G and J

Late in the design process we twigged that lenders like masonry skins covering at least part of timber frame houses. So we added one the ground floor, and we converted the garage to all 100mm blockwork with 200mm pillars. Ours is a narrow site so I've always striven for the thinnest walls possible, so I went for 75mm block rather than 100m. The architect then added 25mm of render. Fast forward to working with our SE on the foundation design and he commented that whilst 75mm would be OK he'd do 100mm himself. This would grow the walls a bit, but not by 25mm if we went over to one of these new fangled render systems like k-rend. Views?

I'm told, and I believe it, that when selling a house telling the world it’s a self build is taken as a big negative - peeps would much rather have professionally built houses. My guess would be the above would be less likely in a self build where the self is actively involved in the build. Odd world innit.

My plan is to top up my washing up water with a qooker tap. I like scalding hot washing up water but want to run my system only as warm as needed for J’s hot showers and my lobster baths. I can’t work out if I need more than 200 litres….

Exactly that. Though I always thought it was to ward off The Kraken…

So I fall asleep on my sofa facing the garden through the patio doors and wake to see the neighbours leaving their front door, averting their eyes from my string vest with boiled egg yolk stains down the front (Onslow style). I’m not sure I like this innovation lol

Hmmmm. In Suffolk there’s a very non pc name for people who are not quite as intelligent as others - window lickers. Dreadful name really, but that is of course the image now in my mind. Me contorting my face and mouth to get my tongue to touch the inside of the lens whilst emitting a low sort of moan at the awkwardness of it. That's the moment some bugger takes a pic…. But oddly, I like snorkelling and I rinse my mask then spit on it to stop misting - so I should have thought of that. Thank you.

