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Benpointer

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  1. Benpointer
    Yes, we moved into our new house on Monday last week, pretty much 9 months to the day since we broke ground and 15 months after we purchased the plot.
     
    We know we’ve been very lucky with our build.  The weather has generally been in our favour and we had no supply issues or delays.  Above all, we’ve had some excellent people working for us without whom we could not have achieved the build.  There are too many stars to mention here but if you look through the blog you will see them all get a shout out for their excellent work as it happened.
     
    Ahead of the move, Mrs P. did a superhuman job getting everything packed, and the move itself went relatively smoothly, with dry weather and no mishaps.  Amazingly, Mrs P. also managed to unpack most of those boxes within a few days, though we do still have some residual boxes to deal with in due course.
     
    Moving in day:

     
    As we all know, moving house is always a stressful business and moving to a new house is no different.  But it is a relief to finally get in - there is always the nagging fear that some disaster will strike at the last minute while the house remains unoccupied. But of course, all was fine.
     
    Is our build complete?  Not quite.  We have some minor electrical and joinery items outstanding, both inside and outside; we have the garden landscaping well under way but some distance from completion as you will see from the photos below.  Beyond that, there is a list of jobs of the sort you’ll have following any house move: curtains, blinds, wardrobes, shelving, etc. - but these are ‘house move’ rather than ‘house build’ tasks imo.
     
    We do still have to obtain Building Control sign-off and there’s a VAT reclaim to do.  On the BC front we had our ‘As Built’ air-tightness test performed by Richard Harris of Peninsular Energy Compliance this week (highly recommended). The result is 1.16m m3/m2 at 50hPa on the envelope basis.  Virtually the same figure for Air Changes per Hour , as our envelope area is 583m2 and our volume is coincidentally 580m3.  We are very happy with 1.2 ACH. 
     
    Air-tightness test under way:

     
    We have been in the house for a week now and we are really happy with the way it feels and works for us.  It’s warm, draft-free, well-lit, quiet, and comfortable; the layout and spaces are working just as we hoped. We are both sure we are going to really love living here.  The plant room is (to me) surprisingly warm, running at 25-26 deg C due presumably to the amount of heat-generating equipment in there.  I raised this as a separate Build Hub topic but the consensus seems to be that it's not an issue, so I shan't worry. As a side benefit, it does make a splendid clothes airing room. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/46744-hot-plant-room/
     
    Energy use
    The combination of solar panels, batteries, ASHP and insulation levels seems to be working well - in our first week we used 0.7kWh from the grid and exported 63kWh.  Not bad for February.  I need to work out our best tariff option but that’s a job for the future.
     
     
    Enough talk, time for some more photos (some taken just before we moved in)...
     
    Kitchen/dining/lounge:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Hall:

     
    Bathrooms - master ensuite:

     

     
    Shower room:

     

     
    Guest ensuite:

     
    Bedrooms
    Master bedroom:

     
    Guest bedroom:

     

     
    Bed 3 / hobby room (Ok, so we still have some unpacking to do.)

     
    Landscaping - plenty to do yet. The layout is literally as clear as mud to me... I'm sure it will all be fine in the end(!)

     

     

     

     

     
    And finally...
     
    Troy likes the new house - it still has yogurt pots that need licking out

     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this past two weeks: 15
    Contractor days on site since build start: 587 person days
     
    That 587 days is well over the 500 days which requires HSE being notified of the build using form F10 (which we did).  HSE have not spoken to us or troubled us at all and the F10 notification is simple and costs nothing, so I would recommend any self-builder do so - if you are unfortunate and have an incident it’s surely means less chance of getting into hot water if you registered properly.
     
    Budget:
    I confess that in the final weeks we have gone a bit beyond our self-imposed budget contingency and dipped slightly into savings, but that is really down to choices we have made about the quality of the fit, e.g joinery, kitchen, bathroom equipment etc., and also the extent of the landscaping we have chosen to do.  We could probably have remained well within contingency had we needed to but luckily we had some leeway.
     
    Plan: We did it!
     
    Conclusion: 
    Overall, we set out to use the entire proceeds of our previous house sale to buy a plot and build a better house, and we believe we have achieved that.  
     
    Thanks once again to all the dedicated and skilled people who have worked on our house and made the build a success.  
     
    Especial thanks to Mrs P. who indulged my yearning to do a build provided brilliant design input and kept the whole show on the road throughout - a truly wonderful person!
     
    That then dear friends is the final blog!
     
    Thank you for following us and for your kind words of encouragement and support through our project.
     

     
  2. Benpointer

    Week 38 - Nearly there!

    By Benpointer,


    General
    I’ve got to be honest, there are times when it feels like we are inching towards the finish line ever more slowly, with lots of jobs nearly but not quite done.
     
    Pulling together this regular blog is really helpful in that respect: Every fortnight I start off thinking there is hardly anything to say so it’s probably not worth issuing an update. But once I start to look at what’s happening since the previous blog I realise that we have generally made good progress.
     
    And indeed it’s a case of more good progress over the last two weeks. It does now feel like we are nearly over the line.  Several long-standing activities have been closed off thank goodness.
     
    So here are some of the things we’ve made progress on since the previous blog.
     
    (Confession time: I meant to take more photos of the bathrooms, kitchen and lighting but seem to have forgotten to do so, so you’ll have to wait for next time for those.)
     
    Bathroom
    After our disaster last time with the wall hung shower toilet, my brilliant brother came back over from Sussex to hang the replacement, even though he had managed to break his foot in the meantime - that’s what I call dedication to the cause!
     
    The (revised and up-to-date) instructions we were given with the replacement WC pan said to tighten the wall bolts to 7Nm torque. Which seems really very low - the sorts of torque used on bicycle parts.
     
    Anyway, that’s what we did to the best of our ability. It was just about enough to stop the toilet feeling at all wobbly and the good news is nothing cracked, nothing fell on the floor, and the toilet seems pretty stable. Especially now it’s been siliconed around the edges - though I’m sure the silicon doesn’t add any strength at all.
     
    While he was with us, Chris also fitted the small hand basin in our ensuite, tiled and grouted the splashbacks, then fitted a lot of sound insulation into the stud work between the three bathrooms (they all back on to each other, so good acoustic insulation is a definite plus!).
     
    He also bailed us out of a looming problem with our porcelain tile skirting…
     
    Tiling
    We were getting increasingly concerned whether our floor tiler would finish off the porcelain skirting tiles before we moved in.  The quality of his work has been great, but since Christmas it’s been hard to schedule any time from him partly because he’s been ill and also he’s got a lot of other work, I guess.
     
    So we agreed to part company amicably, we agreed a payment for his completed the work, and my brother Chris stepped into the breach.  Chris then spent a long day finishing off the skirtings, which really meant doing all the tricky mitre corners which had been left until last plus a few straight runs. For a simple, relatively open-plan house we had a surprising number of corners!  Chris then went round and grouted 130 m of skirting.  Great job Bro!
     
    We decided to hire a recommended specialist silicon guy to apply silicon around the bottom and the top of the skirtings, 260m in total. He did a great job, and very quickly.  He is certainly getting a good rate for it!  But I’d agreed a fixed rate and he did it to a good standard so, fair enough… Specialist siliconing is obviously where the money is these days!
     
    Anyway, all our tiling and skirtings grouting and siliconing is now officially… done!

     

     
    Kitchen
    Chris the carpenter has finished off all the outstanding jobs in the kitchen, including the final fit of ‘wall of ovens’ in the alcove where they sit.  I’d been pondering the best approach to ventilation and with Chris’s help we came up with a what I think is a neat solution - creating a slender recessed ventilation strip above the ovens which is there but doesn’t catch the eye.  Chris also fitted the plinths which make the kitchen look finished rather than work-in-progress.
     
    The Quooker tap is now powered up in as well as plumbed in and we have been using it for the first time over the past couple of days. I have to say I’m really impressed; it works really well and feels and looks great too.
     
    Electrics
    Progress on second fit electrics has been frustrating, I think mainly because our electricians have got too much work on and they’re trying to juggle multiple jobs. Also to be fair, our installation has been more complex than originally envisaged due to choices we’ve made.
     
    The rate of progress hasn’t been a problem until recently but it’s begun to feel like we might not have the electrics ready to move in:   
     

     
    However, our main man Darren was in this week and made good progress, and we now have power and lighting throughout the house.  All the kitchen equipment is powered up and whilst there could still be a fair few jobs outstanding after we move in (e.g. external lights) it’s clear that the electrics are going to be working well enough for us to move in as planned on the 23rd.
     
    Yesterday Nick, the electric contractors boss, demonstrated the seamless switch-over from mains to battery by switching off the mains supply without causing so much as a flicker to the lights.  I wanted to try it myself when we had friends round later but Mrs P wouldn’t let me: “it’s not a toy” apparently.
     
    I was wondering whether we would actually know if we had a power cut, but the battery app sends us a message to say the power’s tripped over to batteries and then another one when the power is restored and it’s tripped back.
     
    I was a bit worried that, with the electrical work ‘growing’ and there being a fair few extras that we’ve asked for, the final bill was going to be way over the original quote. 
     
    So I have been badgering Nick to give us a revised quote.  He has finally done that, and yes, it’s going to cost us a bit more than he first quoted but actually not nearly as much more as I feared. Which is a result!
     
    Joinery
    Meanwhile on the joinery front, the oak we ordered to use as full width door jambs and the pocket door frame sections have all arrived.  Mrs. P. has Osmo oiled them, fitting has started and they should all be installed by the time we move in.
     
    Rear landscaping
    Lots of activity is now underway on our rear landscaping. We have a fall of about 1.5 metres from the house finished floor level to the far end of the “residential garden“ part of our land.  As I am a wheelchair user we are naturally wanting to have step free access to as much of that as possible.
     
    The garden design we have involves level access from the house to a terrace seating area, then 1:20 ramps down to three different further small seating areas between planting areas.  That obviously involves quite a lot of low retaining walls and ramped paths.
     

     

     

     

     
    So given we are in the middle of the winter monsoon season, it was clearly an ideal time to start work on those walls, paths and terraces!
     
    Ashley and his team have made great progress despite the weather, as you can see - although if their landscaping work ever dries up (ha ha!) they could probably get good employment as World War 1 battle scene recreators.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Front landscaping
    If the back garden looks like the Somme, in front of the house the parking/turning area is looking much more civilised.
     
    We debated about how to finish the surface, considering a number of options, but in the end we’ve gone for simple tarmac. Gravel is a no-no for the wheelchair, resin bonded is too expensive, brick pavers we don’t like the look of and need regular cleaning.  In a previous house we had hot-rolled grit into tarmac and that does look nice but we found it collects dirt and is a recipe for bringing grit into the house, so we’re keeping it simple this time.
     
    The base coat is down and the front apron is being done tomorrow(!).  The aim is to leave the top coat until all the heavy work in the back is done, to avoid damaging it.  Ashley has told us several times we’re doing it the wrong way round - we should have started at the back and worked forward - but having that base coat down is transformational for me - no more wheeling through lumps of clay or getting bogged down in loose type 1.
     
    Preparation under way:

     

     

     
    Troy anointing the prepared sub-base. "May God bless her and all who walk/wheel on her":

     
    Laying down the blacktop:

     

     

     

     

     
    First flower bed planted!

