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curlewhouse

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Blog Entries posted by curlewhouse

  1. curlewhouse
    So for the larger ground floor room, we got a professional screeding company to come in.  They were due to start Monday morning so I took the day off work. For some unknown reason, over the weekend both my wife and I had we had an uneasy feeling they weren't going to turn up, but there was no logical basis for that.  By about 0930 I had a suspicion, and sent a text asking roughly what time they thought they would arrive. A few moments later the phone rings and its the owner apologising saying their forced screed mixer broke down on Friday and he'd gone down South for a second hand one but it didn't seem to be working properly when he got it back. He called again a bit later to say he'd found a solution and his guys would be there tomorrow (Tuesday). Cue me ringing work and offering to work on Saturday if I could take Tuesday off too.
     
    So, Tuesday and 0830 the guys turn up. I'm pottering about  but notice a distinct lack of noise and by 1030 they tell me that they cannot get the mixer to run and away they go. So another day taken off work for nothing.....
     
    I'm back to work on the Wednesday but my wife was at home. She rang me to say that the team had turned up at 0715 (!) and had the machine working.  By lunchtime they were done, and the result is excellent.  When I got home I even texted the owner of the firm to say how pleased we are. 
     
    Last night, (Friday) I discovered they'd dumped a barrowload excess mix on my topsoil pile out of sight of the house! Now in front of the future garage is a hole I need filled so if they;'d only asked instead of sneaking out of sight with it they could have actually done me a favour - instead I've now got to take a pickaxe to it and break it up then barrow it back to where it can actually serve a purpose. What a shame to let themselves down like that after doing a good job.
     
    So..... next objective is to finish the downstairs bathroom.  
        




  2. curlewhouse

    Screeds and screams 1

    By curlewhouse,

    In the last blog entry I was putting down insulation and the UFH pipework in the smaller of the 2 main downstairs rooms.  
     
    In the end I decided we would do the smaller (3.5m x 7.5m) sitting room ourselves.   So with myself and daughter levelling, wife and friend mixing and super fit farmer friend on the wheelbarrow we mixed the requisite 4 tons of screed and ton of cement and laid it in a day.  Fish and chip lunch provided of course to helpers! 
     
    All in all we didn't to too bad a job.  Not as smooth as the pros but more than sufficiently so, and I may just run a very thin layer of self levelling over, more to fill in little voids than anything.  
     
     



  3. curlewhouse

    August 2018

    By curlewhouse,

    Well it has been some time since I did an update. Really busy at work and of course with the house.  Things have slowed now as money reaches an end, and as time goes on the finishing will be on a "when can afford" basis, but we always knew this, and one of the points of this whole exercise was to end up with a house we could never have afforded to buy of course.
     
    So the stonework is all done and looking great, and I have built the stairs and gave them a temporary coat of paint (they will be carpeted and the outer wood stained and varnished).   We even have a stone from a Saxon church incorporated into the house wall. This was found incorporated into then old drystone wall on the site which had collapsed and identified by the archaeologist we had to have on site. He said use it maybe as a garden feature but I felt that it would one day be lost so had it incorporated into the house wall - I plan to get a little plaque made for future generations to know what it is (there had been a Saxon church on the village green about 10 metres in front of our house before the "new" Norman church was built). 
     
    Next job is to finish the floor insulation. This is to be 200mm thick with a  100mm  screed and just under a kilometer of UFH pipes laid in.   So far we have the first 100mm in and I saved a fortune by buying seconds for that. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how pretty it is! Also, I've struggled to see why most of it is even "seconds" actually - one lot had a makers date of only 3 weeks earlier, was still shrink wrapped and immaculate.   It is not foil faced, and initially I bought some "proper" foil faced Celotex for the top layer. But I did wonder about the function of that foil in reality and what if anything it actually adds to the function. Reading a post on Buildhub suggests nothing in fact, with the poster stating that he believes that foil facings only serve a purpose with air space in front to reflect "into".  This kind of coincides with my own thinking and so I'm planning on doing the top layer in "seconds" too. I'm not convinced that even if the foil does some reflection of heat, that it would make a measurable difference between 200mm with foil facing or 200mm without. There being a polythene sheet of course over the top of the insulation before our 100mm thick concrete screed. The 50% saving on buying first quality from the builders merchants will buy us one hell of a lot of gas heating anyway, and if I've calculated correctly, several years in fact. The panels we got have a thin glass fibre covering which also makes them if anything stiffer than the purely foil faced ones. In total, they've allowed me to do the insulation for about half the price by buying them by the pallet load.   In the photo is the "snug" room, which is about 7.5m x 3.5m to serve as a sort of second sitting room with the large TV in it. The beauty of this room is that should we need it in years to come when maybe stairs become an issue when we get old, it will make a downstairs bedroom quite easily.  Shown here, it has the first 100mm of insulation down.




  4. curlewhouse
    Well, all the outside is done now except for some weird small bits the builder has not yet done for no reason I can work out - the stone above the porch window (1 layer about 6" thick) and the ground floor bathroom window sill, and the bottom of the porch doorway.
     
    They are coming back which is fine and there is no panic, but I don't quite know why they left those bits undone.
     
    Anyway, as is the way of these things, we ran over by a good few thousand - mostly because both the independent  QS costings we paid for and Buildstores own costings people, omitted parts of the stonework (quite a lot of stone mullions as well as stone water tabling).   I contacted Buildloan and explained we'd need more dosh.  First advice was that it would be cheaper to get a loan - so, knowing we have a 999 score credit rating and more than double the equity in the house & land, we applied - and for the first time in our lives were refused! It made no sense, so we tried another - same result.
    Reasonable income, its affordable, whats going on?  On a whim I checked with Experian and found Talkmobile (who I've not been with for about 2 years) had wrecked my credit record claiming unpaid bills!  Simply not true! So I chased them - they apologised and said they'd get the incorrect information removed by Experian "in 30 days" - I offered to sue if they didn't do it immediately for the extra thousands it was going to cost me having to go the mortgage route -  rates plus Buildstores £500 + fee for filling a form in.  So, I check and sure enough, my credit record was restored a few days later.  
     
