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Dreadnaught

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Blog Entries posted by Dreadnaught

  1. Dreadnaught
    I am hoping to start work on site in May, about two-months later than my original plan. Things may well slip further and I am fine if they do.
     
    Currently, the timber frame is being designed, by a specialist frame-designer based in Herefordshire that was recommended by (and contracted via) my chosen local timber-frame company. And the frame designer has just sent me the line-and-point loads (see below), so I have in turn just sent those on to my foundations designer in Ireland so that the insulated concrete-raft foundation can be designed in parallel with the frame. (To save on VAT, I also contracted the foundation designer via my frame company.)
     
    In parallel, with this, I am in the midst of arranging a fibre-optic data connection to my plot. I already have electricity connected. The fibre connection comes from a local fibre ISP who have been pleasingly helpful. The connection requires a new overhead wire from the end of the access road about 40-metres to the gable of my neighbours house and thence down to the ground and on to my plot. My neighbour is being most obliging, partly because he also gets a connection and can drop VirginMedia, who has been unreliable for him. To my astonishment, the whole installation will be free as I, it seems, am eligible for a voucher from the government that covers the cost. The voucher does not cover the VAT but the company kindly agreed to absorb that cost themselves (!) when I mentioned zero-rating.
     
    I am getting closer to choosing a groundworks team and finalising the details of the groundworks. I am pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable for what is supposed to be a "no-dig" build but it will all be done with expert tree-specialist oversight. I need clay heave protection which will be 220mm thick so digging down about 375mm was needed if my final floor level was not going to be high in the air. For my screw piles, I will probably go for a supply-only deal for the ground screws themselves and have the groundworkers install them with a mini digger (in my presence). I am told that installation is simple.
     
    For the installation of the insulated concrete raft, I still have not identified who will be the installer. I am tempted to speak to all the local concrete pourers to see if I can find someone who has experience of insulated rafts. The raft design is going to slightly unusual. Because the insulation is not load bearing and because I have a ridge height restriction and want tall ceilings, the insulation will be thinner PIR rather than the usual EPS.
     
    To my distress, the local water company has insisted I make a water connection all the way 40-metres back down in the access road to the 5" water main there rather than 2" main directly in front of my plot, citing "the impact of another service". Oh well at least the water pressure will be good!
     
    I need now to apply for my drains connection. I had been waiting on the tree matters to be resolved as it has an impact on the trench routes.
     
    For the protected trees around may plot, I have just finalised the Arboricultural Method Statement (AMS) with my tree advisers. This unlocks the chance for me discharge my nine planning conditions, all in one go. It took a surprising amount of time to work out how this is to be done, requiring a counterintuitive use of the planning portal to create a new planning application (!).
     
    I have paid deposits for my windows and front door (IdealCombi) and my roof lights (Roof Maker, their passive-house-certified product).
     
    Bauder, my chosen warm-roof and green/sedum-roof supplier, has been very helpful with advice on matters such as waterproofing when the rooflights are too close to the edge, and on standard roof-edge details for my architect. As soon as the frame-design is ready, I will be tendering among the local Bauder-approved installers.
     
    I have identified my brick-slips cladding I will use (Eurobrick P-Clad) and worked with my architect so the corners and window openings are properly proportioned for the brick counts. I have just booked myself on a slips training-day for 2nd April in Bristol.
     
    On my to-do list are signing up for building control, warranty company (reluctant purchase) and buying site insurance. I also need to arrange some bespoke aluminium copings and profiles.
     
    The intention is that the frame will go up, the roof will go on, and the windows and rooflights will go in, in quick succession followed in short order by brick-slips cladding. With all of these done and installed, I will have a weathertight shell ready for first fix to start, perhaps around mid-summer time.
     
    Hopefully. (I am already dreaming about @nod-style metal framing!)
     
    I have been continuing to visit other Buildhubbers, with visits to two people installing Fermacell, and one Buildhubber all the way at the end of second fix. As always, I learn so much from these visits and am gratified by everyone's immense generosity. They are truly inspirational. And thanks to everyone at BuildHub for all the advice I havre received (and will undoubtedly receive in the future). The journey is just beginning.
     
    Comments, observations, guidance, suggestions welcome, as always ? 
     

  2. Dreadnaught

    Tree matters…

    By Dreadnaught,

    As I mentioned in my last post, as one of my very first actions I feel that I need to talk to my arboriculturalist. I think that many subsequent decisions depend on his answers.
     