     

     
     
    Focus for the next two weeks:
    Moving in!  
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this past two weeks: 45
    Contractor days on site since build start: 572
     
    Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Moving in on 23rd February.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
    Hanging that toilet Whether the electrics would be ready Finishing the skirtings  
    Current top issues and worries:
    Packing! (I expect Mrs P. has it all under control ;-))
  3. Benpointer
    As promised, I spared you a Week 14 blog due to our visit to Yorkshire for a wedding and catch-up with old friends.  It was lovely to do something unrelated to the house and it made us realise how all-consuming our build has become.  We will definitely try to have some more non-house time through the rest of the build.
     
    That said, it’s back to the matter in hand:
     
    UFH
    Two weeks ago the guys were battling through laying the floor insulation in preparation for laying the UFH pipes, ahead of the screed pour which was booked for 3rd September.
     
    In the end it was a very close-run thing - the UFH pipes were ready by 13:30 and the screed arrived 10 minutes later.  Too close for comfort really:  Tight project scheduling is one thing but the stress of 11 cubic metres of unusable liquid screed potentially being dumped on the site was a very uncomfortable feeling.   
     

     

     
     
     

     

     
    Screed
    Once started, the screed pour itself (by Williams Walls and Floors) seemed to go very smoothly (hah!) and it looks fantastic.   We have had 65mm of Cemfloor Therm liquid screed laid.  Still in stressed-out mode I woke up before 4:00am the next day worrying about what would happen if the pipes floated up or the screed was laid too high (they didn’t; it wasn’t).  (I helpfully woke Mrs P. too just so that she could share the experience - she seemed not to appreciate it.)
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    We left the house shut up for 24 hours as instructed by the screed man Rob Williams.  On Friday morning I went over and opened up to find we had a sauna!  All perfectly normal apparently, but the combination of heat from the screed setting reaction, the well-insulated relatively air-tight house and (presumably) 1000’s of gallons of water created an atmosphere that made Singapore seem like a desert.
     

     

     
    Sadly, I failed to get any photos of the clouds created as the windows were opened and the saturated ‘sauna’ atmosphere hit the September morning.   By the afternoon, with all the windows and doors open the inside of the house seemed perfectly normal again.
     
    Seeing the screed poured in a few hours and reflecting on how fiddly all the underfloor insulation had been to lay, made me wish there was an option for a poured floor insulation - it would surely have been so much less effort and faster?
     
    Edit: There is apparently - https://www.rtu.co.uk/assets/documents/RTU-Ultrabead-Brochure.pdf.  I have no idea if it is any good, what the pros and cons are etc, and it is too late for us but if we were doing another build (Mrs P: “We’re not!”), I’d certainly look into it.
     
    Render
    Just to make sure we weren’t missing an opportunity to get some outside work done while the focus was on the floor, we had booked our render team (Caesar Spray-rend and Plastering) to start boarding up the 50% or so of the external walls that are to be rendered (the other 50% will be vertically clad in Brimstone Ash).  So on week 14 the STS construction boards were fixed to battens and last week the base coat was sprayed and smoothed out.  It already looks a lot better just for some of the shiny breather membrane walls being covered up.  We now have to wait a week before the top coat can be applied.  We’re using EcoRend Thincoat for anyone who is interested.
     

     

     

     

     
    And finally…
    Marcus from our super groundworks team came in on Thursday to set all the stainless steel oak post brackets in concrete on top of their support pillars, and also to lay the smoothest, tidiest concrete slab you have ever seen to rest our ASHP on.
     

     

     

     
    …Which is just as well because the ASHP arrives on Monday!
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this week: 22
    Contractor days on site previous week: 16
    Contractor days on site since build start: 249
     
    Budget: Getting more challenging tbh - beginning to eat into the contingency - mainly costs I hadn't properly estimated. 😱
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week:
    UFH pipes laid. Screed down!   
    Current top issues and worries:
    Insulation - the additional ceiling insulation is still a worry - scheduled for w/c 15th September.  
     
     

     

  4. Benpointer
    Week 36
     
    When I posted the previous blog two weeks ago we were looking ahead to activity on the bathrooms and electrics, and also to making a start on the landscaping.  Since then it’s been a fortnight of progress and challenges… 
     
    Bathrooms
    My brother Chris made brilliant progress throughout the week he was with us.  A toilet, basin and shower screen were fitted to finish the guest ensuite, a basin and shower screen fitted in the family bathroom to finish that room, and the bath, hand shower and basin were fitted in the master ensuite.
     

     

     
    It was all going really well.  Too well.  And sure enough  disaster struck while fitting the wall-hung shower toilet in the master en-suite.
     
    We* were gently tightening the bolts that hold the toilet to the frame when there was a ‘ping’, then a crack appeared around one bolt boss, before replicating itself on the other boss, and then the whole pan came away from the frame in a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.
     
    Which was a bit disappointing, to say the least.
     
    (*Yes, I was 'helping' - that could be the true root-cause of the problem to be fair.)
     

     
    That white rectangle on the wall is a foam pad which is meant to cushion the pan against the wall to be trimmed away after fitting.  We obviously never got that far.
     
    The actual cause proved to be a mismatch between the TECE wall frame instructions and those supplied with the GSI Ceramica WClean toilet.  We followed both sets of instructions as closely as you ever can follow these modern 'pictogram', wordless instructions.  
     
    Sadly, this led to the pan being inadequately supported directly behind the bolt bosses and the pan shattered as the bolts were tightened and the stresses rose in the ceramic.
     
    Here's the template the TECE frame instructions encourage you to cut out around.

     
    Which leaves you with an unfortunate void around the bolt holes.

     

     
     
    Of course, as soon as it happened we both kicked ourselves for not spotting the problem beforehand. At that point, I wished I had bought a Geberit frame and toilet as I originally intended rather than being persuaded by the bathroom showroom that these were better products.
     
    In fairness to the showroom (Island Bathrooms in Salisbury) they immediately agreed to supply a replacement pan, which arrived this week and we will have another attempt to fit it when my brother is back with us next week - first making sure that those bolt bosses are fully supported! 
     
    Fingers-crossed!
     
    Notwithstanding that disappointment, as well as all the great bathroom progress Chris found time get the kitchen sink and Quooker tap, and the utility sink all plumbed in too!  
     
    Landscaping
    Ashley Ralph, our landscaper, made a start on our external landscaping during the wettest January for years!  (We had 259mm - over 10” - of rain in the month in our corner of Dorset.)
     

     

     
    Having temporarily turned our relatively tidy site into a recreation of the Battle of the Somme, he has quickly got a good covering of type 1 packed down and the site looks relatively tidy again.  In fact tidier than it did before.  To be fair, Ashley does keep things very tidy.
     
    Concrete pad for a future potential car port.

     

     

     

     
    The plan is to tarmac most of the front to make vehicle and wheelchair access nice and easy. We did consider a layer of hot-rolled grit over the top, which we did in our previous house and which looks attractive but when it’s not being walked into the house the grit collects dirt over time and becomes impossible to keep clean.  So tarmac it is.
     
    Behind the house is more complicated with a fall of 1.6m over 17m of garden. To make that as wheelchair accessible as possible we have an intricate plan of terraces, ramps, dwarf retaining walls and planting beds which we’re hoping Ashley can install in our relatively compact garden.   This mini-project could be running for some time!
     

     

     

     
    Cladding
    Alan, chippie No. 1, came in for a week and all the timber wall cladding is now done!  All that remains now on the cladding front is for some of the soffits including those under the front and rear roof canopies, to be clad.  The chippies may need to perfect the art of hovering above in-progress landscape works while they do that (!)
     

     
    Electrics
    Electricians seem to have become a bit scarce, which is a worry.  To be fair we had two in the week before last, and a lot of lights were connected up but no significant milestones seem to have been reached.  We still have a lot to get through to have a fully wired house before we move in on the 23rd February.  And no electricians are planned on site until 9th Feb, so this is becoming a concern.
     
    Tiling
    We’ve also struggled to get our tiler in to finish off the porcelain skirtings - a couple of planned visits cancelled due to illness.  Whilst we could move in with the skirtings as they are now it is obviously preferable not to be trying to finish them off with our furniture in the room.  A ‘plan B’ is emerging to allow us to get this one over the line without relying on our principal tiler, who although good does not appear to be in great health right now.
     
    Internal joinery
    We have some further oak sections on order to give us enough material to finish the pocket door frames in oak rather than the primed MDF Eclisse supplied.  Also since we have decided to opt for full width door stops to give a rebated door frame look, we are waiting for those to arrive so that they can be fitted.
     
    The oak door frames and architraves really do set the doors off well - we’re very pleased with them.
     

     
    Focus for the next three weeks:
    Electrics, still lots to do.  Plumbing - that wall hung toilet! Landscaping - onwards and downwards. Packing - it has to be done , because… … we’re going to be moving in in three week’s time!  
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this past two weeks: 32
    Contractor days on site since build start: 527
     
    Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Moving in booked for 23rd February.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
    N/A
     
    Current top issues and worries:
    Whether the electrics will be done in tome for our move. Hanging that toilet.
  5. Benpointer
    Hi everyone.  It’s been four weeks since the last blog instalment and despite the Christmas and New Year break, quite a lot has happened.
    Apologies for a somewhat scattergun approach but I wanted to try to cover all the progress.
     
    Kitchen units and appliances
    Last time, just before Christmas, carpenter Chris was halfway through fitting our kitchen units. That work was completed during the first week of January in readiness for…
     
    Kitchen worktops
    Martin from Langford Stone came out to template the kitchen/pantry/utility units for our worktops.  While he was at it, we also asked him to template for several granite surfaces for our master ensuite.
     
    A week later Langford’s team of four fitters arrived with some very large slabs of granite, which they duly fitted without issue and to a high standard.  We’re very pleased with the results:
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Internal doors
    Chris and Alan fitted the four pocket doors to the sliding gear installed back in September, before plastering.  They then fitted the oak door linings for the 8 conventional doors and hung those doors. The door linings required some thinking about because we originally opted for rebated linings but these have had to be reinforced with ply backing to give enough meat to confidently screw in hinges that can take the weight of the (44 kg!) doors.  We hope still to get the rebated look by fixing full width door jams, which we’ve now ordered.
     
    The doors themselves are 33” Avon Oak fire doors from Todd doors. We opted to buy them unfinished because the factory finish doors felt a bit ‘plasticky’. Mrs P. has done a brilliant job with sealing them with Osmo Door oil and we are very pleased with the results - they have a lovely look and feel to them . The doors supplied were really good quality - no need for further sanding before oiling and  no complaints from the carpenters (except about the weight!)
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Troy Pointer supervising operations:

     
    2nd fix electrics
    After a pause at the beginning of January, Darren is now back with us and making good progress on the second fix electric.
     
    Skirtings
    Steve, our tiler came in to fix the porcelain skirting tiles and was able to make a start, but the rethink needed for the door linings meant we are not ready to fix all the architraves just yet.  So he has promised to come in on a future Saturday to finish those off. The skirting tiles themselves are 900 mm long and have more of a bow in than we were expecting (well I was expecting them to be flat to be honest!). Steve was worried that they would not look great but in reality unless you look along the line of the wall you can’t really notice the bowing and we are happy to live with it (especially since we can’t think of any sensible alternative at this stage).  Once grouted or caulked to the same colour as the walls we don’t think it will be an issue.
     

     

     

     
    Ensuite boxing-in
    I’ve been whiling away the odd hour here and there preparing the ensuite for final fix by my brother next week. There’s quite a lot of pipework which needs to be hidden - given the way the house design squeezes three bathrooms into a small space, the stud walls are just not wide enough to take it all. So my idea was to create some boxing-in using spare 4x2s to hide the pipes, provide some built-in cupboard space, and form a framework for timber cladding on the lower walls.
     