    Next day we apply again, - and were refused again!  I check and find TalkMobile have done it again   !  This time adding a completely bogus claim of a late payment "within the last 2 months" - for an account which has not existed for about 2 years!  So back we go, and they apologise again and within 48 hours this one is also removed from my record (I've looked online and they've done this to loads of people - to one guy for a supposed £1 debt!).  But now we have several "refused" records showing, so they've absolutely stuffed us, even though they admit error and we are back to a 999 maximum credit rating.
     
    So, with heavy heart we've had to go back to the nightmare that is Buildstore/Buildloan, and yet again, they are dragging the application out for as long as they can. First time round their game was to ask for say 3 months bank statements, then once you'd sent them, wait a couple of weeks and then ask you for the previous 3 months to that - this went on with payslips, P60s going back about 6 years and on and on - but never just asking for what the Building society wanted in one go, just one document at a time, even when I called and said "look, tell me *everything* you need and I'll send it all in one go" - oh no. (we should have known really when our initial application to Buildstore sat on someones desk for a month with nothing done until I rang and asked what was happening. I then had to chase them every single step of the way to make them get on with each step otherwise they just sat on the documents until they "expired", at which point they'd want the next months document, then the next months payslip - by which time a new statement was due and so on and on and on. I had to find how to contact the Chief Exec in the end to get them to actually just submit the damn application!  A job which if i could have done it myself was all doable in maybe a week maximum.
     
    To my horror, they are doing the same again - they asked for 3 months (cunningly sent them 6 months so they couldn't play the same trick) payslips and bank statements, and already they've sat on them so long they are asking for the next ones!  They have to be the most stressful way of getting a mortgage by far. when I rang the Building Society they assure me they send out a sheet to Buildstore at the start and list everything they want in one go (Buildloan tried to tell me it was the Building Society asking for one thing at a time - which made no sense to me, as why would any building society or bank do it that way?) .
     
    So I've just read an email asking me for a statement they *already have* and for this months payslips (which we don't have yet of course). I've written back pointing out that this will go on indefinitely if they don't just submit the paperwork and keep waiting until the statements and payslips are a month out of date. So I've also asked for a definite date when they plan to submit and have said if they cannot give me one, and do not plan to submit it this week then it makes sense for me to send all things in future direct to the Building Society, telling the Building Society why,  rather than them being sat in someones desk at Buildloan until they expire.    Give me strength!
  5. curlewhouse
    I know it's shot vertically (I forgot) & the wind makes it a little hard to hear, but this is an update as regards the windows etc. Meantime, our lovely warranty people are being difficult again,asking for photographic evidence of *things they've already inspected* which are now buried or behind walls! ..... they *really* do not like SIPS! 
     
  6. curlewhouse
    Had to laugh yesterday as I got demand number 4 from our council for us to fill in a form for us to beg their permission to call our house what we want (there are no street numbers as there is no street) .  Their first attempt about a year ago when we started building was to try it on for £100 and when I ignored that another form was sent asking for £50. The funny bit was they addressed it to the house, and the form explains that unless we pay the bribe we will not receive mail or deliveries at that address! .
     
    I know that whilst in the scheme of building a house, £50 may not seem worth arguing about - but my attitude is that we worked for that £50, and these days I'm in a job I love but which is poorly paid (the self build is part of a reassessment of our lives we made, I was making good money, but in a stressful job and hardly seeing the family - I'll probably live years longer now, albeit without the foreign holidays and new cars - but we've never been happier!). I've always paid council tax anyway, and to enter the name on a computer would take maximum 1 minute, maybe 2 if they are 2-finger typists like me.  I've also become acutely aware during this process that lots of little back office types feel a God given right to take money from self builders (I call it the "Grand Designs" effect, where the people manage to magic many £000s over their budgets, and I think that's led to the belief we're all rich. Whereas a good number like us, self build because we can't afford someone else to do it, and if you've got a little land, its cheaper than buying a ready built house - we certainly could never afford to buy the house we are building) . So as long as I can, I'm digging my heels in on this one. I've found sadly that this self build turns (for us anyway) into having to fight authority at every turn and nag/push or threaten people to simply do their job. Only last week, to get our deposit back from a company that had let us down and wasted over a month of our time I had to threaten a very large window company with court and they went to the wire delaying it before coughing up. I really wish it wasn't like this. 
     
    As it happens, thanks to our friendly postman we are on the post office database and as the months have gone by I see our address appears on more and more firms address finder systems. We are also recorded with the banks, CC companies and so on and I've not had one issue getting deliveries or services or financial matters sent to the house. In fact all our mail goes there now ready for when we move in proper. 
     
    Its interesting that on the form I am required to give the house name, then justify that name in a box next to it! Now I understand that sweary names, and the like are not allowed, and that's probably for the good, but for some little clerk to decide even what we call our home is an invasion too far. What's next deciding on our interior colour scheme, the name of our cat? (we haven't got a cat).  Do we need to be micromanaged in this country really as if we are not grown ups? Or is it just another nice little earner? I'm not a fan of intrusive government.
     
    As it happens, our choice of house name  (originally Curlew House because its the symbol of this national park, Curlews live here around our house, and it's my favourite bird - but we found about 3 others so changed our mind) is Todcroft - and that's because the next house down the road (my parents) was originally called Todcroft, we found that on a really ancient map, so there is a historical reason, and I cannot find another beyond one in Cumbria. But, that's none of their bloody business, and I really resent the idea that I have to ask some clerks permission. If they claim it needs their supervision/input then how come all the horrible twee/generic house names you see where there must be hundreds with the same name? I may have to pay the money in the end. Though I'm unsure of their legal right to demand it actually, they do have power under Public Health Act to maintain the record of street and house names, I can't find anything in that act saying householder must pay for it, so if they can evidence that then I guess I'll have no choice.  But I bet they won't refuse to send a council tax bill to the address once it gets habitable!
     