    My small plot (20m x 20m) has a chesntnut tree on its border and its roots are to be preserved. Those roots spread under about half my plot. And it is the half between my access gate and where the dwelling will be so exactly in the wrong place. Everything will travel across the roots. And the root zone is almost also the only location on the plot where I can stoer things during the build (other than inside the dwelling of course). 
     
    I have a whole host of questions for my tree guy,
    I have a couple of possible routes across the plot for the drains and services. Which is the better one for the trees? When it comes to the build, how can I arrange storage on site without damaging any tree roots? For example, the plot has an existing area of old block driveway right in front of the gate and over the roots. Should I keep it and use it for storage during the build? Or lift it out and put some other root-protection surface down instead? Should I take any root-friendly precautions when I clear the plot? I am having screw-pile foundations but how deep can I scrape and level the plot, particularly as I have about 40 cm of height difference across the plot (lumps and bumps, not a consistent gradient). When to clear the vegetation (otherwise known as “the jungle” from the plot)? Any precautions to take? How to stop weeds regrowing. There are quite few derelict low-level brick and concrete structures on the plot, mainly consisting of the foundations for long-since-gone greenhouse? Should I just rip everything out, or should be concerned about tree roots in doing so? In particular there is an old concrete water tank sunk deep into the ground (like a water butt from the ‘50s, about 1 meter square, open to the sky). It has what seems to be a land drain running into it. What to do with that?
  3. Dreadnaught
    I am about a month behind the schedule in my mind. My signing-up with a timber-frame company was delayed as my favoured company moved their factory over Christmas. In the end I seriously considered no less than seven frame companies, met with five, and visited the factories of four. I have now chosen the company and will be signing on the dotted line soon. It is a local Cambridgeshire firm and represented for me the best balance between cost, their approach, and the personalities involved.
     
    Observations from the last month:
     
    Old Buildhub searches work well. I have text shortcut the throws the following in to a google search: "site:buildhub.org.uk". That enables effortless searching of the Buildhub archive for any string. For example, when thinking about which SE to use to design my slab, I threw "site:buildhub.org.uk Tanner" into Google a re-read the posts by @Alexphd1, @Triassic, @RichC and others, some of which were years old, arranged a call with Hilliard himself in Ireland, and all my problems went away. Same applied for bolstering my list of raft installers and a host of other subjects besides.
     
    I looked again at the make-up of my roof and foundations. My dwelling has a ridge height limit in its deeds and I want high, 3m, ceilings. I went around the houses on both subjects (thanks to you all for your contributions to my threads on the subjects). On the roof I ended up somewhere new, and flipped form a cold to a warm room, and saved about 200mm. On the floor, I ended up back where I started, with an insulated concrete raft attached to screw piles but, with the help of Hilliard Tanner, it will be a thinner 100mm raft, with strengthening ribs, and a 200mm ring beam. Because the raft will be tied-in to the screw piles the insulation beneath will not be load bearing. This means that PIR will work just as well as EPS as insulation. PIR is thinner for a given U-value so once again I will be saving about 200mm of thickness.
     
    Resolving the issues the ridge and front-door-threshold heights then enabled me dive deeply in to the levels. I have a small but complex plot and deciding levels took quite some head-scratching, especially as my site is supposedly "no-dig" because of previous tree roots. Levels are now done I think.
     
    With all the fundamental decisions about the build now resolved, the cavalcade of actions leading up to the start on site can now begin in earnest: frame design, engineering inputs, construction drawings; planning-conditions discharge (and maybe non-material amendment); tenders for groundworkers, screw-pile suppliers and installers, raft makers, rooflights, windows; site insurance, building control, warranty.
     
    Oh, and I have re-designed the façade once again.
     
    All systems go! Spirits are high.
     
     
     
     
     
     
  4. Dreadnaught
    My first jobs after my planning approval are to: (i) choose a timber-frame supplier; and (ii) arrange a conversation with my arboriculturalist. This post is about the (i). The next post will be about (ii).
     
    Timber-frame suppliers:
    I am in touch with the usual names known to this forum. Not sure if I should be naming names here. Six in total. Two companies supply panellised frames with a range of insulation levels, including open panel and double stud. Two companies supply I-beam-based frames, one of which is a company local to my plot in Cambridge, just 30-min away. One company provides a passive-house certified I-beam frame but as a pre-cut kit, complete with all tapes, etc. Frame erection would be by my own team. Quotes from them all are due by next Friday.
     