    Sure, I could have asked the chippies to do this and they’d have done a great job in no time... but where’s the fun in that?
     
    For the timber cladding itself we’re going be using some of the left over Brimstone heat treated ash we have used to clad the outside of the house. This time of course we'll seal it with Osmo oil.  The quality of that Brimstone Ash is too good to waste solely on the outside.  You will hopefully be able to see from future blogs whether this bathroom design idea has been successful or not but for now here's some 'boxing-in'.
     

     
    Moving in next month!
    I mentioned in the previous blog that we had brought forward our target moving in date to the end of February. We now have a removal date booked of 23rd February. - so only five weeks away!  We should be fine, we could probably move in and camp now if needed. The main things we really need sorting are a fully working bathroom, electrics, and ideally smooth and solid access to the front of the property.  Hopefully we can get all that done in the next five weeks.
     
    Council tax
    Mrs P. and I were wondering about bin collection and also how soon the council would want to start charging council tax, when lo and behold the man from the council turned up. He explained the process, gave us a form, and told us we could request bins (for which we have to pay a £81 one off charge - of course we do).
     
    Since we will be ceasing the council tax liability on our rented house, we are happy to start paying council tax on the new house. The council man said it could take three or four months to get a council tax valuation but they will backdate the charge to our move in date.   
     
    Address
    After seven months(!) Royal Mail have finally got round to adding our address to their postcode checker database. They say on their website that they will only add it when you move in but as anyone who has self-built will know it’s really very difficult to arrange deliveries, service installs, etc. if your postcode is not on that Royal Mail database. My advice for anybody starting a self-build is get that address registered as early as possible.
     
    Fibre
    Another service that’s taken seven months from request to delivery is our full fibre to the house. Many of you will know this is a new build building control requirement for England, so we requested (and paid for it) back in June.  It finally arrived last week.   Unfortunately we didn’t get added to the Openreach fibre database straight away so no service providers could offer us a fibre service until that was resolved earlier this week.  We’re hoping to get the broadband service up and running next week.
     
    Focus for the next two weeks:
    Electrics, still lots to do.  We’re hoping to have two sparkies in for most of next week so they should make a lot of headway. Plumbing. My brother Chris is back for 4 days next week and will focus on getting our master ensuite up and running, the kitchen & utility sinks fully plumbed in, and then if there’s time progress on the family bathroom and guest ensuite. Landscaping. Ashley, our garden landscaper is making a start on the front landscaping from Monday.  We’re really looking forward to seeing the crushed aggregate disappear under something more wheelchair-friendly.  
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this past four weeks: 47
    Contractor days on site since build start: 495
     
    Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Moving in booked for 23rd February.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
    N/A
     
    Current top issues and worries:
    None.
  6. Benpointer
    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

     
    Kitchen floor down - kitchen units arriving!

     
     

    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.
     

     

    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.
     

     

     

     

     
    Great work Bro!

     
    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.
     


     
    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.
     

     

     
    Chris and Alan our carpenters:

     
    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.
     

     
    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

     
    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?
  7. Benpointer
    We are now in that phase where we can see the finish line not far away but, bizarrely, the closer we get the more there seems to be to do. 
     
    The list the jobs that yet need to be done is a bit depressing; reflecting on all we have achieved so far is much more uplifting.  We are certainly in a significantly better position as we approach the end of the year than we expected to be when we started the project.
     
    Work has continued in the run up to Christmas and several trades have asked if they can work some days during the holiday period (er… yes please!).
     
    We have sadly suffered a family bereavement this week which has naturally led to reduced focus on the house, so apologies if this week’s blog is a bit rambling.  We do find creating the blog helpful and therapeutic, so we’re inflicting it on you regardless!
     
    Cladding
    Alan and Chris have now completed the ash cladding at the front of the house and the scaffold is down - yay! The cladding looks quite dark at the moment but it should fade to silver over the next year where exposed to daylight.  It will be interesting to see how the silvering graduates under the soffits which will presumably remain darker for many years.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Kitchen
    Our carpenter Chris has started to install the kitchen, utility and pantry units.  In the past we’ve installed kitchens ourselves but various circumstances have meant we’ve not been in a position to do this and Chris is undoubtedly doing a better job than we could do.
     
    The main kitchen is bespoke from Husk Kitchens in Bristol and uses ply drawer fronts faced with Fenix.  Mrs P. is, as you would expect, Artistic Director and I defer to her on all colour choices (or else we would probably end up with beige/grey everywhere).  We both really like the effect now that we see the kitchen beginning to take shape.  Of course Mrs P. does have extraordinary good taste - she chose me after all!
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Our signature 'Wall of Ovens':

     
    Here's the utility room.  Mrs P. may have allowed me free rein with the colours on this one - I know my place 😉

     
     
    Electric second fix
    Darren has been progressing fixing of sockets switches and lights.  First lights fitted!
     

     

     
    Our batteries and inverters have finally arrived and been connected, so the solar panels we had fitted in July(!) are now actually generating for us. Annoyingly, OpenReach still haven’t installed the fibre, so we can’t monitor our generation in real-time just yet - the geek in me will have to wait a bit longer for that.   For those interested, we have 14.88kW of solar panels and 27.12 kWh batteries.   
     

     

     
     
    Focus for the next two weeks:
    Obviously a quieter period than usual but we expect there will still be progress in a number of areas:
    Floor tiling - Steve should be back over the holiday period to fix the porcelain skirting tiles.
    Second fix electrics - More progress expected on lights and switches.
     
    That depressing list of things to do:
    Kitchen worktops Porcelain skirtings Finish bathrooms (x3) 2nd fix Commission STP Electric 2nd fix including lights, switches, heating wiring centre, CCTV, PIRs… Install fibre to house Internal door linings, architraves Internal doors Hatches to loft storage areas (x3) Fitted wardrobes Rear timber cladding Cladding front and rear canopy soffits Front landscaping, including level access, highway apron, parking and turning Rear landscaping, including level access and garden lighting Final airtightness test ‘As built’ SAP report Building Control sign-off VAT reclaim! + probably others we haven’t thought of.
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 16.5
    Contractor days on site since build start: 458
     
    Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Breaking news! We are now aiming to move in at the end of February. So, a month earlier than previously planned.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
    Kitchen units are substantially in so will be ready for worktop templating.
     
    Current top issues and worries:
    None.
  8. Benpointer
    Generally a much less stressful week than last week with lots of great progress but all is not perfect - see below.
     
    Heating
    Last week's drama getting the UFH pipes laid just in time for the screed pour seems like a distant memory but as there had not been time for Ken to fit the manifold and pressure test, he came on site on Sunday evening (roping in his Dad as a helper) to get that done. 
     

     
    Thanks Ken - and Ken's dad!  A neat job completed...
     
    ... just in time for Paul and Shaun from Air2Heat who arrived on Monday to install and commission our Panasonic ASHP and cylinder - kit which also arrived on Monday.  It's almost like it was planned!  
     

     
    We have opted for a 7kW Panasonic Aquarea L-series Bi-Bloc with a 300 litre Panasonic cylinder and 50L buffer tank. 
     
    We're really impressed by the speed and neatness of the install: it's almost a shame the pipework has to be hidden behind the insulation.
     

     

     
    The external unit looks great and seems incredibly quiet - even when heating up that 300L cylinder from scratch.
     

     
    Although the heat pump is working we can't use it in anger at the moment as we have to have a slow temperature ramp up to prevent the screed from drying too rapidly.  The screed itself does seem to be drying out nicely with no issues.  None of the zone stats are fitted yet so the UFH is operating in open loop mode but in reality there is no demand anyway.  
     
    I would thoroughly recommend Paul Thorney at Air2Heat as an MCS ASHP supplier and installer.  He has been super-helpful throughout our heating journey.  Initially he was just going to provide an MCS commissioning umbrella service but his price for supply of the kit was good and in the end we asked him to do the install as well - and we're very happy with the result.
     
    Rendering
    Although the weather has been 'iffy' at best John Wheeler from Caesar Spray-Rend managed to find a window to prime our base coat and then spray the Ecorend Thin Coat topcoat in 'Scotch Stone'.  Again, we're very pleased with the result.  Once the timber cladding goes on the other sections (later, later!) we think the two finishes will work really well together.
     
    Before topcoat

     
    And after:

     

     

     

     

     

     
    John also put a sand and cement render round the block-work below DPC to tidy that up... Although Troy seems more interested in the stray soil-pipe bung than the render: 

     
    Electric 1st fix
    ...has started!  Unfortunately 1st fix electrics is not particularly photogenic but here are the sparkies Nick and Darren pretending to be hard at work to prove it's underway.  
     

     
    More on electrics to follow in the weeks ahead, I am sure.
     
    Decision time 
    So, good progress on a number of fronts but it's not all been plain-sailing.
     
    I have had to pull the plug on the team who were supposed to fit out additional wall and ceiling insulation.  They were supposed to complete in two weeks back in early August but the work didn't progress as well as they'd hoped we agreed they'd need to come back for a week with a bigger crew to finish off. They were due back last week but had to postpone by a week.  Then today, I find they can't make tomorrow and there's a lack of clarity about when and if they'd be in next week.  
     
    Unfortunately, we cannot afford to be chasing a slipping milestone because the ceiling insulation has dependencies: 1st fix electrics and then the plastering, both of which are on the critical path.  So I had to let them know that we weren't continuing with them.  They took it quite well to be fair; I suspect it may have been a relief.
     
    We are now going to switch to Plan B...  just as soon as I have worked out a Plan B.
     
    Seriously: always have a plan B.  
     
    Actually we have a plan B and a plan C, either of which will protect our schedule - we just need to decide which is the more palatable because they both have some downsides: either through higher costs or by reducing our planned insulation levels (which may be a bit OTT anyway).   In summary, Plan B - get the plasterers to fit insulated plasterboard; Plan C skip the additional roof insulation and let the u-value for that element increase from 0.09 to 0.152.  The latter of course still satisfies building regs and has a surprisingly small impact on heating requirements according to the Build Hub heat loss spreadie.  
     
    Conversations with our architect and SAP man next week to help decide.  Watch this space for further updates.
     
    Overall though, we both feel the we have made the right decision, and usually in these situations the danger is 'going with the flow' when the flow is really drift.
     
    And finally
    For the eagle-eyed amongst you who spotted that some plasterboard has magically appeared in the plant room... Have the plasterers started already?  
     
    No - they don't start until after 1st fix, of course, but the plant room presents a 1st fix v plasterboard conundrum - so who did we manage to rope in for some impromptu 'boarding out'?   Why, none other than Mrs P!  Seen here in action:
     

     
    Great job Mrs P. - good to see you wearing the Benpointer team hoodie!
     
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this week: 15 (I'm not counting Mrs P!)
    Contractor days on site since build start: 264
     
    Budget:  No change.
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week: 
    Worries about the ceiling insulation crew's ability to keep to the schedule. 
      Current top issues and worries:
    Replanning the approach to ceiling insulation. Plan B or plan C?  
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  9. Benpointer
    It’s now six months since we broke ground and it's fair to say we’re very pleased with the progress since we began.  We have of course been very lucky with the contractors we’ve had working on the project, right from the start with the great groundworks team and that’s continued pretty much throughout.  And we’ve largely avoided unexpected surprises and delays. 
     
