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House build started

Jenki

Entry posted by Jenki in Breaking Ground

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Finally made a start in earnest. The original plan was to stick build on site, but the cabin builds opened my eyes to the winds up here, and established concern for getting the house airtight.

I priced ICF, and although the costs are higher in the begining I think, I can self build for similar money, but get a far superior product. This is a budget build, most of the nice to haves have been dropped. The only redline is we want to ensure this is future proof, so all on the ground floor. 

Around 12 months ago the area where the house is going was stripped down to bedrock. The initial plan was a DIY insulated raft, but the move to ICF opened up a more traditional strip footing using the ICF.

 

Back in February we hired a 360 with a pecker to break out some of the rock to lower the NE corner, as the bed rock slopes to the SW.

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Bed rock exposed looking East

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 NE corner

 

We broke out and removed around 400mm of rock along the W and N elevations, the break out got shallower towards the SW corner. 

The main aim here was to reduce the height of the house on the SW corner, we will be bringing the ground level up to minimise the impact.  We also need to strip some rock of the slab area to allow for the 300mm insulation.

 

This week, thanks to an understanding BC officer, ( still waiting for the revised certificate of design to change the building warrant, but he's happy for me to proceed with the old warrant for the time being👍❤️). We made a start preparing. 

The plan is to shutter the strip foundation. First step was to level the strip with layers of compacted 40mm to dust stone, and also level the bedrock for the slab.

 

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Ready for stone looking W

 

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Starting on the North trench we barrow in the stone and compact.

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Adding more stone in layers and compacting, the backhoe loader was doing some of the grunt, but the leveling was all by hand, 100mm layers at time.

 

IMG_20230517_202813.thumb.jpg.852fe583307e3e77ae72468cd606ae49.jpg looking NE

 

Took the decision to build the sub slab to what will be the same level as the strip footing, this allows for the Radon barrier to be put under the strip up the side and then on top of this sub slab, then all services will be above the  radon barrier and below the insulation in another layer of compacted hardcore.

The main reason for, what will be a fiddly taks of having the radon barrier under the strip, is that the strip footing has 288 starter rebars and sealing these penetrations would be worse.

Once the strip is poured we will finish of the back filling and install the radon barrier.

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More stone looking East

 

So 5 days in me and Mandy have moved levelled and compacted 70T on 40mm to dust. 

And around 5 ton of quarry dust, this is used up here as an alternative to grit sand for blinding and pipe bedding.

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The shuttering is 150*50 timber that will be leveled then the radon barrier folded to form a tray, later to be joined to the slab. I'm going to use 6mm threaded rods to link the two shutters together, preventing any spread when the concrete is poured.

 

Hopefully next week the ICF arrives, in I've got a 10 hour round trip to collect rebar. For a tank of fuel and a days driving I can save around £500 collecting from Central rebar in Aloa.

 

For info, £930+ / ton direct   Inverness suppliers (100miles away) we're after between 1250 & 1500/ton plus delivery charges ranging from £200 / £350  plus vat. 

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ToughButterCup

Excellent start. Well done. 

 

Quote

...  This is a budget build, most of the nice to haves have been dropped. The only redline is we want to ensure this is future proof, so all on the ground floor. ...

 

That sentence stuck out for me. 

That idea - future proof - was one of our design key ideas. Little did I know at the time that I in a couple of years time, I was going to have two new hips:  both done in 6 months.

The dual-use  bedroom / office built next to the accessible wetroom has made a huge difference. It has (Ithink) speeded up my recovery a good deal. For example, stepping over the bath rim (as would be required  in our last house) would have been painful or impossible. And certainly riskier.

 

I think of us as being fairly hard-core selfbuilders. Nowhere near as much so as you are though.

For example

Quote

So 5 days in me and Mandy have moved levelled and compacted 70T on 40mm to dust. 

 

Keep fit and take enough rest, eh? Almost impossible, I know, but I didn't, and suffered at least a year's delay.

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Kelvin

I can support the looking after yourself comment above. I’ve been doing 12 hour plus days on-site 6 days a week since March. I’ve also been training since December for the Cateran Yomp in two weeks (54 mile walk in 24 hours) I am knackered. 
 

However good effort in getting going. Well done. 

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Jenki
5 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Keep fit and take enough rest, eh? Almost impossible, I know, but I didn't, and suffered at least a year's delay.

A bit of house keeping today, and as it's dry, and Scotland some down time, beer, g and t and the fire pit 

IMG_20230521_154719.thumb.jpg.417ee3543ae981c5e84aff9be4590c1c.jpg

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ToughButterCup
On 21/05/2023 at 11:08, Kelvin said:

...training since December for the Cateran Yomp in two weeks (54 mile walk in 24 hours) I am knackered. ...

 

Good on you lad.  Stay injury free - warm ups, cool downs, stretching and that stuff.

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saveasteading
18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

not many days when the wind is low enough for midges to bother you.

But when they do!

I had the pleasure of working outdoors in the Highlands for a few years. Midges were an issue for short periods, and I had to traipse through the heather then stay put, so attracted millions.

I found that a smouldering piece of peat to waft around was better than any commercial repellent.

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Jenki
1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Where @Jenki is, there are not many days when the wind is low enough for midges to bother you.

True, I was here pretty much from early May last year and reckon there was only 2 days for an hour or so when the midges were out. The horse flies were a different story until we got the fields cut late August.

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ProDave

I sat on the balcony with a cup of tea today, put 2 biscuits down while I got comfy and the wind blew one away.

 

So yes that ICF like that would worry me until tied down to something like stakes in the ground.

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Jenki
4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I sat on the balcony with a cup of tea today, put 2 biscuits down while I got comfy and the wind blew one away.

 

So yes that ICF like that would worry me until tied down to something like stakes in the ground.

Worries me as well. It's got straps around all of the pallets to make them one lump, 

Sheltered from the Westerly's by the static, and currently has my van protecting it from the Southerly winds. 🤞. 

Everything not bolted down moves here.

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