    I reckon if that's a fair fee, then to enter that name in a database will take maybe 2 minutes, they must be paying their clerks in the region of £1500 per hour, which somehow I doubt.
     
    Meantime, today I am fitting downpipes. There is snowfall here again today but it is marginally above freezing, so the snow on the roof is slowly thawing. The sun is shining and its easy to see that if our windows were fitted, we'd be getting lots of thermal gain on a day like this. 
     
    As you can see, the patio doors are fitted, facing West, but the 3 big South facing windows in this room are still to be fitted - within the next 3 weeks hopefully. Lesson learned for the windows is that big firms are very definitely not necessarily the best or offer the best value. By now using a local firm we are getting triple glazing for less than the price of double from the big national company! U values also better of course, but what has been nicest is any easy "can do" attitude from them - for example the big national firm said they did not make doors as wide as this and we'd need slim side panes made up - this local firm said "no bother, of course we can make them for you in that size" ! Big difference. 
     
     
      

  7. curlewhouse
    It has been a cold few weeks here at Todcroft, with -13c at one point, which saw us flee from the caravan when all water, toilet and even the LPG froze and no longer worked. So we set up in the house even though we only have temporary polythene windows.
     
    But this bad weather (to be expected of course) combined with lack of windows and just (triple glazed ) polythene in place of glass, has meant running fan heaters pretty much 24/7 to even keep slightly warm, though that's a misnomer as your never actually "warm" just ever so slightly less cold....... we just got our resulting £500 electricity bill!
     
    Even with three 2kW fans running, you need thermal underwear, a couple of fleece jumpers and often a warm hat on! To be honest, I've felt quite bad for my wife at times, and there have been tears when sometimes it seems as if there is no end in sight, exacerbated by the attitude of the building warranty people just throwing barrier after barrier in our way to stop us making progress. I work out doors, and grew up in the Northumberland countryside, so am pretty hardened to the cold, but even I have found it very cold and pretty miserable.  But, even without us mentioning how bad it has been, we've been offered spare bedrooms by several friends and neighbours, and one work colleague even offered us their entire house over Christmas as they would be away! There really are some lovely people out there.
     
    We invested in an electric blanket, which is great - though now you don't want to get out of bed into the cold .  Your body is warm, but your head and nose is frozen!
     
    Anyway one of the many issues our BCO/Warranty Inspector has with SIPs is that he is convinced they shrink massively. One of the numerous enquiries he made me do with the different companies for him was to find out the shrinkage (yes, I know, I too pointed out to him that OSB has, as the name would suggest "oriented" strands, which by going in different directions, largely mitigate against this when compared to standard timber) from Kingspan - as around this time I'd had enough and told him that as a BCO he was more likely to get a comprehensive answer than I was when he kept making me go back time after time to the suppliers, challenging their methods and suitability of the materials (even the BBA markings on each SIPs panel were not enough for him to believe them to be an "approved" building material in his view!) . So he contacted Kingspan who gave him a figure (I forget now, but it was absolutely tiny). So he spoke to our mason and made him leave a whopping great gap  around the entire house between the stonework and the fascia/soffit  to allow for the SIPs shrinking.  Now on one level I get his thinking, that if the soffit was hard against the stone, then if the SIPs did shrink to any appreciable degree, it would presumably force the soffit out of place or crack it.  But this massive gap all the way around makes for fantastic and constant convection from the air bricks at the bottom, and none of us are convinced the shrinkage will be anything like he fears, if it happens at all.  Yes, the cavity definitely needs to be ventilated to stay dry, but this big a gap all round will set up a constant and quite massive convective flow in my mind - and we are trying to build a low energy house!  OK, so the cold air will be rising against the outer OSB, behind which is all the SIPS insulation, but it's still going to be a constant and high flow situation (I used some smoke on the one still day we've had and there is a clear constant convection going on, even with the tiny amount of heat we have inside right now) drawing heat off.
     
    So my thought is to use foam or similar compressive material to close most of this gap up. Though I think I'll insert something like wire mesh in places to allow some air flow still for obvious reasons, but I think it surely doesn't need to be a raging flow 24/7 around the entire perimeter. The trouble is, if I were to ask the warranty guy what material he'd recommend, he'll either insist we allow the place to lose heat and do nothing, leaving this gap all around, or he'll make me contact the SIPs manufacturer/foam manufacturer/builder et al to "ask if its a suitable material to use with SIPs" (as that's the answer I get to everything from him if I ask - making me seem a pest as I keep having to go back to these companies and pass on his often silly questions). 
     
    On a more positive note, we now have some movement on the windows. Being unable to afford the likes of Internorm or their ilk, we've had to look at the usual mass double glazing suppliers.  In the end we chose one of the 3 big national firms, and all seemed OK. They took our deposit, the salesman wasn't pushy, and all seemed fine.  Then no one came to measure up. Eventually, after me chasing them, someone came 3 weeks later to measure up - and promptly refused!  The stonework is all done with the exception of the sides and tops of the first floor windows. But that's OK as the inner is SIPS, where the windows will be mounted of course, and so the sizes are already set.  So he said he'd get the ground floor ones going for now so at least we'd have those in. Then when he got back to the office changed his mind and they simply refused to continue until the whole thing was complete, and only then would he come back and measure, and even then, we'd have to wait "6 to 8" weeks for them to install. So this takes us into possibly April with no windows - and them holding our deposit meantime!  I pointed out that how come I myself had managed to fit a far more complicated (cabrio type) window on the first floor already but they were saying they couldn't even start making them, least of all fit them?) So we were stuck, we'd signed the contract, they had our money and were going to do nothing more for weeks despite us literally freezing in here.  Then there was a break.
     