    Some random thoughts on my choice …
     
    The local company proposing an I-beam solution is interesting. Its a solution they use for school classrooms: I-Beam walls and roof filled with rock wool, although I see no reason in principle why the rock wool could not be replaced with blown cellulose. Airtightness using SIGA tapes & membranes. My dwelling is very simple in form (a simple L-shapted bungalow with a flat roof about, 125 m²) so when the rep from the this company saw that he immediately suggested this solution. Looking forward to that quote.
     
    My plot has problematic access: small plot, about 20m x 20m, a narrow 45m access road, mature tree overhanging the only gate, no space for a big crane. So a non-panellised I-beam solution has its attractions, although I suspect I am over doing it as one of the panel-based company seemed to think they could manhandle the panels on to site pretty easily, especially for such a relatively small build.
     
    The passive-house pre-cut kit supplier is also interesting. They provide everything from frame design to foundation design to PHPP and the kit includes Austrian passive-certified windows and MVHR system too, as well as the I-beams, all membranes and tapes, and all to a single firm price. They also include training sessions for your contractors.
     
    If I went down the route of a stick-build, albeit pre-cut I-beams, I have met a carpenter who is doing exactly such a build at present and using the pre-cut kit provider above. He has expressed an interest about possibly coming onboard in the spring and thinks he could erect the frame in 3x weeks. That sounds quite interesting as an option.
     
    As you can see I am mid-decision and still thinking through the pros and cons for my particular circumstances.
     
     
     
  5. Dreadnaught
    Good news! I today obtained planning permission  and so I am starting my build blog. 
     
    Thanks to everyone on BuildHub for your help and support so far. I have already learnt so much from this forum, all the way from questions when I was viewing the plot and every stage since.  And an especial thanks to all the Buidlhubers that I have had the pleasure to visit so far. You have all been warm and welcoming and your advice and inspiration has been invaluable. Thank you! Thank you!
     
    My plot is in Cambridge, quite central, near the banks of the river Cam, just behind a row of college boathouses. It is opposite an ancient common and in a Conservation Zone. It is a garden plot that constituted the end of the long garden of a large late Victorian villa. Access is from a narrow access road (not owned by anyone) which runs behind the the boathouses. The plot itself sits behind a mature horse chestnut tree, whose roots I must preserve. The plot is is about 300 m² and is in flood zone 2. The dwelling will be a modern bungalow, 2-bedrooms, near passive house, with a green roof and clad in buff brick slips.
     
    Here is the timeline until today:
     
    10/3/18, first visited the plot, advertised in Rightmove as a house.
    13/4/18, my offer to buy it was accepted.
    24/4/18, I made my first visit to BuildHuber to start my long learning journey
    29/4/18, visited my second Buildhuber
    31/5/18, the plot already had planning approval but before buying it I started a process for a re-design with the seller
    4/7/18, visited my third Buildhuber
    26/7/18, visited my fourth Buildhuber (and watched her build, with five additional visits to date)
    19/8/18, visited my fifth Buildhuber
    6/9/18, I finalised price negotiations with the vendor
    18/9/18, plot topographic survey
    26/11/18, submitted for planning permission
    17/12/18, completed on the purchase of the plot
     
    7/1/19, planning application formally accepted by council
    11/2/19, visited my sixth Buildhuber
    26/2/19, consultations revealed I needed to redesign the pitched roof to be a flat green roof to meet SUDS requirements
    12/3/19, met the tree officer with my arboriculturalist on site
    30/3/19, taking advantage of a neighbouring development having the road open, I installed a temporary electricity supply to the plot
    2/4/19, engineers supplied drainage calculations including green roof
    6/6/19, vendor approved the revised design with flat roof (deed's required it)
    20/6/19, visited my seventh Buildhuber
    29/7/19, visited my eighth Buildhuber
    23/8/19, visited my ninth Buildhuber
    19/9/19, council advised that my application is scheduled for the 2 October planning meeting
    24/9/9, council advise that my application was bumped to the 6 November planning meeting
    6/11/19, planning application approved unanimously, with two councillors choosing to comment that they particularly liked the design. One objector spoke against.
     
    Next step: build a house … 
     
     
     
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