    That was until a couple of weeks ago when we found that our screed was not dry enough to start laying the floor tiles https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/entry/1122-week-24-juggling-with-the-plan/
     
    Never mind, our decorator Steve Brady rescheduled some other work and came in a a week early.
     
    Decorating
    It took Steve and his son Tom just three days to mask and spray throughout - and what a transformation!  If you are willing to have one colour throughout this has to be the quickest way to go.
     
    Our thinking is that we will no doubt repaint rooms or individual wall in a range of colours in time but to allow us to move in as soon as possible we were happy to stick to one colour.  Steve and Tom sprayed a mist coat of diluted Armstead trade white straight on to the plaster followed by another coat of Armstead, then two coats of Dulux Diamond Matt, mixed to ‘Dimity’.  He then rollered over the walls which should help if we need to touch any paint up in the future (touching up spray finished paint by roller or brush doesn’t really work apparently).
     
    The results look great and we feel that it gives us a really solid paint job.  Spraying does use a lot of paint though, especially with our vaulted ceilings and high walls: 80 litres of the Armstead and then 80 litres of the Dulux.
     
     

     


     
     

     

     

     
     
     

     

     

     
     
     

     

     
    Steve and Tom our decorators:

     
    The final rollering:

     
     
    Tiling 
    Finally, by Thursday this week the screed reached a level where our floor tiler Steve Hillyard felt it was safe to start laying.  The relatively drier weather we had last week has no doubt helped, and with the MVHR system running and the UFH on low the air humidity in the house dropped below 40% (the day the plasterers  finished it was 98%).
     
    Our delays have no doubt disrupted Steve’s schedule and he’s worked through this weekend to catch-up, which we really appreciate.  The first tiles are looking great.  They are 900mm x 600mm Italian porcelain tiles from Pietra Wood and Stone near Bath.
     

     

     

     

     
    Focus for the next two weeks
    Floor tiling
    Bathrooms - my brother is with us for two weeks to make a start on out bathrooms.
    Cladding - the scaffolding we need the high cladding is now in place.
    Deliveries - bathroom, kitchen, appliances, door casings… all planned for delivery in the next couple of weeks.
    2nd fix electrics - should start in the next two weeks.
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 14
    Contractor days on site since build start: 396
     
    Budget:  No change - still a bit over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight:
    The screed is dry!
     
    Current top issues and worries:
    Nothing too concerning, which nice.
  10. Benpointer

    Week 24 - Juggling with the plan

    By Benpointer,


    General
    The plan for the two weeks just gone was to complete the plastering and start the floor tiling.  No issues with the first part, our team of plasterers have done a great job, see below.
     
    The floor tiles arrived more or less on schedule, and the tilers Steve and Kev turned up as planned.  However, when they checked the floor humidity to confirm it was ready to tile, the meter showed it was slightly over the required level.  I am a little unclear of the actual moisture numbers but their meter was showing an amber bar when they really need it to be green to be sure it is safe to tile.    
     
    The screed has been down for 63 days in an airtight house but that screed was 65mm thick on average so it was perhaps unsurprising it was borderline with the 1 day per mm drying time not quite being met.  (I have also seen a suggestion it should be 1 day per mm up to 50mm and 2 days per mm over, which would be 80 days!)  Also, of course it has been pretty humid outside throughout that period and the plastering has necessarily added more water inside the house.  No doubt that vapour control layer has been doing its job too preventing internal moisture getting into the structure.  To mitigate this we have had the UFH heating running very low but the plaster was drying too fast when we tried increasing the UFH temperature.  We have also had the windows open a lot of the time and for the past week we’ve been running the MVHR system to ventilate the house.  But despite that, the floor is not quite dry enough.
     
    Of course, the plan is all very tight and was meant to be: floor tiling last week and next, spray paint w/c 17 November, then 2nd fix electric and plumbing is booked from w/c 24 November.
     
    So what to do?
     
    Disruptive as it must be for the floor tilers, they were very good about it and suggested seeing if we could get the decorator in a week early and then they’d work long days to try to get the tiling done by the 24th or thereabouts.   I called the decorator (another Steve) and after he had made a few calls he confirmed that he could indeed come in next week, Monday to Thursday. 
     
    So that’s the revised plan. Hopefully by Thursday the floor will be dry enough to start tiling.  If not well… that’s a bridge to be crossed later.
     
    Plastering
    Despite the frustration of the (admittedly tight) plan being disrupted, we are taking comfort from the fact that the boarding out and skimming is all complete.   Dan, Sam and Brandon, our team of local plasterers have done a brilliant job for us and we’d be really happy to recommend them to anyone needing a plastering team in the Dorset, Wilts, Somerset border area (PM me if you want their details).
     
    Brandon, Sam and Dan:

     

     

     

     
     
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Cladding
    The end of last week also saw the return of our chippies Alan and Chris who made a start on the timber cladding.  We’re using Brimstone Ash from Vastern and Alan and Chris made a start with the soffits first.
     

     
    Focus for the next two weeks
    Spray painting throughout. Floor tiling Cladding (we are going to need some more a scaffolding for the high cladding, so that is hopefully coming next week).  
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 29
    Contractor days on site since build start: 382
     
    Budget:  No change - still a bit 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:
    Unsurprisingly: Will the floor be dry enough to tile?!
  11. Benpointer

    Week 22 - The best-laid plans…

    By Benpointer,


    General
    A principal role of the project manager is surely to deal with the unexpected - for example, when a key team member is ill and out of action.  But what happens when the project manager is laid-up?
     
    Following an ‘incident’ (all my own fault), I have spent the past week unexpectedly in hospital.  That was definitely not in the plan.  Fortunately I am home again now but largely ‘confined to barracks’ for the next month or so.  At the moment I cannot even visit the plot, although I hope to be able to make the occasional visit over the coming weeks.
     
    As you can imagine this is deeply frustrating.  Worse still is the realisation that my lack of hands-on project management has made absolutely no difference to the pace of progress (well actually, it may have increased without my involvement, tbh).  Curious.
     
    The main thrust over the past two weeks has been carpentry, ventilation ducting, boarding-out and plastering.  And fortunately we have two excellent chippies and a great team of plasterers in.  We really have been very lucky with our trades; here’s hoping it continues through the remainder of the project.
     
    Mrs P. has been magnificent during this period too, keeping the show on the road by constantly stocking drinks and snacks, regular runs to Screwfix, keeping the site tidy, as well as fixing all the internal acoustic insulation.  Not to forget planting all our new trees!  All while running back and forth to the hospital 20 miles away to keep the Project Manager sane and stocked with essentials (edible food mainly).
     
    So, great progress has been made despite (or because of) the absent PM, and we continue on plan.
     
    Ventilation ducting and caprentry
    I had some wild idea that Mrs P. and I might fit the MVHR ducting but the least said about that the better.  Fortunately, as noted in the previous blog, our chippies Chris and Alan stepped in to run the ducts very neatly to all the rooms.
     

     

     

     
    Even though it’s a new build we’ve found it tricky to work out how to run the 14 semi-rigid 75mm ventilation ducts from the MVHR to all the rooms whilst avoiding obvious ‘boxing in’ sections around and across rooms, which would have detracted from our desired clean lines.  Partly that’s because it’s single storey and most of the ceilings are vaulted right up to the insulated roof.  If we did another build (Mrs P: “We’re not!”), I’d definitely look to use those open web joists to good effect for ducting.
     
    But in the event it’s been left to Chris and Alan to ‘magic away’ all the ducting behind invisible false walls, whilst impacting the overall room sizes as little as possible.  And a splendid job they have made of it.
     

     
    The ducting plan requires seven supply and seven extract ducts attached radially to two 8-port manifolds close to MVHR unit itself.  We chose to site the manifolds 3m away from the MVHR unit in a void above the kitchen alcove which will hold our built-in ovens, connecting the manifolds to the MVHR unit with 160mm rigid steel spiral ducts, which themselves needed to be hidden away behind a false wall in the utility room.
     

     

     

     

     
    Acoustic insulation
    As noted above, Mrs P. is an absolute whizz at fitting this.  I'd like to think that she's enjoyed it but, um, I'm not brave enough to ask.  Anyway, it's going in to every stud wall as soon as there's board on one side to fit it against:
     

     

     
    Boarding-out and plastering
    The main thrust over the two weeks has been the room by room boarding-out and plaster skimming.  12.5mm board to the walls, and 37.5mm insulated plasterboard to the ceilings.
     
    The plastering team - Dan, Sam and Brandon - have been great.  Particularly pleasing is that they are alert to problems and think about the finished product, raising any questions or concerns so that they can be resolved rather than simply plastering over them, so to speak.  For example, questioning whether a pendant right by a wall rather than centrally in the room was what we wanted (it wasn’t, the cable had been dropped in the wrong place).
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    We are now about 2/3rds of the way through the plastering and it's making an amazing transformation - turning a house frame into something that begins to feel like a home.
     
    Tree-planting
    Remember all those trees delivered in the last blog?  Well Mrs P. got them all planted with the help of our landscape man Ashley, and they are really looking great.
     

     

     
     
     

     

     

     
    Focus for the next two weeks
    ...Will be on completing the plastering and then our floor tiler Steve should be making a start on the 170m2 of porcelain floor tiles.  We thought about using engineered wood in some rooms but in the end we decided to have the same limestone effect tile all the way through and will use rugs to provide additional interest.  Eight pallets of tiles are due to be delivered next Tuesday.
     

    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 42
    Contractor days on site since build start: 353
     
    Budget:  No real change - still over budget but potentially using a little less of the contingency than previously.  The benefit of an absent PM possibly 😉
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight: 
    N/A  
    Current top issues and worries:
    A fortnight ago I said "Nothing too pressing - it'll be something we haven’t thought of, probably."  Well that was prescient!  Current top issue: getting myself back fully fit - otherwise, how will the project manage without me?!  
     
     
  12. Benpointer
    Two weeks since the last blog and there’s a lot to cover - but lots of pictures too, so persevere!
     
    The main issues and concerns two weeks ago were 1. how well the airtightness test would go, and 2. keeping ahead of the plasterers.  
     
    The good news is: both of those concerns can be consigned to the bin.
     
    Airtightness
    As previously reported, we had engaged Aerobarrier to test, spray their magic mist, then retest the airtightness of our house.  Prior to their visit they asked us to send video walkthroughs of the house.  Because of concerns we had about how well the airtight membrane had been fitted and taped, which the videos did nothing to dispel, I asked Josh from Aerobarrier to plan some extra time for them to re-tape some of the wall ceiling interfaces, for an agreed price.
     
    The Aerobarrier team duly turned up as planned - Josh plus two others.  After a few hours taping the house, the initial airtightness test gave a disappointing if not entirely surprising 3.2 ACH - go enough to satisfy Building Regulations but above our target of 1 ACH. But after running the acrylic misters for a couple of hours the airtightness improved to 0.8 ACH  - an 80% improvement which we are obviously very pleased with.
     
    Aerobarrier left the place quite tidy, they had masked the horizontal surface on window frames, door handles etc.  The only weird result was the screed floor was left as sticky as a dodgy Wetherspoons.  A week later and the stickiness has more or less gone though.
     
    No photos of the process in action I’m afraid, tricky to get inside with all that mist flying around.
     

     
    First fix electrics
    …is now complete!  Power, lighting, PIRs, smoke detectors, data cables, room stats, TV… there are a lot of cables threaded round our walls.  We’ve had a great team plugging away at this for a few weeks - Nick, Martin, but especially Darren, who installed the majority of cables and boxes, have done a super job.
     