    We got a letter from them saying as a new build our house was "unsuitable for their product" - now since they'd already strung us along well over a month, I rang and challenged this asking why waste so much of our time. Turns out it referred only to the French doors and they were sending us a new contract for only the windows. But, they'd sent us a letter nullifying the whole contract.  Meantime, on visiting a retired builder friends house and admiring his windows I discovered they were made and fitted by a local firm, and I was surprised when he told me the very reasonable price given the clear quality.  So I got them to come out, and their attitude could not be more different. So I used the other firms (Anglian) cancellation letter, wrote to them telling them we accepted thier cancelation of the contract (as I'd feared they'd try and keep our deposit if we cancelled) and please refund our deposit, which they have agreed to.
     
    So for less money  we are getting a better U value, triple glazing (yes, for less than Anglian were charging us for double glazing) and they are fitting the French doors this Monday and measuring up for the rest on Wednesday, and on realising how cold we are  promised us that it will be 4 weeks at the very latest! Plus I've seen the quality and it is excellent. (this is actually my friends house on their web site   https://hawthornswindows.co.uk/portfolio/view/  )   We can't wait to be warm! 
     
     
     
     



  8. curlewhouse

    A fire test.

    By curlewhouse,

    Well my old back injury came back and bit me over the weekend (nothing I'd done, just a chronic condition for which I'm on painkillers permanently and which flares up worse occasionally for no apparent reason)  -  and I'm off work unfortunately, laid up, so this has given me an opportunity to post this. Our patio doors were fitted by a very efficient and friendly team, who left a couple of offcuts, and as is my wont with these things, I decided to fire test them (yes, I know I videoed it vertically ). This is with a MAPP gas flame, so running at a temperature of 2020c in air. Best I could do was to get it to ignite for a few seconds, smoke then go out. Almost irrelevant when one lives in a timber framed house of course, as we all know wood burns, but interesting nonetheless I think. Yes it puts off smoke, but then with modern smoke detectors, this is no bad thing and the occupants should be long gone before temperatures reach this level or the smoke becomes an issue. Our house has smoke detectors in every room of course, plus passageway upstairs. In fact, for the duration of the build, and before the mains powered detectors are connected up I've even got battery ones in place temporarily for safety. They are so cheap now, its worth the peace of mind.
     
     
  9. curlewhouse
    Well rather than repeat everything here, this is the link to the issues we've had with our building warranty inspections. At it's most basic the issue is that our inspector has not dealt with SIPs before and both he and his boss appear to have objections to anything other than brick and block.
     Those issues have taken up weeks of the time we should have been working on the house. In the end, although his boss claims he's been an inspector over 10 years, his behaviour/knowledge level makes that seem very, very unlikely, and both our mason who has had contact with him, and ourselves are convinced he is actually new to the job. Even if he is, that is still no reason to expect us to complete his education however, or to bring our build to a halt repeatedly.
     
    I have advised the SIPs company that they may want to make future clients aware of this firms view of SIPs and hopefully save them the hours and hours of wasted time and stress we've suffered  due to it's aversion to SIPs, and will be telling our building society the same - this BCO/Warranty firm was only put on their approved panel for our build, so I think it's the right thing to do that we should inform them for the sake of future customers.
     
     
  11. curlewhouse
    So it's been months since I've updated this blog. This is because things have just been so hectic. These last few months, and probably for the next 12 at least, my life consists of going to work, coming home and working on the house then going to bed - then going to work... and repeat. Pretty much everything else has come to a halt. Very few social calls and even my hair isn't getting cut as often! 
     
    Masses has happened, but hopefully I'll get time to write it up one day.
  12. curlewhouse

    Passing inspection.

    By curlewhouse,

    Two weeks ago today our stonemason started and poor guy it rained heavily from the very first day! In fact, so bad on the first day that I fully expected him to give it a miss, but there he was when I got home from work, grafting away on his own.  Being a SIPs build, the roof is already in place, so of course all the rain falling on the surface area of the roof flows straight off - directly onto where he is building the stonework below. So this weekend, I managed to get the fascia board and soffit on, on the East side where he has been most busy.  I plan to get the West side done this week, though it will be slower as I'm on my own and can only fit it in after work, plus the ever decreasing daylight hours limit outside work time of course.
     
    We are over the moon with how the stonework is looking!
     
    On a less progressive note, we are again having issues with our BCO. The same firm is providing our warranty, so two lots of inspections sort of rolled into one from them. when we got the trenches and foundations inspected, I was relieved to find the inspector was a practical guy, who where circumstances meant a slight change of plan took a pragmatic approach, and gave good advice.
     
    Come the next stage I rang him and left messages so them emailed him that we were ready but heard nothing back. After 2 weeks of this I contacted the firm - to be told he'd left! Shame no one had the gumption to think it might be wise to tell existing clients or at least check his company email account!
     
    Never mind, we got a new inspector. Nice guy, seemed a little nervous, but I increasingly suspect he is new to the job .   When I'm asked by a BCO if Kingspan SIPs are an approved building material I do begin to wonder about his experience/knowledge.  When I'm asked if the torn up, puddle ridden site mud, about 500mm at best below the DPC and with lumps and bumps plus a pile of topsoil 1.5 metres high in one part of the site is our final ground level, I really begin to wonder.  Then I'm, told I must contact Kingspan and ask them what the shrinkage will be -  I explain that OSB has (as the name suggests) oriented strands, meaning this is less of an issue, and forwarded him Kingspans technical documents.... but he still wanted ME to ask. In the end I emailed him and suggested that as a BCO, he was more likely to get a detailed answer from Kingspan (and even supplied him their phone number and email)  which he did - it's miniscule, and even then he couldn't tell me the relevance to my build of his query!
     
    In one part the fabric they put on the SIPS has about a 6" tear. So as it's all stapled on anyway, the guys simply stapled along the tear, holding it closed. Fine? Oh no, on seeing that he insists I contact the erectors and ask if that's the approved method of repair. Now I'm not going to ring anyone up asking what I know to be stupid questions for someone else - you want to ask stupid stuff, you ring them mate.  So I just said look, I'll glue it if you'd prefer.   Next, where there were , <2mm variations along the soleplate, the SIPs folks used plastic packers - my BCO spots this and asks why is it not grouted, and are the packers sufficient and should it be grouted? Wants me to contact them and ask - two things here, 1. good luck trying to grout in places with sub 1mm gaps and  2. If they think it shouldn't be plastic packers then they wouldn't have put them there would they - and they're not about to say to me, oh yes, we deliberately put the wrong thing in! So I'm just not doing it. It's like I'm educating him - but that's not what I paid the firm for.
     
