G and J

The genie lift, which was on its limit lifting over 200kg on the tip of its arms, was brought by the steel guys as we’ve contracted them on a supply and fit basis which saves cash flow as they can zero the vat on a new build and it saves me a hernia. The steels were spec’d by ETE of Watton as part of their timber frame supply only package. No one would quote for a supply and fit due to site restrictions and overhead wires. In a perverse way as a result the wires look like they’ve saved us thousands - assuming that we get the kit up ok. I’ll tell you in a couple of months! So far they’ve been brilliant to work with, highly recommended.

I like this plan better than just stuffing a waste pipe down a vertical pipe. Thank you. I wouldn’t have thought of doing that even though I’ve used these things to connect wastes before.

I’ll go as far as to say that from now on the cock ups are all my own work. :-/

Lordy, where will I find one of those? 😉 @Alan Ambrose I think were in trouble bro!

Thank you. I’ll be fully out of the ground when the oversite is done.

That's very thoughtful Nick. Thank you.

Are you sure you need one? I think if you do one and document it that will be enough. To back it up you could always take pics or maybe even a vid.

Well, sort of. Working physically hard is sooo emotionally easy compared to the frenetic whirlwind of strip foundation digging and filling. If that means that to you, I sound an emotional fruitbat then I commend your perceptivenes. I find it impossible to predict in advance the bits that will be most stressful. In the last two weeks I’ve had all but two days on my own on site, as Steve has been on his hols. So it’s background organisation tasks and planning for the most part. That means tip runs; getting blocks and bricks and sand and cement delivered for below damp; yet more manual moving of soil; generally tidying up; bumping out stupidly heavy 140mm concrete blocks; breaking up soft reds from the demolition for hardcore; and lots and lots of measuring and thinking. The two days Steve was there were spent setting out and getting some blocks laid. Setting out would have taken Steve on his own just a couple of hours. However, he had me to help him, so it took over half a day. I did learn a lot and because of concerns about preserving the precise sizes of the alleyways either side, and making sure the front face of the house is nicely co-planer with next door, and by the way still sitting properly on the foundations, and working out where to set block levels to, and my constant re measuring and questioning, I managed to burn a lot time more than just the morning. The levels thing was, in hindsight, quite comical. Not at the time however. We ran round the foundations with the laser level trying to spot the highest point, allowing for the 225mm steps. With the best will in the world foundations don’t end up perfectly level, so one finds the high spot, and all blockwork works to that level which saves stupid amounts of block cutting - adding more pug (perhaps a Suffolk word for mortar) is a lot easier than taking some off of a block. But with a laser level a higher number means a lower level, and one of the two of us just kept getting confused by that. I’ll let you guess which one. Confusion is, however, contagious it seems, as eventually I asked enough silly questions to get Steve confused too. It’s nice that I do have something to contribute to the process. Steve’s relief when he finally could get on with some blockwork was palpable. To his credit he must have been sorely tempted to insert the laser level staff somewhere painful, but he kept his patience, bless him. So we didn’t get that many blocks laid but we did enough to be ready for the windframe for the back of the house. Getting that fitted was fun. 200kg is not much by steel standards but my goodness it took some grunt. Because of the slope of the site instead of the legs (columns) being just over 2.5m long they were 3.5m long. The crew were a man short but I knew that when I asked them to come fit it so I gleefully volunteered to help. They were a brilliant pair - it was a constant stream of jokes and leg pulls and laughter. The only exception was getting each leg upright - that was pure grunt work - done nearly silently apart from grunts and barked orders. But the three of us got the first leg vertical. They then told me to ‘keep ‘old of that’ which turned out to be hard work, as keeping a near 12’ length of 1’ wide steel still on a blustery day wasn’t trivial. I also found it hard to believe that some goo squirted from a mastic gun would hold it up. I’ve read about but never seen a chemical anchor. Amazing. The other leg done we attached both legs to the previously lifted beam (with a genie lift - bloody handy that is) - and 16 bolts later we had a windframe. After weeks of a flat site it looks way too big, but after measuring many times I can now confidently confirm that I hope it’s right. Fingers crossed. The other thing this week is that the costs for the strip foundations are now all in, and we are quietly pleased. We were offered a fixed price of £16.5k, and lord knows what the extras would have really totalled as we did go deeper and use more concrete in many places due to soft ground. Instead, overall on day rate they cost us: Digger hire and diesel: £800 Labour (Steve and Kev the Dig) £4,400 Ply (some second hand) and cutting discs £700 47m3 of concrete £5,200. Waiting time for concrete lorry £74 Rebar (for steps and joins in foundations) £100 Spoil away £1,600 Total just under £13k. Happy days. It’s amazing what one doesn’t know and can’t imagine. When ordering concrete from the company we used (they only do 8m3 wagons) ordering 1+ means they send a full lorry then wait for us to tell them how much to send in the second lorry which turns up half an hour or so later. Ordering 2+ means two full wagons turn up at once - yikes! Ours site is just too small for that - hence the charge for waiting time. Anyway, next week Steve is back Wednesday so it’s blockwork to damp and over site over the next few weeks. And after a year of not doing anything towards my man cave at the bottom of the garden suddenly now I need to progress that too. It’s a nice problem to have.