    Carpentry
    In parallel our two chippies Chris and Alan have been making sure various false walls and ceilings have been put in place ready for the plasterers.  They have also fitted three of our four pocket door frames - just one more to install next week.
     

     
    Somebody also needed to run the MVHR ducts and fit the vent plenums to the rooms the plasterers were planning to start with.  This seemed like a golden opportunity for Chris and Alan to acquire some new skills.  I am not sure it was high on their wish list to be honest but they cracked on with it nonetheless.  Regular free breakfast baps still works wonders when you’re asking people to go the extra mile.  
     

     

     

     

     

     
     
    Acoustic insulation
    I could see that Mrs P. was itching to get involved with something and fortunately someone needed to push all the Rockwall acoustic insulation in to the internal stud walls.  Luckily as it’s Rockwall rather than glasswool no further itching was involved.  Anyway, Mrs. P has done a great job, as you can see.
     

     

     

     
    Plastering
    All of the above were things we needed to have done (or at least done enough) for the 8th of October, which is when our plasterers Dan, Sam and Brandon were booked to start.  They duly turned up as planned and we had enough of the rooms ready for them to get started.  In the plan, all the carpentry work would have been completed before the plasterers started but they seem happy enough to board out then skim one room at a time as the carpenters keep ahead of them.
     
    The initial focus has been on the boarding out bedrooms 1 and 2 and the bathrooms and the early progress bodes well for the rest of the task which we aim to complete by the end of October… ready for the floor tiler!
     

     

     

     

     

     
    In other news…
    Our timber cladding has been delivered.  We’re using  Brimstone Ash from Vastern near Swindon https://www.vastern.co.uk/timber-cladding/brimstone-ash/  which we will be having fixed vertically.  Once Alan and Chris have finished all the internal work required for the plasterers the plan is for them to move on to the external cladding - assuming they haven’t had enough of us by that stage.  More breakfast baps may be required!
     

     

     

     

     
    We have also had a number of trees delivered, which Mrs. P. was strangely much more interested in than she was in the pallets of plasterboard or multi-finish skim!  🤷‍♂️
     

     

     

     

     

     
    And finally, I have bought a new toy… a Topdon infrared camera to plug in to the iPhone.  Cue quizzical look from Mrs P. “er… and you needed this for what exactly?” 
     
    Good question Mrs. P, but I have at least been able to check that the UFH loops are all working:
     

     
    During the next two weeks...
    … we hope to be getting plastered!
     
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 32
    Contractor days on site since build start: 311
     
    Budget:  No change - still over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight: 
    How well the airtightness test will go. Keeping ahead of the plasterers.
      Current top issues and worries:
    Nothing too pressing - it'll be something we haven’t thought of, probably.
  13. Benpointer

    Week 18 - Progress on many fronts

    By Benpointer,


    General
    Week 18 - Progress on many fronts
     
    It feels like the build has entered a different phase now that the structure is fundamentally in place and watertight so I am going to drop to fortnightly blogging, hopefully with enough progress to ensure there something to cover in each blog:
     
    Since the last blog (week 16) we’ve been busy on a number of fronts, a lot of which is geared to being ready for the plasterers who are due to start on 8th October.
     
    First fix electrics
    I think we must be closing in on a kilometre of cable now installed: power, lights, room stats, data, PIRs… there seems to be a lot more to do than there used to be when we did our last big project.  Our electrician Darren has been toiling away every day and making good progress - he’s certainly far enough through that for the plasterers to start.  Not very photogenic though, first fix electrics, but here goes anyway:
     

     

     
    Carpentry
    We’ve got a surprisingly long list of jobs that need to be done by Alan and Chris our chippies, including wall and ceiling battening, walls and ceiling studwork to create space for ventilation ducts and plumbing, pocket door frames.  A bout of covid has put them behind schedule but they still seem (reasonably) confident they can be ready for the plasterers.
     
    Double-skinning the wall between the Bed 1 ensuite and Bed 2 - to allow for a bathroom niche and for sound insulation between the rooms:

     
    Top part of wall is external, so has extra insulation; lower part is not (it's a complicated roof!) but has extra studwork to avoid a step in the wall:
     

    MVHR
    Mrs P. and I decided to have a go at fitting the MVHR unit (ok, I decided, Mrs P. humoured me).  
     

     

     
    Through the outside wall:

     
    Reaching high enough to cut the holes for external ducts is surely what a scissor lift trolley was really invented for:
     

     

     
    The scissor trolley only gets you so high but never fear, I bought a new toy - a bargain Nano Power Tower for £305 off of eBay!  
     

     
    Next project: wheelchair ramp to get onto it.
     
    Moving on - remember the zinc roof?
    Well, so did we.  And now the render is dry, Tom from Wessex Metal Roofing came back to fit the down pies and remove the remaining plastic protection.  We really like the roof.
     

     
    And the drainpipes:
     

     

     
    Garden started!
    Well sort of… the paddock area has been seeded.
     
    Before:

     
    After:

     
    Watching grass grow - far more interesting than watching paint dry.
     
    We’ve been shopping
    We’ve decided upon and ordered all our bathroom fittings from Island Bathrooms in Salisbury.  We liked the service from them and the prices seem quite keen.  Previously, we’ve used the likes of Victoria whatsitsname but it was quite nice to have someone who was prepared to come and look at our bathroom spaces and advise accordingly.
     
    We’ve also ordered our kitchen appliances - nine in total.  I created a list and sent it out to eight suppliers, a mix of the big online retailers and some local.  In the end it was Knees Electrical who are online and quite local (Trowbridge) who came out best, both in price and helpfulness.
     
    So with all that spend, it was nice to receive our £7,500 BUS grant for the ASHP.  I was quite impressed at how quickly we got it tbh - thanks once again to Paul Thorney at Air2Heat for getting the application through promptly.
     
    Ceiling insulation
    Week 16’s blog ended with the note that we had had to part company with the contractors who were supposed to fit the additional ceiling insulation.
    At that point we’d abandoned plan A and were looking at plan B - ask the plasterers to fit insulated plasterboard, or plan C skip the additional roof insulation.
     
    In the end we have gone for plan B and will fit 37.5mm insulated plasterboard to all the ceilings to ensure we meet the building regs 0.16 u-value.  I had thought that the blown cellulose within the roof would have been enough but there is no heat loss modelling readily available for open web joists filled with blown cellulose so we have to fall back on treating them as solid timber joists, which brings the roof u-value down (or up rather!).  The safe solution, which our SAP man is happy with, is the extra 25mm of PIR from insulated plasterboard.
     
    So that’s what we are doing.  Even with the price of insulated PB, it still works out cheaper including fitting than plan A.
     
    Next two weeks:
    The next two weeks should be exciting if things go to plan.
     
    We are due to have our Aerobarrier airtightness test and remediation done on 6th October.  I honestly have no idea how it will go.  I have doubts about the quality of the work done by the membrane team (the team we parted company with) but I am hoping Aerobarrier themselves will improve any deficiencies.
     
    The plasterers are due to start two days later.  Before then the first fix electrics should be completed, studwork should progress as will routing the internal MVHR ducts, largely through that studwork.
     
    Looks like we will continue to be busy!
     
    Dashboard:
    Contractor days on site this fortnight: 15 (I'm not counting Mrs P!)
    Contractor days on site since build start: 279
     
    Budget:  Slight improvement - still over budget but within contingency.
     
    Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this fortnight: 
    Replanning the approach to ceiling insulation.
      Current top issues and worries:
    How well the airtightness test will go. Keeping ahead of the plasterers.
  14. Benpointer
    Floor
    The main focus this week has been laying the DPM + 220mm PIR floor insulation + 50mm upstand insulation round all the walls, then the UFH perimeter expansion strips and the vapour separation layer ready for the UFH pipes.
     
    It’s proved intricate work.  Ken our first fix plumber assisted by local builders Barry and Jordan together have been working hard to complete the task by the end of August so that the liquid screed can go down during the first week in September.
     

     

     

     
    Early this week it looked like there was too much to do in the time available which added to everyone’s stress levels but by the end of the week the guys have made good progress and appear to be over half way through.  We have a little bit of contingency with the screed team who are happy at this stage to leave the pour date a bit flexible during w/c 1st September, so we are hoping we will be alright.
     
    One thing that is particularly pleasing is the meticulous attention to detail being applied by Ken, Barry and Jordan.  The PIR boards are being cut and fitted really tightly and the taping of joins and of the DPM is being done with real care.
     

     

     

     
     
    If we were doing this again (Mrs P: “We’re not”), I’d consider building the non load-bearing internal walls later, on top of the screed, which would have saved a lot of effort intricately cutting, fitting and taping DMP and insulation to those internal walls.  But no doubt a different series of problems would have ensued.
     
    Electricity supply
    Also this week, SSE came in and moved our electric supply from a meter box which used to cling to the side of a now-demolished wooden garage, inside to the plant room.  Two SSE engineers for two hours = 3p change from £700(!)  Hey-ho, it’s done now.
     
    External battens
    I reported that these were all done last week but I forgot about the cross-battening required for the vertical timber cladding.  Anyway, that was duly completed by Alan and Chris this week and the walls are ready to receive STS construction boards plus Ecorend thin coat render (for the rendered sections), and Brimstone Ash vertical timber cladding on the other areas.  I need to arrange delivery of the latter when we have sufficient space (the cladding is bought and being held by Vastern Timber pending delivery).
     
    But work on the backing boards for the render starts on Monday - yes I know it’s a bank holiday but the render people are keen, so who am I to stop them?
     
    Carpenter Chris also sorted out the ply protection for the front door and here's our lovely temporary door - the real one is safely wrapped up in the workshop.
     

     
     
    Scaffold
    Also keen to work the bank holiday weekend (well, ok, after a bit of encouragement) were the scaffolders, who arrived on Saturday morning to remove the scaffold, which they did in a few hours with no dramas.
     
    So we can now see the house! although it’s still looking very shiny-silver.  
     
    The plastic protection is remaining on part of the zinc pending the completion of the vertical cladding of the wall on the left
     

     
     
    And finally…
    Remember this rogue beam from last week’s blog?  Too close to the window reveal to allow us to fit an external blind…
     

     
    Well, I asked Matt at Turner Timber Frames to check with the engineers whether it and the one at the other end of that roof canopy are structural and it turns out they are not, they are purely 'cosmetic' and can be removed if we wish.   
     
    However, in the meantime we are wondering if we really need and external blind anyway(!)  Also, we need to talk to Alan the carpenter about how we are going to finish the roof in that area, and he’s away until next Wednesday.  The soffit will be clad with some of the Brimstone Ash but should the soffits be horizontal or follow the slope of the rafters?  Do we need some kind of clad gable at the end?  Also, how easy will it be to take that beam out?  It’s on joist hangers at the wall end but how is it fixed to the top of the oak posts?
     
    At least we have options to consider now though.
     
     
    Dashboard:
     
    Contractor days on site this week: 19
    Contractor days on site since build start: 211
     
    Budget: No change, running slightly over.
     
    Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    New measure - Number of bacon baps bought: 8 this week; 41 to date.
    These are ‘keeping people happy’ baps. Unfortunately there is no entry in the budget for them so I have explained to Mrs P. that they’ll have to come out of the kitchen budget.  Kitchen -> food, it’s obvious! (Although as Mrs P. points out: "No kitchen; no food" which is a concern.)   
     