The week starts with the removal of the external walls on the rear half of da bungalow. That’s the fun bit. I’m armed with two chainsaws and a reciprocating saw (aka sabre saw, for some reason). I bought the sabre saw as Steve the builder recommended one for demolition. When I bought it I knew it would be useful, but I knew my trusty chainsaws would get more done quicker and easier. It’s not easy working with someone who’s right every damn time. Sigh. So the chainsaws remain at rest while we quickly get into a rhythm of joist then upright removal, working our way along the frame till the only part of the rear half standing is the chimney and it’s wings (and our neighbours wall are still untouched ….yay!!). The pile of wood at the front of the plot is now clearly tidal. We cut wood, the tide flows. The ‘wood man’ comes, the tide ebbs. The cycle disguises the sheer volume of wood we are handling. It constitutes an awful lot of skip savings. Next day it’s straight back to heavy spade work for me, knocking of plaster and trying to leave the metal lathe mesh stuff reasonably clean to make later processing for recycling easier. In the process I discover previously a hidden window and a door - it would be fascinating to understand the history, the sequence of events and the reasons, but we can only guess. Steve is straight into heavy hammer work taking down the chimney and wing walls, and he discovers thermalite block so that chimney isn’t original either. Most interesting. Nobody tells you about the dust when you talk about demolition. I thought I’d done dusty jobs before but not like this. It’s like you bath in it. Everything on site is coated and one touch leaves my hands feeling almost ‘smooth’ in a strange kind of way. The dust masks that started off annoying are now comforting, I now start the day clean shaven to help them work better. But they discourage hydration as lifting the mask up to drink means putting a sweat soaked mask back on one’s face. Less than ideal. Warm dry weather makes it worse, and when a stiff breeze gets up it really is the limit. My goggles fully protect my eyes from dust. Unfortunately they also protect my eyes from seeing anything, as they mist up in seconds each time they are cleaned. I sprayed them with de-icer and that did help - it trebled the time it took them to mist up - sadly that still only made about two minutes. So, back to specs type protection it is. The high velocity flying bits are deflected but the fine dust floats round and gently crusts, aided by the breeze which isn’t enough to cool me but is easily enough to ensure dust gets everywhere quickly. Skooby (trusty steed, or cheap ancient Skoda on her last legs bought for the build, depending on one’s point of view) now has a light gray interior. Not just from my clothes, though that would be enough, but also from the stuff piled in her for the tip runs. And the litres of moisturiser I get through is crazy - we never budgeted for that - the dust dries the skin like mad. But, one just carries on. So having removed the back half the question is what to do next. Steve is logical and methodical. So he advocates carrying on removing the rearmost and working our way forwards. That means the dunny. But I still have a bladder, and age dictates that that bladder is attended to regularly. And I’m tight and we’ve nowhere sensibly to put a rented thunderbox anyway. So the score on that one ends up as Common sense: 0; G’s bladder: 1. So, after adding some diagonal bracing ‘just in case’ we bypass the loo and work forward. Yet another carefully considered risk assessment debate ensues. These consist of Steve standing and looking for a bit while I remain silent. He then says what we are doing next and I say yes Steve. Simples. In this instance we are going to remove the lintel above the old front door as otherwise when we remove the studwork near it there might be instability, as one end rests on a tiny masonry pillar held up only by studs. It takes an hour to drop the blockwork above and the large catnic lintel we discover. More to clean up and sell, if only I could lift it. Then, finally, it’s back to studwork removal time. The ‘wood man’ has been again so the wood tide is thankful out, so there’s space to put the wood mountain. Another excellent four days, so much so that we all take the Friday off. It turns out that being at home on a day off is emotionally, much easier than visiting site. A few jobs need doing around the house which helps, but it’s basically ok. It tells me that I could never live on site and have any peace of mind. I already spend a lot of time thinking things through/worrying myself into a fizz when I should be sleeping, and I think that would be massively greater if we lived either in site or very close nearby. The 20 minutes in Skooby as she grumbles along is vital to prepare for the day and then later, to help me start to decompress. It’s easy to think about one’s muscles needing rest, but not so easy to think about one’s head, but I’m trying, and it seems that that drive, and a soak in a scummy bath, is as vital as talking the day over with J. It’s like mentally putting one’s tools away, clean and tidy. Cooking helps too… Saturday it’s time to get all the lead, the house wiring, and (as it turns out) 80kg of gas boiler to the scrap yard - no wonder the boiler was so hard to lift!

I'm with you....perhaps I could put a weighbridge disguised in the block paving 🤔, J

But very funny!

The energy inefficiency of da bungalow is truly shocking, but I’m guessing that’s true of millions of UK houses. I am coming round to agreeing with the saying ‘we don’t demolish enough in the UK’. The worst bit is that da bungalow was built as one of a pair. Our neighbours knew (in fact they told us before we bought it) about what a poor the state the bungalows were in. But, if they care to look, they’ll see the rotten wood we are pulling out (crumbly sole plates being the worst bit) and I think even the faintest heart would despair. What do you say to peeps in such circumstances?

Hmmmm, I do enough of that myself. Coldest days heat loss will be circa 2.5kW, but for emotional support reasons we are likely to light an unnecessary 1.5 - 3 kW woodburner to give the Great Hall its heart. (OK, it’s a one room sort of kitchen/lounge/diner/conservatory and it’s the size of some ‘grand designs’ houses plant rooms but the daft name Great Hall makes me smile). So for the majority of the year I’m thinking the ASHP will have significant spare capacity. In fairness, using the outside temp and return temp as in input to an algorithm that adjusts the flow temp makes perfect sense. And I’m guessing that the tech is mature enough that very well developed algorithms are built in to the good ASHPs.

Hi Nick, J here, my "mantra" for our move is less stuff not more storage, so not planning on having anything in the loft....we'll see how that goes! Seriously though that's one of the reasons we're comfortable with the old fashioned w trusses being provided as part of out frame kit. Always good to "test" the thought process though

Interesting. Our fluffy loft floor will have the best u value of the whole build, looking at 0.1. Do you know what sort of temp your loft gets too? I’m guessing even with fab insulation if it’s hot enough up there then some of the heat will filter through.