    He's also nit picked at the most silly things 
     
    I've been polite, and have had a little sympathy for the guy, but the final straw was he'd told me the next bit he wanted to see was when our wall was at ground floor window height - no problem, so  I texted him that he could do this early this week, and as a courtesy updated him on progress made inside (1st fix socket circuit complete and 50% of lighting,  1st fix plumbing water supply in, and all the stud walls now have 1 side plasterboard on).  The reply I got is that I must not put any plasterboard up as he must do a "pre plaster inspection" and also inspect the electrics. Now unless he is that rare fish, a BCO who is also part P qualified, he is not qualified to inspect electrical installations. So I queried back asking about why my certifying qualified electricians issuing of a Part P certificate will not be enough -  no reply.  
     
    So I've emailed the senior BCO of the company explaining that I'm not happy - a week later and no reply!  
     
     
      
  13. curlewhouse
    Well, though in total it was almost 7 months, we finally got electricity. Life in the caravan is now much more civilised, and I can write this without ear defenders on because of the generator noise. No more lukewarm showers or worrying about flattening the caravan battery. Hooray!
     
    On the other hand, our builder is getting increasingly vague about when he will do the stonework on the house and it is getting very much colder in the caravan now here in Northumberland - we have to keep the heating running most nights now.
     
    Got first lot of UFH laid in downstairs bathroom and utility - I don't know how those guys get lovely straight lines, mine are as wobbly as a London tube rail! However, it doesn't matter as long as the separation distances are correct (made myself 2 little templates for this from cardboard doubled over and wrapped in tape, marked 150 and 200mm respectively, made it nice and simple ).
     
    I've got all the socket wiring now in place, and the soundproof plasterboard up where I wanted it on the upstairs bathroom and bedrooms. Coming to the realisation that boarding out the huge open space above the stairs is going to be "interesting" when the time comes! But with some of the plasterboard up, we are really getting a feel for the room sizes and it really feels like progress.  Our daughter is now at University and is gutted she can't be helping - she really enjoyed helping.. So thanks to the wonders of technology, I took my mobile and gave her a visual tour of the house last night on skype.
    Isn't technology clever?  Pics to follow. 
  14. curlewhouse
    So apart from the long running saga getting the Northern electric network  to understand their own reson d'etre, I've started to do the utility and downstairs bathroom, so as to give us facilities as soon as possible.
    Coincidentally the two houses to the North of us have been bought and are being renovated and the guy doing the building work called in to see me and very kindly told me that there has been a 14% or so rise in insulation costs and another forecast for October according to his BM. He realized I'd be buying quite a bit so had popped in to warn me - which was nice of him.
    So I checked online for the best price I could find and rang my local Jewsons branch with my account number and asked what their price was - it was about £6 more per sheet - so I told them the price I could get it at and they said they'd match it - so since that meant quicker delivery I just ordered 20 sheets (it was celotex I was after but they only have a different brand so I thought I'd only order a limited amount until I saw the quality).  It seems fine, though being 100mm it has made me realize that I need to think a bit more about the floor build up as it still leaves me about 150mm + to the door level (disconcertingly, on the ground floor I find the beam-&-block level to door opening levels to be different at different entrances!) , though that does mean I can squeeze in another 100mm of insulation - a pity that for some reason it shot up in price recently. So my plan is to buy seconds unfaced insulation and put that on the bottom, and the foil faced on the top.
     
    I had planned to buy it all from a seconds supplier, but found  that I can now get better prices for new in the foil faced versions than their seconds are priced at!
     
    After getting a few quotes, and reading peoples comments I chose Wunda to supply our UFH kit. I began pricing it all by buying it individually via eBay and so on, but found Wunda to be very competitive, so went with the easy option and got it all in one go in the end. We bit the bullet and after months debating have gone for only having UFH on the first floor in the bathroom, though obviously the whole of the ground floor will have it.   Although I know the calculations say we should not need it, I am tempted to fit "just in case" background electric panel heaters in the bedrooms.
     
     
    My daughter bringing her horse to visit!
     
     
     
  15. curlewhouse
    Electricity:  Well, we applied for electricity to be connected in March of this year (It is late August as I write this).  Made a couple of calls to see how things were progressing, but never got any call backs. It would have been great to have an electricity supply for the a lot of the work, but in the end I had to buy a generator, which has been a godsend. So come August and we are now living on site in a caravan. I've been in for the last couple of weeks and last night my wife moved in too (we are doing the final move from the old house this week).  So a couple of weeks ago we tried to ring Northern Networks new connections office - only to be told repeatedly that they were too busy and were not taking calls! So had to tell a receptionist who was fielding their calls the whole story - but still not allowed to speak to the new connections department. So over 2 days, my wife and I tried several times a day to get through since surely they must put the phone down at least once in 48 hours? Well, according to the receptionist, not. I asked if I could 1speak to some manager who may be able to help - no, we were not allowed! a flat refusal!
     
    I got an email from our original contact engineer to the effect that they had not received our acceptance of the quote in March! (in reality, things getting "lost in the post" is vanishingly rare, in my experience, certainly here in the North East, though I know it can be an issue in parts of the South). So I resent a copy - a week or two later we get it back with scrawled "OOT" - and a letter saying We were Out Of Time to reply! -  and must start again from the beginning, getting an engineer to check the site etc. etc.
     
    By means I'll not disclose, I obtained a managers name in the new connections department and managed to bluff my way past the guard and was actually able to speak to him!  He at least seemed to sympathise that 5 months is too long and I got him to promise he would watch to see this latest application didn't get "lost in the post" for 5 months yet again.
     