    At any rate bacon baps from time to time feel like a worthwhile investment to keep everyone happy.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week:
    Scaffold is now down; the renderers can get at the walls!   
    Current top issues and worries:
    Insulation - the additional ceiling insulation is still a worry - going to need to schedule it in after the screed now.  
    PS We’re at a wedding next weekend so the weekly blog may be delayed or skipped.  I imagine you’ll all survive the blow.
  15. Benpointer
    Very busy again this week - we were probably running at the maximum people we can have on site without contractors getting in each other’s way.  On Thursday we had the carpenters, the insulation team, a roofer and the window installation team on site, and it’s not a very big site.  
     
    Windows and doors
    The main highlight of the week was the arrival of the windows and external doors on Thursday together with a team of four (from Ukraine, though the windows were made in Estonia).  The installation team led by Alex and Val were on-site by 7:30am and the windows arrived at 8:00.

     

     

     
    All the windows and doors went in smoothly over the next day and a half.  Barring a factory error, we knew they were going to fit as Alex and Val had done a pre-installation site visit three weeks ago.   There were no factory errors and everything fitted perfectly.  There was no fuss about our difficulties with getting all the requested scaffold changes done (we didn’t) - the team worked around the shortcomings.
     

     
     

     

     

     

     
    For those interested, the windows are triple-glazed, alu-clad, inward opening tilt and turn, Norrsken P33A units; the doors are S305A alu-clad, composite panels doors and the 4 metre lift and slide, which is also triple-glazed, is Norrsken’s S305A door.  The lift and slide door weighs in at 475kg and was moved by hand down a 500mm wide gap between our scaffold and our neighbour’s fence, then lifted manually into place.
     
    Here’s the sliding panel coming in first - it was stood to one side then fitted in once the frame and fixed panel were in place.
     

     

     
    I have to say, we remain very impressed by Norrsken and would recommend both the product and their installation subcontractors.
     
    Alex and Val suggested removing the front door, wrapping it and storing it safely, then cladding the frame in ply with a temporary door in place during the remainder of the build.  Seemed a sensible suggestion and that is what we aim to do next week.
     
    Here's Dima, Alex and Val from the Norrsken window installation team:
     

     
    Having the windows and doors in is obviously a big step forward but we had progress on other fronts too:
     
    External wall battens and roof
    Our carpenters Alan and Chris made a start on (and indeed finished) fixing the 50 x 50mm external ventilation battens and have pretty much finished.  (That’s messed up my wallplan - it’s not supposed to be done until next week!).  They also boarded out the plant room walls with 18mm ply - it seems sensible given the amount of kit we need to fix to the walls in there.  Just in time for the electricity supply, which SSE are coming next Tuesday to move into the plant room from the current external meter box.
     
    The slate edged, solar panel roof was finished this week too and now only needs the zinc mono-ridge capping/facia to be fitted (tomorrow) for the roofs to be complete.
     
    Insulation
    The team from Cornwall were back this week for what was supposed to be week two of two, to membrane and insulate the insides of the external walls and the underside of roof (below the blown cellulose layer).  Progress has been slow for a number of reasons and the work remains a long way from complete.  Still to do is the insulation on a couple of high walls and the whole of the roof.
     
    Partly, the job has proved a lot more involved than I or the contractors realised.  Also they were delayed this week by other work over-running, sickness, and a funeral.
     
    On the one hand, given it’s a fixed price contract, we should not be too worried.  But there is a potential impact on the schedule downstream if this work is not complete by about the 3rd week in September.  And for the next 3 weeks our focus shifts to the floor: fixing the DPM, insulation and UFH pipes, then pouring the screed.  So there is no access inside the house for the wall/roof insulation team until about 8th September.   
     
    I can see this getting messy but for the moment we are trying to keep to the current plan which leads to the plastering starting on 6th October.
     
    It might be time to fire up Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field (well, it worked for him... until it didn’t).
     
    Mistakes - I’ve made a few…
    Here’s a good one:  We planned to fit an external blind to the master bedroom window, partly to keep the solar gain down and partly for blackout purposes.   The idea was that the blind would be hidden in the timber cladding, out of sight when not in use.
     
    But despite poring over drawings and designs endlessly, I failed to spot that the roof canopy has a return beam that comes in 20mm above the window reveal - so there is no way we are going hide a blind cassette in there.
     

     

     
    I’m not actually sure what that beam is doing given there is no weight hanging off it and surely the roof trusses provide enough of a horizontal tie for the oak post?  It’s probably too much effort to challenge or change now though and Mrs P. and I both feel we can live without an external blind there (and fortunately our Part O Overheating assessment did not take the external blind into account but listed it as an optional improvement).  
     
    Other mistakes are either too minor, or too embarrassing to mention.
     
    Stress
    Yes, I can confirm that running a self-build is pretty stressful - on a par with the stress levels I used to experience running big IT programmes, I’d say.  I won’t deny we’ve both had a few sleepless nights worrying about what’s happening tomorrow, or the day after, or next week...
     
    Still, every task done is one we (hopefully) no longer have  to do.
     
      
    Dashboard:
     
    Contractor days on site this week: 26 (that’s our record week!)
    Contractor days on site since build start: 192
     
    Budget: No change, running slightly over.
     
    Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week:
    The windows are in! Our scaffold issues haven’t held the window installation up (though the scaffold itself did fortunately hold the window installers up!)  
    Current top issues and worries:
    Insulation - still lots to do, increasing potential for the dealys to impact our overall schedule. Scaffolding - still a worry, although we do now have a provisional date when the scaffolders plan to take the scaffold down, so fingers-crossed that holds. Scheduling future deliveries: insulation, battening, cladding, render boards, MVHR, UFH kit, ASHP, HW cylinder… all due in the next four weeks.
  16. Benpointer

    Week 11 - Solar PV panels.

    By Benpointer,


    General
    A quieter week this week but good progress nonetheless.
     
    The main build focus this week has been on the south-facing single pitch roof which is to be covered using in-roof solar panels with slates around the boundary, then zinc facias to match the rest of the roof.
     
    It seems the zinc roof guys don’t do slate roofs and the slate roofers don’t do zinc, so two roofing teams required.  Fortunately, both teams have been excellent: professional, tidy, friendly and turning up when they say they will.  All you could ask for really.  Also fortunately, the slate roofers (Pete and Dave from G M Spicers) will fit the solar PV panels under the guidance of our electrician Nick.
     
    And that has been the main activity this week - roofing battens and then the solar PV panels.  (I should just give a mention to Travis Perkins who supplied the cleanest, straightest 2 x 1 battens I have ever seen, barely a knot anywhere.  It’s a shame they’re florescent yellow - I wouldn’t be surprised if they glow in the dark.)

     
    The solar panels are by Solfit and clip together to form a watertight roofing surface - no trays, they just fit straight on the roofing battens.  They’re about 1790 x 1220mm and weigh 26kg each, so getting them on roof is no easy matter but the Pete and Dave seemed to manage ok.  We have 35 landscape format panels (5 rows of 7) at 425w each giving 14.8kW total generating capacity.   There are no doubt cheaper panels available but we have saved 77m2 of slate or zinc roofing, so that helps the economic case.

     

     

     

     

     
    By the end of the week, all the panels were on and the team had started to fix the slates around the edge so we can see how that will look.

     

     
    Also this week the zinc roofers stripped off the protective film from most of the roof so we can see that now and I have to say it looks really smart.
     

     

     
    Aside from the actual build work, we’ve made good progress on planning future activity with an number of trades now provisionally booked in including: UFH fix, screed, floor tiling, external rendering, airtightness test, decorating (single-colour spray all through), and bathroom fix, courtesy of my brother Chris!  (Yes, there are lots of other activities booked in too - but we didn’t book them this week!)
     
    The next few weeks remain very busy (hopefully) so watch this space for more progress…  Our windows and doors are due to be installed on Thursday and Friday, so if you see Kevin McCloud in the vicinity of north Dorset, please send him away!
     
     
    Dashboard:
     
    Contractor days on site this week: 10
    Contractor days on site since build start: 166
     
    Budget: No real change, running slightly over. I keep finding things I’d forgotten to include (e.g. decorating!). But I also realise I haven’t factored in our VAT reclaim yet.  So overall, all ok good.
     
    Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week:
    Velux flashings.  At last, we have solved the mystery worry of the Velux flashings.  More detail here for those really interested https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/44742-velux-flashings-for-standing-seam-zinc-roof/#comment-626128 but in summary: Velux twice got it wrong and the second time tried to sell us some flashings at £588 + VAT each, when we actually needed some £43 kits…also made by Velux.  The latter are now fitted, so all is resolved.  
    Current top issues and worries:
    Scaffolding - unresponsive scaffolding company.  The scaffolding needs to come down in two weeks time but I’m worried that we’ll be used as free storage and thus be held up. Scheduling future deliveries: insulation, battening, cladding, render boards, MVHR, UFH kit, ASHP, HW cylinder… all due in the next six five weeks.
  17. Benpointer
    A longer than usual blog - we’ve had a lot going on this week. 
     
    We definitely reached site capacity with five vans and seven contractors on-site on Thursday and Friday.   Seven pallets of cellulose bales arriving mid-week didn’t help space management either.
     

     
    The whole week got fairly stressful but somehow we seem to have got through it.  Phew!
     
    Membranes
    The plan was for the team from SW Insulation to fit the VCL membrane to the vaulted ceilings, cross-batten with 25x50mm in preparation for the cellulose fill, then move on to the wall VCL and the additional 50mm PIR and 38mm service cavity battens on the walls.  As I type that it sounds like rather a lot.  It proved to be too much indeed…
     
    Our lovely vaulted ceilings turned out to be a nightmare to fit membranes to.  Those, plus the ceiling cross-battens (essential to stop the cellulose blowing the membranes off the rafters) took three guys pretty much all week to do. So the walls will have to be tackled when the team return on the 11th August.
     

     
    We had no carpenters available Monday to Wednesday but on Thursday and Friday both Alan and Chris were on site.  Chris rushed around closing all the external gaps around the roof edges off with OSB, while Alan worked flat out trying to keep ahead of the zinc roofers (see below).  Closing off the roof edges was essential if we wanted to avoid the cellulose blowing into the rafter space and straight out across the neighbouring countryside.
     
    Before:
     

     
    After (ok, different section of roof but it all had to be done):
     

     
    The pressure to prepare for the cellulose fill was heightened a bit because I’d cunningly agreed to the cellulose team coming in on Saturday to fill the roof…
     
    Cellulose
    Ray and Devlin from JW Insulating arrived mid-morning on Saturday and worked straight through to 6pm to fill all the rafter spaces.  It wasn’t plain sailing - they were worried the membrane wouldn’t hold.  They had to put a some extra edge battens in to make sure the membrane did not get blown off due to the pressure of the fill and they had a couple of ‘blow-outs’ they had to fix.  Apologies for my terrible photography but here is Devlin blowing the cellulose in to one section:
     

     
    After filling the first section they checked the density by cutting out a cylinder of the filled cellulose and weighing it.  The core sample came out cleanly without disturbing the surrounding cellulose and after weighing they pushed it back in place and taped it up; it's amazing how the cellulose (which is simply pulped paper, treated to make it fire and mould resistant) seems to bind and 'set' in place once it is blown in.  The test showed we were a tad over target density.  I asked Ray whether that was a problem: “Not for you” was the reply.  I assume they could end up using more cellulose than planned but they were happy to carry on.
     
    By the end of the day we had a fully-filled roof.  Another milestone achieved!
     
