3ad7e32b40c4719f83.jpeg

 

IMG_2670.thumb.jpeg.a91ca2ec496cc07c681de466aa955ef0.jpeg

 

image.thumb.jpeg.71019de619ba85b88624378b3889eddf.jpeg

 

Great work Bro!

IMG_4198.thumb.jpeg.b45af19a59db37015807e194a4ae4e62.jpeg

 

In the master ensuite we have now got some boxing-in to do which will hopefully double up as built-in storage, then Chris will be back in the New Year to fit toilets, wash basins, shower screens etc.

 

Cladding

Alan and Chris, our two chippies who have been with us throughout the build have been progressing the Brimstone Ash cladding. They’ve made a great job of it too. All the high work is now done and so our scaffolding should be coming down within the next week or so, with luck.  It would be nice to get the house clear of scaffolding with the cladding complete before Christmas.

 

image.thumb.jpeg.3c34bf1bc9b34fff6c124b7e3803f509.jpeg

 

We’re  delighted with how the cladding looks.  We won’t be treating it in any way though as we are happy to let it fade to silver naturally.

 

IMG_2622.thumb.jpeg.f6ba4995ddb1dfac3dadeab24fa2751d.jpeg

 

IMG_4216.thumb.jpeg.eda8f66fee8cf90e46da534319aeb317.jpeg

 

Chris and Alan our carpenters:

IMG_4209.thumb.jpeg.4f4f5a8c72e228e8481327b25a2525ca.jpeg

 

Between cladding, they found time to fit the 'real' front door back on (Norrsken tip was to replace it with a temporary door while the 'messy' trades were in and out of the house.)  The door looks great - but I am not sure the pipe insulation on the handle adds much to the aesthetics.

 

image.thumb.jpeg.618c6db2bb1bb8ebe737627f750ae5f6.jpeg

 

On the subject of doors, we went for 'slam shut', requiring a key to turn the latch from the outside, even on an unlocked door.  This may well be a recipe for locking ourselves out of the house repeatedly.  I am having second thoughts but Mrs P. is more relaxed.  I asked Norrsken is there is anything we could do to change that at this stage but they haven't been able to offer any solutions, so I guess we are stuck with slam shut doors.

 

MVHR commissioning

Patrick Chester from Heat, Space and Light came along to commission our MVHR system. He confirmed that we appeared to have connected all the supply and extract valves correctly(!) and the commissioning and balancing was very straightforward.  We've had great service from Heat, Space and Light for a competitive price - highly recommended!

 

We have a Zehnder Q350 ComfoAir unit and Patrick took me through the basics. Compared to our previous MVHR the Zehnder seems incredibly quiet. In normal operation it’s using just 20W.  Patrick also showed me the heat recovery stats. On the day of the commissioning the outside air temperature was 2° C and the inside air was 15° C.  After passing through the heat exchanger, the incoming air was registering 14.5° C, so that’s a pretty impressive exchange of the heat from the air going out to the air coming in.

 

Patrick balancing the ventilation system

IMG_2631.thumb.jpeg.9e6913a363c85b168c154d96c6a38fd4.jpeg

 

Electric second fix…

…is also under way.  More on that next time…

 

Focus for the next two weeks

  • Floor tiling - finish off.
  • Cladding - hopefully complete in the next fortnight.
  • Joinery - make a start on the door linings and doors.
  • Second fix electrics - should be progressing, batteries due to be installed next week.
  • Kitchen/utility/pantry - make a start on fitting the units.

 

Dashboard:

  • Contractor days on site this fortnight: 45.5
  • Contractor days on site since build start: 441.5

 

Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency.

 

Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.

 

Issues and worries closed this fortnight:

  • None

 

Current top issues and worries:

  • Will we have the kitchen units ready for worktop templating w/c 5th January?
  • Like 4
 Share

4 Comments

Recommended Comments

garrymartin

garrymartin 271

Posted

The fantastic progress and quality results continue! If you've not just been incredibly lucky, and you're able to share, I'm sure everyone would love to know the process you went through to find and appoint your various trades.

Benpointer

Benpointer 217

Posted

10 hours ago, garrymartin said:

The fantastic progress and quality results continue! If you've not just been incredibly lucky, and you're able to share, I'm sure everyone would love to know the process you went through to find and appoint your various trades.

 Well that's very kind.  There are several things to say:

 

Firstly, we have been lucky.  What's the most important attribute of a successful project manager?  Answer: Be lucky!

 

Secondly, the blog no doubt gives a slightly rose-tinted view for a couple of reasons:  

  • I have not majored on the couple of trades who have been more 'difficult', primarily because it's not fair to trash them when they have no way of replying. 
  • Also, I am mindful that where we have had issues that might be down to me - lack of clarity of instructions, clash of styles etc.  None have been fraudulent or dangerous.

In terms of the process of finding good trades, it's largely down to previous contact and personal recommendation.  Those trades we did not already know were mostly recommended by those we did know.   Notably the few we have been less enamoured with were people I sought out directly through the internet, adverts etc. but equally that method did throw up some excellent teams (e.g. the plasterers, and indeed the main timber frame company Turners).  For national suppliers/trades (e.g. our ASHP team Air2Heat and the MVHR guys Heat, Space and Light) a trawl of BuildHub has been very useful, and reliable.

 

I thought about asking for reference sites but in truth I don't think these are at all reliable; ask any trade for a reference and if they want the job they'll provide one (and often those good trades that don't need the work won't be bothering to provide referees because the whole thing is a bit of hassle for a job you might not get).  And has anyone ever followed up a reference and got bad feedback?  So I didn't bother with that.  

 

The other big thing is communication.  I spent quite a lot of time lining people up as early as possible, and talked to them - a lot.  By which I mean I kept in regular contact every fortnight or so to confirm we were still on schedule, and check they were still lined up.  Some people I just On a couple of trades I got cold feet due to difficulties getting hold of them or lack of confidence they could make our dates, so I switched to alternatives, giving them plenty of notice we were going elsewhere.  I have tried to keep the communication up through their work for us too - everyone likes to be told what a great job they are doing and it costs nothing.  Build up a stock of that and if you need to call out issues, change things, or beg some favours it lands much better. 

 

We have really worked hard to keep people on site happy too - tea and coffee making, free snacks, a well-stocked fridge - several contractors have commented that ours has been a great site to work at.  It costs next to nothing and reaps lots of good will.  

 

Also boosting good will is paying invoices immediately - I mean the same day, within a couple of hours.  We have the cash to fund the project so it does much better for us in keeping trades happy than sat in our account earning nothing in real terms.

 

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Oz07

Oz07 669

Posted

Did you literally have the firm commission your mhvr or did you buy any other products or services through them? I struggled to get a decent contractor to commission even after having used a reference from supplier. 

 

Maybe an easy fix to the door is a hidden key safe somewhere. We've had one on last 2 houses its good for cleaner and unexpected visitors. 

Benpointer

Benpointer 217

Posted

3 hours ago, Oz07 said:

Did you literally have the firm commission your mhvr or did you buy any other products or services through them? I struggled to get a decent contractor to commission even after having used a reference from supplier. 

 

Maybe an easy fix to the door is a hidden key safe somewhere. We've had one on last 2 houses its good for cleaner and unexpected visitors. 

We bought everything through them: design, kit, commissioning, and installed it ourselves.  

 

I am sure we could have done the design ourselves but we had too many other things going on.  You would have to give Patrick Chester a call or email patrick@heatspaceandlight.com to see if they would just commission.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...