    Either way, I had to reapply - I pointed out to him how silly it was for the engineers to have to look at it from scratchy and could they not just resurrect using the map and details they already have? He agreed, and so after a week and a half another quote came - exactly the same as last time.  So I've posted 2 copies of our acceptance in separate post boxes AND emailed both the department, and the person named on the letter, and got read receipts and delivery confirmation emails.  
     
    Meantime, if we want a shower in the caravan we have to nip out and turn the generator on - which is noisy for our nearest neighbours, and whilst they have not complained, I am very aware of the noise. As at present I got to work around 0430, I really cannot in fairness run the generator, so it makes things pretty difficult.  I'm sitting in the new house shell writing this with the generator running so I can use the computer and internet with ear defenders on! We run the genny in the house to try and cut some of the external noise down (with doors/windows open of course). Its not conducive to  thought though to be honest. Unfortunately mobile data is so bad here that web sites time out, so this is the only way we can get on the internet from the site.  I really wish they'd hurry up with the connection!    
     
    Water:  Curiously, we have had the same lack of response from Northumbrian water.  They like to see the service pipe running into the house, but no way could I keep the trench open for 6 months safely so eventually, I filled it back in when they'd done nothing for 3 months (its a mere 1 metre from our boundary to the water main) .  Chasing them up again, they were very good and apologised profusely and promised a guy out that week, they also said they quite understood that it was dangerous for me to leave a trench open 6 months on a building site. when the guy came I was at work, so when he turned up and said he needed to inspect the pipe (I've actually even pressure tested it myself) was deep enough and bedded properly  she handed him a spade and told him to help himself  .  Strangely enough it then did not need inspecting - funny that!  When they come to connect to it (the end is sticking out of the ground of course) and dig down, they will see the depth and the sand bedding it is in anyway.
     
    Openreach have been OK. PlusNet cut our business internet connection off 2 weeks before we moved  (and that's a business connection!) and said it would be 3 weeks before they'd switch it on, despite Openreach having connected us up! In the event, they did it a couple of days early, but knocking business accounts off for 3 weeks is simply not good enough - that could destroy some businesses completely.
    We have ADSL rather than fibre, but actually, since the rest of the village is now on fibre we have it all to ourselves and so far it's pretty reasonable speed-wise (when the generator is no to power the modem of course). 
     
    As for the house itself, the builder tells me that he should be starting the stonework in 3 weeks now the roof is 90% finished.  
     
     
     
     
  16. curlewhouse
    Well, some interesting developments:
    1. We bought a caravan! Even though it's only about 8 miles from where we are temporarily renting (though that "temporary" has ended up into it's 3rd year since we sold our old house!) , it's a pain working on the house then having to hide/ lock everything away each time, before going home, then spend half an hour getting it all out again next day, so we gave notice on our temporary tenancy and are moving onto the site at the end of the month. That should make it far easier to do work on the site.
     
    2. The stone has arrived. It's backed off stone from an old convent school, and we've also got a few interesting bits of stone found on the site which we intend to have inserted into the stone walls, like ones I cut up for the dry stone waller which have fossils in (nothing startling, just marine corals and the like) and one small piece which for various reasons we believe is likely saxon. I also managed to get free of charge 2 genuine old stone gateposts of which I know the provenance - goodness knows how old they are. One of them looks like Stonehenge is probably missing it . But I really like the idea that we know the provenance of all of these things, even the roof slates are recycled (they have not arrived yet but are imminent). We are really pleased with the stone, and fortunately amongst it are enough quoins, which is an unexpected bonus,
     
    3. Openreach came out and were helpful. We discussed options and in the end we are going for armoured cable which we are laying as it can be laid simply on the surface, so is going along behind a hedge where it will disappear into the ground of it's own accord. All perfectly acceptable to Openreach due to the low voltages, and actually something they do quite commonly in rural areas where digging would be an issue. The nearest pole is too far away.  Only downside is that despite the entire village getting fibre in only about a year ago, they'd want an arm and a leg to get it to us - however, the guy tells me we'll be the only people on the exchange on ADSL so will probably end up with quite a respectable speed anyway for less money, so I'm not too bothered if this turns out to be correct. I know that as houses in the village were moved onto fibre and off the ADSL, those still waiting were noticing speed increases.    
     
    4. Electricity board say they'll be progressing things in the next couple of weeks, so I've cracked on with getting their cabinet installed - it's going onto a retaining wall rather than on the house itself (they are perfectly happy about that) so we have a second cabinet alongside for our junctions off for our sub mains to the garage/workshop and the house, as well as putting an external RCD socket on the outside to give us a temporary supply (handy for the caravan!). The retaining wall is built in blockwork, but is getting covered in real stone, so that's definitely not it's final appearance. 
     
    5. With deciding to move onto the site, I need to get the utility room and downstairs bathroom (though the caravan has loo and shower of course) sorted ASAP so we can have a washing machine and so on, so instead of doing the insulation, UFH pipes and screeding on the ground floor all at once, I'm going to have to do those two small rooms first (staged finance prevents me doing it all at once just yet), so am looking now at screeding them myself, though will get a firm in to do the main parts of the building later of course. So last night I put the base of the partition wall in to make it more manageable for me to do in 2 smaller lots. As ever, our dog is fascinated by the laser level (that's not it shining in her eyes I should point out!).
     
     
     
       



  17. curlewhouse
    Well, things, as I suspected might be the case, have gone from slow, slow, slower, to a sudden rate of knots overnight. After an initial bump where we discovered that the architect had drawn the SIPs to start at the beam and block floor level, (but with 2 weeks to go the SIPs designer pointed out that the soleplate must be 150mm minimum above that), we quickly got the builder to some blocks laid to give us the 100mm insulation, 75mm screed + stone floor height needed. 
     