    The photos don’t show it too clearly but the visual effect is as if there’s a vast silver duvet placed over the house.  You can see the patches they used to cover up the entry points for the 'blowing hose'.
     

     

     

     

     
    We hadn’t realised the cellulose blower was 3-phase and came with its own noisy diesel generator which ran for 9 hours non-stop. Not much fun for our neighbours - we’re hoping they forgive us.  Fortunately it was all done in one day, so peace was restored today (Sunday).
     

     

     
     
    Have we done the right thing?
    Choosing the best approach for insulating the roof has been tricky.  With hindsight, PIR between the rafters might have been easier (especially since I now know you can get open web rafters with PIR between the webs, so no voids to have to insulate).
     
    Alternatively, maybe we’d have been better to have a warm roof with 200-250mm of PIR on top of the open web-rafters, which would then have served as service spaces for cables, pipes and MVHR ducting.  That would have made for a very thick roof which would have been difficult to disguise though.
     
    But we liked the idea of cellulose fill for its eco-credentials and its noise insulation levels (especially with a zinc roof).   Having said that, to get to our target u-value (0.1 max) we still have to add another 100mm of PIR on the inside; we'll leave some channels to run the MVHR ducting through.  That’s the next job for South West Insulating when they return on the 11th August.
     
    Another option would have been to go for a more ‘Rolls-Royce’ solution like the timber frames offered by MBC, where they take responsibility for the roof insulation, VCL and airtightness.  But although our costs for adding the insulation and membranes are higher than expected, it’s still going to be a lot cheaper than the MBC frame.
     
    Anyway we* have made our decision so we have to stick with it and see it through; it’s definitely proving trickier to implement than anticipated though!  (*Well me - I can’t blame Mrs P.)
     
    Zinc roof
    The zinc roofers, Wessex Metal Roofing were also working through the week, finishing the main roof, fitting the small areas of zinc facade, and various facias, ridges, and gutters trims.   They also kept Alan busy on Thursday and Friday making sure the necessary ply backings were in place to keep ahead of them.
     

     

     
     
     

     
     
    Scaffold issues:
    One area of challenge we have is the scaffolding.  Ideally we need some limited changes. The scaffold company are in a fix though - too much committed work for the people available.  In fairness they are communicating well and being open about their issues: fitters unexpectedly leaving or having to be let go, holidays, potentially over-ambitious work commitments...
     
    I have some sympathy but I sense it is going to be nigh on impossible to get them out for a minor adjustment any time soon.  We’re going to need to think imaginatively to avoid being held up.  I'm going to imagine everything's finished and we've moved in - feels better already.
     
    Next week:
    Work should start on the south-facing monoridge roof which is mainly solar PV panels with some slates round the edges.  It’s a different roofing company because it seems the zinc roofers don’t do slates and vice versa.  They sounded busy and stressed too, so I’m hoping they turn up.   
     
    Aside from that, it’s a quiet week.  We were supposed to be doing the blown cellulose roof fill but.. oh.. I see that’s already been done!
     
    Well done on getting to the end of that blog!  
     
    Just for fun I've added a summary 'dashboard' below. This is turning into a weekly project report - sorry about that: old habits.
     
     
    Dashboard:
     
    Contractor days on site this week: 26
    Contractor days on site since build start: 156
     
    Budget: Currently running £8k over (Benpointer budgeting rule 1 breached - poor management 😂).
     
    Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026.
     
    Issues and worries closed this week:
    Making the roof space airtight enough for the cellulose blow. Completing the cellulose fill. Confirming the window and door opening sizes match the ordered windows and doors. (Actually that was checked as ok by the Norrsken pre-install visit last week but I forgot to mention it, but its a big tick in the box and would be a huge disappointment to C4 had we been on Grand Designs.)  
    Current top issues and worries:
    Scaffolding (see above). Velux flashings - more on this next week. Scheduling future deliveries: insulation, battening, cladding, render boards, MVHR, UFH kit, ASHP, HW cylinder, PV panels… all due in the next six weeks.  
     
     
  18. Benpointer

    Week 9 - Zinc roof.

    By Benpointer,


    General
    As mentioned last week, the zinc roofers asked if they could start a week early(!) and so, on Monday morning along they came - Brian and Tom from Wessex Metal Roofing in Salisbury.  The first couple of days were mainly rolling out long zinc profile sections from the back of their van, then these proceeded to be fixed on to the 18mm ply sheeting that Alan the Chippie had laid the previous week.
     

     
    Three triple-glazed electric Veluxes arrived from the builders’ merchants (I forgot they were coming last week tbh) and while I spent ages looking on the (frankly rather terrible) Velux website for installation instructions and videos, Mrs P. pointed out to me the the CCTV seemed to show the guys had already fitted them in.  “Oh, I’ll stop looking then.”
     

     

     

    The moment the roofers realised we have CCTV 😂 :

     
    By the end of the week most of the zinc panels have been fitted, plus some facias and gutters.  I must admit that when we signed up for a standing seam zinc roof I assumed it would actually be ‘zinc’  - but it appears to be white plastic, with ‘zinc’ written on it - we've been done!
     
    Apparently it’s best to take off all the protective film at once otherwise it can start to age differently.
     

     

     

     
    For those interested, we’ve opted for VMZinc Plus in ‘Quartz’.  We can’t wait to see it ‘undressed’.
     
    Although most of the zinc panels are now on, there is still a fair bit for Brian and Tom to do including some vertical clad sections on the far side of the house, plus facias, verges, and a ventilated ridge for the south-facing monopitch roof (on the left of the photos). Also they have the zinc gutters and downpipes to fit.  They are expecting to finish the week after next.
     
    We’re also hoping that the work on south-facing roof, which is mainly 30 in-roof SolFit solar panels with a band of slate tiles around them, will start w/c 4th August.  So with luck by the end of that week, all the roofing, gutters and downpipes will be done.
     
    While the roofing carries on through next week we also have South West Insulating (SWI) from Redruth on-site to start fitting the VCL/Airtightness membrane and the additional internal wall and roof insulation .  The sequence for the next three weeks inside should be:
    Week 1 - South West Insulating - VCL to roof, then VCL + 50mm PIR + service cavity battens to walls.
    Week 2 - JW Insulation arrive from Essex to blow cellulose into the roof (a 254mm cavity formed by the Posi-joist open web rafters).
    Week 3 - SWI back to finish roof works (100m PIR + service cavity battens).
     
    Let’s see how well that masterplan survives the heat of battle 😬.
     
    And finally…  On Friday, evening, after yet another huge tidy-up of the site by Mrs P., we hosted about 20 local friends for beers and a chance to look around the skeleton of our house. We had beautiful weather and of course everyone was very kind about the house and what we are doing.  A lot of really great questions as well about the technical detail of the build - I was surprised how genuinely interested many people were and I suspect a few were thinking they might have a go at self-build themselves.
     

  19. Benpointer
    Last week our timber frame structure shot up.  This week was supposed to be the second week of a two-week frame installation but the team finished on Tuesday, having worked through the weekend.  And off they went, but not before I persuaded them to stand still for 30 seconds for a snap for posterity.  So here they are: Brandon, Jake and Callum - Great work guys!
     

     
    Their early finish allowed our chippie Alan to press on with the 18mm ply required over the roof for the zinc roofing.  60+ sheets of 18mm class-3 exterior ply were put up amazingly quickly by Alan with a bit of assistance from his pals on a couple of days. 
     
    The only lifting gear on site at present is a Genie lift we bought, guessing it would come in useful, and Alan made great use of it to create a novel “Ply Sheet Lift 'n' Slide Sledge”. 
     
    I pointed out to him that I’ll be patenting that idea, since all intellectual property rights obviously sit with us as site owners.  He seemed unbothered.
     

     

     
    Next week Alan is away on hols (not in my plan, are you sure Alan?!).  Thus we were going to have a quiet week which I labelled ‘contingency’ to make it sound more important. 
     
    But Brian from Wessex Metal Roofing phoned me today (yep, Sunday) and asked if they can start the zinc roof a week early... “Oh, go on then.”  So off we go again - more fridge-stocking required!
     
    Timber frame details
    Last week I promised to say some more about the frame structure, so at the risk of boring those not wrestling with the same choices we faced,t here’s some more detail (skip to the 'And finally...' section if you’re not interested):
     
    We decided early on that we wanted a factory-built SIPS or insulated Timber Frame structure.  We’d used SIPS on our previous house with positive results.   I contacted a dozen or so companies and received quotes from eight companies for supply and installation of the insulated structure: four SIPS companies and four Timber Frame.  The price range was surprising: the most expensive was 240% the price of the cheapest.  Of course each quote had a slightly different scope but factoring in the work we’d need to do to get them all to the same level of insulation and airtightness, the price range was still over 200%.
     
    In the end, shortlisted Turner Timber Frames, whose price was near the lower end but leaving us with a fair bit to do once the structure was up, and MBC who unsurprisingly were at the top end for an impressive approach and structure.  After talking it through with Geoff our architect, he agreed with us that the price difference was so big it was hard to justify the MBC approach.  Therefore we opted for Turners… And they have been really great to work with throughout.   
     
    Matt, their Timber Frame Manager, has been very helpful and responsive.  Their price has not gone up at all as we moved from initial quote through to signed-off design (in fact they came in below their initial estimates for steels and crane hire).  They kept to the agreed timescales.  Their sub-contracted installation team were really good, as previously noted.  The quality of the frame appears very good to my untrained eye… and Alan our chippie seems impressed as well.
     
    The structure we bought is Turner’s Super Advanced timber frame: 140 × 38mm studs at 600mm centres with 9mm OSB sheathing and a breather membrane on the outside.  The pre-fitted insulation is 120mm PIR and it fits really precisely everywhere.  We opted for an additional 50mm PIR inside to give us a wall u-value of 0.13, recognising that in so doing that we had to fit the VCL, 50mm PIR, and 25mm service cavity battens ourselves (though all are supplied by Turners as part of the package).  Some other frame or SIPS suppliers do all that for you, but at a cost.   
     
    What you see in the pictures is the frame before we fit the VCL and additional insulation - I think you can see how tight that pre-fitted insulation is - it’s really very snug all round.  I was worried we might have gaps to fill but there are none.
     

     
    The roof is open-web 254mm Easi-joist rafters with 11mm OSB, which we paid Turners an agreed addition to have their installation team cover with breather membrane and vertical 50mm battens to create the ventilation space we need for our zinc roof.  Turner’s approach means we have no unsightly purlins to interfere with our vaulted ceilings.  But the roof does present a challenge for insulation.  We decided to opt for blown cellulose within the roof space which should fill the open web joists, plus 100mm PIR below the ceiling, to get to a u=-value of 0.09.  It meant we had to find someone to fit the VCL below rafters and make it airtight  (see below). 
     
    We also have to fill in all the roof perimeter gaps to stop the cellulose blowing out, and we have volunteered Alan for that.  He’s delighted (I assume).
     

     
    We always knew the blown cellulose was going to cost a fair bit.  J W Insulation from Halstead in Essex came in with a good price and are lined up to do the work w/c 4th August.  Before that we need the VCL membrane fixed the roof.  In the end we decided that a specialist company would be best for fitting the ceiling VCL, the airtight wall membranes, and additional internal insulation.  We have South West Insulating from Redruth coming along from 28th July to do that work. 
     
    So we have a busy few weeks ahead - I am hoping all that activity meshes together and the various teams don’t get in each other’s way (and the drinks fridge is big enough!).
     