Our experience is that to stop paying council tax it requires the valuation office to accept that the dwelling in question is not suitable to live in. The examples they gave are more fundamental, things like no ceilings or doors or services. So as Nod says, get demolishing!

I’ve seen stuff that looks like that that is purely condensation where tenants have failed to ventilate.

Presumably the ledger board is the bit you are wrapping the hangers over - is that correct? Have you set them at the same height as the top of the joists? A pic would help.

Is it an above ground basement then? 😉 I’m going to be doing them myself. I think the kit is quite cheap.

Oh my word. That was exactly our plan, except I’m not keen on needing ear defenders if it rains!

What’s your warm roof made of?

Pinch of salt needed with respect to your architect’s comments. Our part O analysis was done by the same person who did our as designed SAP. All they needed to know was that there will be MVHR, not the details. We are now building and at some stage info will be needed by our BCO re flow rates, etc. but thats for later. Free quotes are easily available but they don’t give you a design for free. Methinks an interim design could easily be done by yourself if needed, you don’t have to implement it if later you go for a design and supply contract.

I’ll be interested to see how you do a raft foundation with a basement…. 😉

Busy week next week. Besides, I think for me monthly is too frequent. I need more than four weeks to gather catastrophes to have something to talk about. 😉

I wonder if a non return flap (anti rat thingy) put in the blue bit would stop build up.

With all these clever things coming in the market is there still nothing better than a standpipe for W/M or D/W connection?

Isn’t it just like putting a tent up and camping in your garden for a bit? If you get on with your neighbours and you ensure they know it’s not permanent living accommodation and you won’t be moving peeps in there permanently then I suspect you are highly unlikely to have a problem. Start applying for building regs so it could be permanently lived in would be more worrying for the neighbours I’d have thought. Love the idea of it bringing a hands on prototype for the house.

[Stands up as tall as I can] I am Spartacus! Oh hang on, no, let me try that again: I am Principal Everything - meaning designer and contractor. I'll let you know in a year or so if that turns out to be a mistake. Oh, I'm also the site cleaner and general labourer. And goods inwards manager. And logistics coordinator. And… We told our architect that as self builders I was taking on those roles, and simply telling your architect that you are doing it I believe is enough to absolve him of responsibility, and therefore the need to charge. Sometimes ‘professional’ types need gently reminding who the client is, but they are rarely ‘out to get ya’. In some ways the principal designer role seems quite simple: you simply have to know everything and keep the whole 3D design in your mind at all times. Fortunately you don’t have to have everything in your mind at the same time, I now twitch if I'm more than 7 paces from my stack of exercise books (a stack of blank ones from school circa 50 years ago, kept ‘in case’ they came in handy). I should qualify the word ‘everything’. We are having a panelised timber frame kit that I and an experienced joiner will try and assemble. As PD I think it’s paramount that I understand every single junction where that kit touches something that isn’t the timber frame kit, as it’s my responsibility to ensure it all fits and works together. But I can reasonably entrust the innards of that kit to ETE, the timber frame company in question. So it’s do-able. I think PC is a bit different. Early on I read that roles can be handed on but the documentary requirements to ensure nothing is missed appear huge - damn sensible methinks as building it seems is all about junctions, including junctions between peeps in the project itself. So whilst we will be getting subcontractors in, I never relinquish the PC role, I’m always in charge, and it’s always my fault. Simples. 😉

As a financial adviser I came across people who’d planned their financial futures with spreadsheets to several decimal places of accuracy. I think the belief was if there are enough numbers on the display then it must be right and should not be questioned. I think there was a ‘wood for the trees’ type thing going on.

Given that you’ll have a bloody great shed to house the panel saw thingy it’ll leave you with oodles of space to store all these ‘use once’ gadgets, so that makes sense.

Perhaps that’s why insulated rafts are so popular. Pace out a vaguely rectangular area, dump a load of crush on it and lay out the polystyrene tray….

Same, but with sand marking the centre of the trench. Ours did need manual alteration but that’s partly due to how tight our site is and the difficulty of getting the digger in the right place.