    Building regs guy arrived and unfortunately our first one who I had found seemed very practical has left the firm and this one seems very, very keen. I was a little disconcerted to hear him asking me if Kingspan SIPs have certification - I'd really have expected him to have heard of Kingspan!  He quizzed the builders doing the blocks as to their experience and queried if the pipes have gravel around them (already inspected and passed by his predecessor prior to filling in), and also wants to see the engineers reports (already submitted to his firm at the very beginning of the process). He seems a nice guy though and hopefully once he is assured everyone knows what they are doing he will be less concerned, though the firm is doing both our BR work and our building warranty, and there seems to be confusion over whether they want to do separate inspections or will let one inspector do it (which would seem logical to me, but hey ho)...
     
    On Saturday the scaffolders came, preceeded by a delivery of brand new scaffolding which must have cost a fortune, so we have a very very shiny set of scaffold. They finished off on the Sunday, and on Monday the SIPs folks arrived.  
     
    07:30 and I was on site ready before them when the telehandler (which turned out to be brand new!) I had to hire for them turned up - the driver couldn't get the wagon up our road (he'd certainly had some fun negotiating his way here and almost got jammed between 2 farm buildings, having to reverse out and try another way) so he took the machine off ...and handed me the key of this brand new 14mettre reach telehandler .....   so I tried very hard not to grin like a small boy as I fired it up and drove it up to our place . Anyone else remember Tonka toys? 
     
    Next was the first of 2 artics with our house in them - fortunately the SIPs guys arrived and the one with his telehandler ticket unloaded the wagon. The three of them are camped in a (nice) caravan and the estimate is 2 weeks, which is longer than I expected, but it really doesn't matter either way. It is interesting to see the care they take in getting the panels firmly attached. Low expansion foam into the joint, then a device which pulls the two panels together very firmly indeed before about 50+ annular nails each side are fired in. These things aren't coming apart in a hurry! 
     
     
     
     




  18. curlewhouse

    Mains and drains.

    By curlewhouse,

    We are now looking at getting the services into place before June when our SIPs should turn up. I've found both water board and electricity folks to be really helpful and approachable thus far when I've asked for advice or clarification.  I also think their charges are not excessive actually, which I know is not the experience nationally. That may also be because we are very fortunate in having the water running 1 metre away along one boundary and the electricity main running underground 1 metre away under our other boundary, making things much simpler indeed.
     
    Electricity is  to come into the site via a meter cabinet set into our retaining wall on the North side of the site (the board are quite happy about that as I doubled checked with them) then into "our" cabinet alongside, from which one SWA cable will go to the house and one to the garage. But during the build, this second cabinet will have the eventual garage consumer unit inside, with an RCD protected external socket on the outside, to give us an electricity supply during the work.  I'm currently using a nice little 2.4KvA generator from Machine Mart to power everything like the cement mixer or saws/drills etc.   https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-fg2500-2-4kva-portable-petrol-powered-g/  . It's a useful size, and  being on wheels makes it really easier for me with by bust disk in my back. 
     
    So next I need some time off work and to rent a digger again for the remainder of the levelling and to dig in the electricity cable trench to our boundary. The ground is nice and dry now, in fact the subsoil heap is rock hard - my wife was trying to dig some of it for some infill the other day and said it was difficult - I swung a pick at it to loosen it and the point went in less than an inch! The good soaking it got the other week then drying out has set it like concrete.
     
    Once levelled we can also finish off the surface water drain pipe which currently terminates under the sub soil heap. I'm going to put a small brick lined settling chamber in then run it into a pond, only the overflow from the pond will go to the soakaway. BR have seen the plans for that and passed without comment. I did expect some querying with it being a little different, but they seem happy with it. You can see the idea in this plan.
     
     
     
       

  19. curlewhouse
    So we ended up with 2 builders in the running. One who has built SIPS before but who was quite negative, (saying his guys wouldn't like the travel, his masons wouldn't like the reclaimed stone and his roofer wouldn't like the slate... he was also not happy with how he'd get pallets of the stone to 1 side of the house where it's near the boundary) and the other who had a "nothing is a bother" attitude, and an excellent reputation locally. As it happened, the second one also had the most competitive quote, and we have gone with them.... and very pleased we are too. They've turned out to be very careful in their work, but also breezy and cheerful and nothing is a problem to them. We ended up needing more hardcore stone for the ground than expected and the garage foundations had to be way, way deeper than expected, yet they charged us not a penny more. So in barely 2 weeks the site has been cleared, foundations dug (archaeologist found nothing of interest thankfully) , poured, blocks up and the beam and block floors as well as the drainage pipes are all in now. BC guy was helpful and happy with the work as was the warranty surveyor. The only blip just now is Buildstore and the mortgage. After a month and hearing nothing I chased it up to find they hadn't yet submitted the paperwork. By the time they did, the bank statements and payslips we'd sent had "expired" , so we had to send new ones in. More delay. We've been asked for paperwork in dribs and drabs  - so they ask us to send 1 thing in then 3 days later ask for something else... and so on *repeatedly*. In the end I complained and someone got onto it and they finally submitted the paperwork to the lender that week. But sure enough, they then wanted something else. So I sent it along with an email telling them it would be far more sensible to A. pass the stuff straight to the lender rather than hanging on to it for a month before doing so and B. Just ask me in one go for everything they need &I'll send it, rather than wasting even more time. I got a call assuring me that absolutely the lot....  then guess what happens 3 days later? Really fed up with them. The latest is asking us to prove we've paid rent for the 3 month period BEFORE the 3 month period they already have evidence for ! (we sold our house asked are renting while the build goes on... Though it's been 2 years now). It's just illogical really, & whilst it's apparently come from the lender, why not just ask us for the 6 months evidence straight away if that's what that lender requires? It's just being dragged out over months and months as slowly as possible for either inefficiency or reasons they are not telling us and we just cannot understand.  I do fear something is being lost in translation netween us and the lender with having to communicate via buildstore. If I were to use them again I'd definitely recommend chasing them every week to ask if they've done anything as we lost over a month where it seems our paperwork just sat on a desk and more weeks due to this drip feed of documents thing.
    So next we ae hoping for a dry weekend to dig the water pipe trench, do some ground levelling (we have a small version of mount everest in topsoil ?) & various tasks like that. But until the mortgage is finally sorted the SIPS cannot progress.


