Cabin builds
Entry posted by Jenki in Cabin Builds
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Since the last blog, a lot has happened in a relatively short time. The last blog was Stage 1 of the Amenity block, needing cladding and the roof, and as I'm sat here early in the morning , with the wind constantly blowing 20MPH, 2mm rain p/h. and a toasty 8 deg. inside the static, which is our home now - yey. The Cabins are complete. A lot of work and a move thrown in to the mix since the middle of August.
The cabins are stick built on site, under the supervision of Building control, this means that the insulation and detailing falls within the small building regulations and thus U values are quite tight. The positive is that they will be relatively cheap to heat year round. The downside was we spent a lot more on insulation.
The process was the same as the amenity block, the foundation slab was cast, and the floor insulation (120mm PIR) was sat on top of this and a radon barrier with floating chipboard on top. 6inch walls with glass wool insulation.
Due to the extreme cost variations and difficulty getting hold of Frame therm 32, the walls were filled with a mixture of Frame therm 32 & 40, I managed to get some at £18/ roll in Bradford and dragged it up with me, collecting some over ordered frame therm40, from Stirling on the way (thanks Market place). The bottom line was that I needed to add 25mm PIR inside to get the 0.21U required. The Roof was 120mm fibre glass coated PIR, with Firestone rubber bonded direct.
The original plans was to clad the pods in Black Metal, but after some thoughts through BH (Salt in the air etc, we changed to Scottish Larch. We had 300, 4.8M lengths delivered from Huntly area. Mandy spent around 2 weeks solid staining these both sides and edges black. she was amazing, this was not an easy task. I think I painted 3/4 of 1 plank before I was off doing something else. The Orange look would have been too harsh, so we decided to stain them , and hopefully as the Larch ages and the stain fades they will eventually take on the natural look of Larch.
Another tweak to the design was to cut the corner off the bathroom. allowing for 2 double beds, thinking that as our customers will in the main be only staying for a day or two, the bed was more important than sitting areas.
My biggest concern was heating and hot water. I've asked on here before, and was thinking of using a 300l UVC, but was never happy this would supply enough hot water for two cabins and up to 10 people. - so either the expense of a Heat pump or direct immersion.
I had laid 20mm MDPE pipe x 2 to each cabin from the amenity block. for the H&C supply.
We bit the bullet and decided to supply the hot water via 2 off Cointra CPA11 open flue caravan heaters (LPG), I was concerned if the temperature would be ok, especially as the water travels between 3 & 6M underground .
This was compounded further, later on, as we started having problems with the same heater in out static. Low temperature HW and problems when the wind picked up over 15MPH.
Too late to worry, money was spent and It was suck it and see. Fitting the Open Flue heaters in the Amenity block created another issue, so we have ended up with a little extension on the side of amenity block that houses the two heater, basically its like they are outside, but inside.
I have insulated them, but I will have to add a small heater with PID control (Job to do) to ensure the water does not freeze inside the boilers.
For the hot water I fed 10mm PB pipe inside the MDPE pipe and hope the flow rates and temperature would work.... (I thought about asking on here, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and see)
We have installed UPVC DG windows, and I created MDF reveal liners, this allowed for the plaster boards to be fitted flush to the liners, with face mouldings to finish. I taped and jointed the PB, but to be honest it was a pain, due to the number of butt joints, on a couple of occasions I nearly went and bought some Multi finish. In general were happy with the finish, but it has confirmed that this WONT be happening on the house build.
Mandy wanted a feature wall (interior design is where I stop), and the en-suite seemed to be a good place for this. We had just enough Larch left over, so Mandy cut and ripped this down, sanded one face and painted in various contrasting (I think that is what she said) colours. I helped a little with the first row or two install, as it does have some 22.55deg bevels, then I was back to to the other cabin sanding and filling.
Due to the success of the Air to Air HP in the static, we decided to install the same in the cabins, this way we know the heat all year round will work. As this was a little after thought - external cladding was complete, I had to be creative with the internal pipe run, I created a box / shelf which can be seen in the photos below, this now acts as a cup holder with some cup hooks.
The Bathrooms were clad with shower wall cladding. a Boxed in WC allows for all the utilities to enter and also houses the Wireless access point, which is powered POE. from the amenity block.
Once the bathrooms were fitted, it was time to see if the HW works. Its a resounding yes. we had -4deg (This is how I know I need to stop the boilers freezing). but once I'd managed to thaw the boiler out, we were getting 40Deg in the cabins. The showers are not power showers, but they work really well, better than an electric shower. and heat up time is around 35 - 40 sec. The boilers have worked in 30MPH winds, so the issues with our static are just that and I'm still exploring the why.
As we stand today 1 cabin is ready to let, and we are waiting delivery of 2 beds for the other cabin.
200m of livestock fencing in the new year will see this side of the project complete.
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