     
    And finally (for this week)…
     
    Frustratingly, despite the frame being up for a week now, as a wheelchair user with a 300mm high perimeter foundation wall to get over I have not been able to see inside. 
     
    Until today…
     
    Although I promised Mrs P. that this build would involve no heavy lifting or lugging on our (i.e. her) part, today she has been heroically moving pallets, ply sheets, and 4m scaffold boards into place, which we have screwed together make a wheelchair ramp!  So today for the first time we could both enjoy the shape of our new house from inside.
     
    And we love it! 
     
    It's impossible to capture in photos but we are both really pleased with how it feels, the room sizes, the vaulted ceilings, the overall layout… everything.  Which is just as well really as it’s a bit late to change the design now 🙂
     
     

     

     

     

     

     
     
     
  20. Benpointer

    Week 7 - We have a house!

    By Benpointer,


    General
    …well, the shell of a house at least.
     
    What a crazy week.   We chose the factory-built timber frame route because we like the idea that the shell goes up within a few weeks.  But the pace of progress this week has been startling.
     
    The frame erection team of 3 arrived at 7:30am on Monday. A big yellow crane arrived at 8:00, with the frame arriving on an artic by 9:15.  First off: a careful check shows that the frame fits the footings. Hurray!  In fact the footings were within 3mm all the way round, which is credit to the groundworkers.
     
    From then on it was flat out and 7 days later the structure of the house is pretty much complete.
     
    Those guys do work very hard though - long days under a blistering sun, and straight through the weekend.   They are aiming to finish the tidying up by Tuesday, get Turners to sign-off the frame, and head off home to Essex.  A great crew - real grafters.
     
    We’ve also been very lucky with the weather of course, though the erection team certainly wished it had been cooler each day (we’ve had highs of between 28C and 32C for the last 5 days).  We kept them supplied with cold drinks and ice-creams as best we could and we’ve installed a fridge in the workshop which has been popular.
     
    The frame itself looks very good - it all appears to fit together tightly from what we can see.  No gaps around the insulation, or between the panels.
     
    I’ll say more about the frame structure next week but for now here are some pictures of daily progress, plus some at the end showing some of the detail:
     
    This time last week:

     
    Monday:

     
    Tuesday:

     
    Wednesday:

     
    Thursday:

     
    Friday:

     
    Saturday:

     
    Today - Sunday:

     
    And a few of the details, some taken earlier in the week:
     

     

     

     

     

     
    And finally, for both of you who made it this far, one of those oak posts I cut and chamfered last week (the softwood beams will be hidden in the soffit:
     
     
     
  21. Benpointer
    A relatively quiet week this week - the lull before the storm (hopefully not literally!)  
     
    The scaffolders arrived to put up a single-lift all around the exterior on Thursday and Friday (and Saturday morning as it turned out).  I say single-lift but there were due to be a couple of hop-ups for the gables on the south-facing roof.  However, at one end the gable is over a canopy roof which means the first lift is 2m away from where the gable will be.  We've left that one off for now - I'm hoping the timber frame company (Turners) can work off the scaffold tower at that end, or I will get the scaffolders back and put in what the frame erectors would like (we may need a sky-hook to hang it off though).

     

     
     
     
    The site is looking spick and span at the moment; the groundworkers were really tidy, the weather has no doubt helped (dust is easier to sweep up than mud), and Mrs P. has done some sterling work this weekend tidying up the few bits of spare timber, pallets, bulk bags etc, left by the scaffolders.  As they were packing up one of the scaffolders saw an empty bag (which they had brought) and asked "Is this rubbish?", to which I replied "Oh yes, thanks", thinking he was going to take it away, but no, he just threw an empty Red Bull can in it 🤷‍♂️.  Scaffolders truly are a breed apart.
     

     
    The house has proved to be too wide for the CCTV camera, so we moved the camera back.  Now we have the workshop roof in the way - grrr!

     
    Looking at the project finances, frighteningly we have already spent over 1/3rd of the budget 😱.  Major spend so far has been on design and planning, the timber frame and windows are both paid for, a good slug of the groundworks costs has also been paid with an invoice for the balance expected soon. This week I ordered and paid for the MVHR kit (based around a Zehnder Q350) and the ASHP and cylinder (Panasonic L series 7kW + 300l cylinder).  I ordered the latter through Air2Heat who provide an MCS umbrella service (Paul Thorney - really helpful) so we should get back £7.5k via the BUS grant scheme, which would leave the heat pump and cylinder costing a net £1,200 plus installation costs.
     
    Anyway, we're currently running about £500 over budget (excluding contingency) with some opportunities for future savings and a fair few areas of potential overspend.  
     
    Time for Benpointer's three Laws of Budget Management:
    If you go over budget, that's bad management. If you come in under budget, that's poor estimating. If you come in bang on budget, you've almost certainly committed both 1. and 2.   
    Next week is going to be very exciting - I hope in a good way.  Tomorrow (Monday) our timber frame arrives from Turner Timber Frames, with a team to erect it.  The weather forecast is good, so fingers-crossed the frame fits the footings and it all goes up smoothly 🤞.
     
     
     
     


  22. Benpointer
    We’ve had another very good week of progress by the groundworks team and they are pretty much done now bar some further levelling of the paddock area and one or two other minor details.  We are really pleased with their work and the Building Inspector is pleased too, thankfully, so our foundations are all signed-off 👍.
     
    Bizarrely, it’s only now that we can submit the “Commencement Statement” for our construction to Building Control, which I duly did this week.  Also bizarrely, we are still on schedule - I can guarantee that won’t last!
     

     

     

     
    Once the block and beam floor was in and grouted with cement slurry, the concrete block upstands for the internal stud partition walls were laid.  With hindsight, it might have been better not to pay the timber frame company (Turner Timber Frame) to supply and erect the internal walls but rather build them later on top of the screed.  But we’re way past that decision point now - Turners will be installing those partition walls as part of the overall frame build, so concrete block upstands have to be ready in place.
     

     

     

     
    One minor issue that had to be resolved this week - the block and beam floor ventilation ‘periscopes’ are designed for 100mm cavity walls and weren’t going to fit inside our 50mm cavities between the walls and the render-board.  The solution proposed by the groundworkers and approved by our Building Inspector is to run them up the inside of the foundation wall before exiting just below DPC level.  That gives us a potential cold bridge at each vent (26 in total!) but I think we can mitigate that by doubling the PIR insulation upstands to 100mm where the vents are.  It’s not perfect but I think it will have only a very small impact on the overall insulation levels.
     
    Next week the scaffold is scheduled to go up on Wednesday/Thursday, then the timber frame is due to arrive the week after - when the fun will really start! 
     
    Meanwhile next week I need cut the five 150mm oak posts to size and chamfer the edges, ready for them to go in to support the roof canopies over the front porch and rear terrace.  (Six oak posts in the picture - I’ll choose the best five!)
     

     
  23. Benpointer
    Great progress by the groundworks team in sweltering conditions this week - laying concrete blocks in the sun when it’s 30deg C and 80% humidity can’t be any fun at all.
     

     
    Despite the heat, by the end of the week our foundation walls are in and ready for the block and beam floor this coming week.  We can really see the house take shape now, although quite a few of the foundation walls are just there to support floor beams and won’t appear as internal walls above the floor.

     

     
    As expected, it all looks a bit too small at this stage.  It always seems to be the case that the foundations make the rooms look small. They’re definitely the right size on paper, so I’m sure it’s an optical illusion at this stage (hopefully!)
     
    The foul and rainwater drains are also now in place.  Our Building Inspector ideally wanted the SVP to come out through the roof above the bathroom but since that roof is covered with Solfit PV panels (https://solfit.co.uk/domestic-solar-panels/) that can’t be penetrated, we eventually agree to put the SVP up the outside of the north facing wall.  This is the wall that isn’t really going to be seen from the entrance, front parking areas or garden and we’d really prefer not to penetrate the roof with a soil vent if possible.  So, everyone’s happy.
     
    The ‘spaghetti’ in the bottom left corner is where all of our external service ducts come into the plant room.  17 ducts in total, including two spare at present, (I may have over-catered):
     
    Power to ASHP Power to garden Water pipe to garden Water pipe to workshop Power to workshop Lighting circuit - switched external lights Data to workshop Live power supply in (SSE - single phase) Fibre in (Openreach) Water mains in (Wessex Water) Power to sewage treatment plant PV panel in PV panel in Power to EV charger Data for CCTV Spare 50mm duct (to workshop) Spare 50mm duct (to workshop)  

     
     
  24. Benpointer

    Let the fun begin!

    By Benpointer,


    General
    We’re starting our build so I thought I’d attempt a blog.  I can’t promise to keep it up throughout the build but I start with good intentions.  Apologies for the inevitable typos along the way.  
     
    A bit of background:
     
    We have previously done a lot of alteration and refurb projects for our various homes over the years, the most recent a major eco- refurb and extension of a 1960s bungalow.   
     
    Last year we decided to bite the bullet, sell the house, buy a plot and build.  We sold in October, bought a plot in November, and engaged some local architects to create a design to our brief.
     
    The plot is 0.85 acre on the edge of a Dorset village.  It already had PP for a conventional 3-bed chalet but we wanted a near-Passivhus contemporary single storey house with vaulted ceilings - incorporating low u-values, ASHP, UFH, 3G windows, MVHR, PV, batteries... just about everything we could think of to make the house comfortable and sustainable.
     
    We’ve opted for off-site timber frame construction, clad in a mixture of timber and render, zinc roof.  I am sure more of the construction details will get covered if and as I keep the blog going.
     
    I am a retired IT project manager so have decided to self-manage contractors rather than employ a Principal Contractor.  I’m also a wheelchair user so, much as we would like to*, we won’t be doing much of the hands-on build ourselves (* Mrs. P. may not agree with that sentiment).  
     
    We applied for fresh PP on the 28 January 2025, received permission on 1 May, and our architects submitted a building regulations application a couple of weeks later.  We broke ground last week (see the next blog entry for details).
     
    For now, I attach a floor plan and some elevations to give you an idea of the build.
     

     
  25. Benpointer
    The groundworks team have been putting in the Sewage Treatment Plant and drains this week.  We’ve chosen the Klargester Biotec+ 2 STP and that arrived on schedule from Tanks Direct on Tuesday. 
     
    Also this week the concrete pads were dug and poured for five oak posts that will support overhanging roof canopies - the Building Inspector asked us to put in 1m x 1m x 1m pads which seems excessive for 150mm x 150mm oak posts taking point loads of 5-10kN but it was that or pay the SE for (possibly the same) opinion.
     

     

     

     
    The team also started reshaping the paddock area - losing a huge amount of spoil and burying a lot of rubble that had been dumped by previous occupants.  We'll probably wait until the autumn to seed it - not much chance of seed taking right now.
     

     
    At the end of a busy week there is not a lot above ground to see for all that effort but we needed to get this all done before the below-DPC block walls go in.  Access to the rear of the plot will not be possible for the big machinery once the blockwork starts.

    The wooden garage mentioned at the end of last week's blog came down over the weekend (in the pouring rain) and has disappeared off site.  The extra space created has proved vital - the photo below shows the concrete pad that's left  after the garage was removed. (The wooden building that remains is a 5m x 9m workshop which is staying, though it will need re-cladding at some stage.)
     

     
    No new issues this week - hurrah!  Fingers-crossed for that happy state of affairs to continue.  
     
    The timber frame is due to arrive from Turner Timber on 7th July, so just three weeks left to finish the foundations and get the scaffold up.  No pressure!
     
     
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