  20. curlewhouse
    Hmm, sent the full plans off for the SIPs price a while ago, and got the proposals and price back showing where steel beams would be required and were factored into  the price etc.  Sent our deposit off and now getting emails (in language we struggle to understand what they are actually trying to say) saying they'll have to add this that and the other - starting to get a bad feeling that the price is getting bumped.  The designer is saying they did not allow for X, Y & Z in the price and so on - but they had the plans all along, and this is making me begin to feel a little wary about what is happening. So I've been quite frank and asked him what price is it he is trying to work up to and just tell me rather than go round about the houses. Personally I blame all those "Grand Designs" where the people say they have a budget then pull an extra £100k+ out of their hat - so a lot of firms seem to have come to think self builders have secret pots of money (I'm sure some do, but oh how I wish we had!) they can access  whereas our budget is what it is and there's genuinely no more after that. I've come to call it "The Grand Designs Effect" a few times already with solicitors and the like just getting to this stage. I'm not saying that is happening here, but it is beginning to concern me how far this will go.
     
  21. curlewhouse

    Hooray!

    By curlewhouse,

    Well, we finally started real work. Fortunately the snow melted yesterday, but the sun shone on us today and it was perfect weather for setting out and stripping the site.   We finally found a good builder with a lovely attitude and a fair price. I know these folks by reputation so was pleased to find their quote was competitive. Just the owner was on site today along with a digger driver from a firm he uses, and what an enjoyable day it has been. The two of them taking the mickey out of each other most of the day, but very,very competent guys.  The archaeologist we have had to employ for the day as part of the planning conditions was just as nice and fortunately we found nothing more than a few shards of medieval pottery - which as he says, in a medieval village is to be expected. But an interesting guy to talk to as well, so I was very relieved we didn't come across anything that would have stopped the work (though I'd have settled for a golden coin hoard of course) . So all in all, a really satisfying day.  Tomorrow comes trenches and hopefully the start of foundations, and I meet the BR guy for the first time. 


     

  22. curlewhouse

    Hurry up... and wait

    By curlewhouse,

    Well, progress of sorts, with BR agreement to the plans and finance decision in principle all fine.  Getting builders quotes has proved very problematic for some reason, which wasn't an issue I foresaw. Out of 12 who responded via those check-a-trade and trusted people web sites, only 2 eventually came through with anything, one very detailed and very good, who is so busy they could only offer to do the founds, another who I really liked when I met the owner, but whose quote came in one day and was just a sum, no breakdown, and so it would not seem safe to rely on, and useless for out building society (who want the most detailed cost breakdown imaginable - just one tiny example being the roof vents have to be costed separate from the slate, and lead work and soffits separate from barge boards etc - all elements having to be priced separately for the building soc.). 
     
    Was recommended a third builder by a friend, met the two guys running the firm on site, impressed by their attitude and previous work.... waiting a month for their quote with promises each week that it would arrive "this week", but a month on no sign of it, so all held up for nothing. So have had to go back to square one looking for builders! Very frustrating. It also makes a mockery of claims that the building trade is suffering a downturn really, they clearly have so much work on they're not really looking for any more.
     
    Though I cannot do any ground works without an archeologist present, I have been able to grub out a broken down dry stone wall on site ready for the waller who says he will do it between Christmas and the new year, so last weekend I had some stress relief at actually being able to do something real toward the house.
     
    I have to say we are almost crackers with the frustration at all the delays.
  23. curlewhouse
    Visited a site being built by Sips of Clays today, who are our choice of supplier. Had called Clays to ask a question about lead times (it's around 12 weeks) following a query from one of the builders I've asked to quote for the outer walls, roof etc. and discovered by chance that they are erecting a SIPs build about 15 miles from me -now that's not something that happens often in Northumberland so it was great to have the opportunity to go and see the work in action, and their client kindly agreed I could.   Really helpful staff gave me lots to think about and some ideas already that will save cash - like far cheaper to add extra Kingspan internally than go for thicker SIPs panels and actually a better result as you get a better thermal break at window reveals for example that way too. Very impressed by how keen and helpful the two guys from Clays working on the site were.
     
    Below is what we intend to build. We have full PP so I am just now awaiting responses from several builders I sourced via the check trade type organisations and asked to quote. Some I spoke to were at a bit of a loss when I mentioned SIPs, (but really, it's simply timber frame from their build point of view of course), but it does suggest they might not "get" my requirement for strict attention to thermal bridging etc. so I haven't asked those ones to quote.    That still leaves us with 6 who have shown a serious interest, and just today learned of one who has built at least 3 previous houses from Clays Sips.....


  24. curlewhouse
    So here we are, owning a bit of field in a National Park. The plan is to build a house for less than it would cost to buy one and of course to a much higher standard, particularly where insulation is concerned. We can build in the national park because I grew up in the village (local occupancy clause on all new builds) Now in this rural area, that is do-able as market forces mean retirees and people on city wages have driven the prices up well beyond what anyone on a rural wage can afford, in fact the only people from my generation who have been able to stay in the village have inherited houses or rent. So it's definitely cheaper to build than to buy. Being in the national park the house has to fit in with existing properties very much more than in a LA planning controlled area, but that's fine with us as a Grand Designs type thing really would not go. So using the National Parks design guide, you basically are looking at building a traditional stone house on the outside. Since we're a stones throw from an ancient fortified border peel tower and a Norman Motte & Bailey and Saxon (in parts) church, anything else really would look out of place to be fair.
     
    After going to the Homebuilding & Renovating shows for a couple of years, reading all the magazines  and haunting eBuild and the Green building forum, we settled on SIPs for our structure and recycled natural stone and slate for the outside. We wanted the stone to be ready weathered to fit in, but it also has the happy quality of being a lot cheaper too!
     
     


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