Then yet again I've misunderstood. And it’s good news that I now know that. I’m going for a 100mm screed for the UFH, which I’m now thinking of as a huge, low temperature night storage rad, only it’s not charged at night - it’s charged during cheap tariff periods. For some reason I thought variable flow rate was part of what made weather compensation work. So does WC work purely by changing flow temps? And presumably it can be set up to work during the cheap times.

Agree whole heartedly with this. In our current place our first hedge planting consisted of a native mix including dog rose/black thorn/hawthorn.......it is a pain to cut/clear up. When we extended the garden we went for dog woods/spindle/field maple/viburnum opulus.......hedge just as attractive/good for wildlife etc and so much easier to deal with. In clearing the condition for our current build we took the view of trying to give the minium info we could, (so not to tie ourselves down)but indicated the key points......having said that ours was probably less detailed than you've already provided (LA used the phrase " rudimentary") so maybe identify key components (which trees/large shrubs whether evergreen etc) and methods as per other advice above.

Having had two convertibles I think k aircon is vital. They are buggers to dry out in cold times of the year otherwise.

I think I need one with weather compensation; the ability to modulate down to below 2kW; either a powerful water pump or the ability to control a powerful external pump with variable speeds; cooling as well as heating; oh and paid for by an MCS grant. Oh, and I’d only like it to rain at night.

Hmmmm. So the walk-in wardrobe has a good flow through of fresh air. Would that be equivalent to ‘dry cleaning’? If so it could save you a fortune lol

How's this.... My thinking is that the VCL, being part of our 'airtight balloon skin' (such concepts help me, regardless of how daft they sound), will reduce the amount of steamy human stuff that evaporates into the attic. Therefore we won't need a gale blowing through there to keep it dry. The OSB is a bit breathable, the breather membrane being counter battened will deal with what little moisture vapour there is, and the ridge vent is a belt and braces thing, and won't scare any horses. With the eves sealed then the thermal performance of the roof should be fab.

I think it could be either. You won’t be putting dripping wet coats in there, I assume, so as long as you get air movement and thus air changes it doesn’t matter. Which do you need to balance your system? (I should add that the above is guesswork mind, I’ve not a clue based on experience, but hey, it feels good guessing with confidence 😉

Stubble undermines the seal on the disposable ones too.

I think we need to increase my Makita budget!

Bang on, and I was keen on that approach but I've erred on the side of caution - ridge vents to give some ventilation without the wind-wash gale of eve vents thus helping the soft fluffy stuff laid over the bottom cords of the trusses do their stuff. This option feels like it’s gaining 90% of the benefits with very little risk. And hopefully even more rodent resistant. Bob (our SE) isn’t quite so keen on Tyvek. He thinks they have a tendency to overstate.

Crumbs, I’m v poor in comparison. I just use the disposable FFP3 ones with the little valve in, plus goggles. After a while I start to forget I’ve got one on.

Week 13. Or at least, my body thinks it’s week 13, whereas the calendar says it’s week 3. It’s really odd looking back on the demolition. Starting to strip tiles off seems so much longer ago than 20 days. Most odd. The week started with a tidy up day, as Steve wasn’t there. Almost all of the wiring for da bungalow ran through the loft, and was set to be in the way so out came my new and wonderfully sharp side cutters. About 5 minutes in they went back in my pocket and were replaced by a cordless angle grinder with a thin metal cutting blade. Super quick especially when a bunch of wires were involved. Habits and techniques quickly and unconsciously form through trial and error or, more often on this project, by watching Steve. He’s had best part of five decades building and I’m lucky to be able to tap into that. More luck comes in the form of a guy scrounging firewood at the tip. Phone numbers exchanged (goodness that sounds dodgy!) and a promise to let him know what we have available. It transpired that the ground worker didn’t have a use for our roof timbers so in two runs the wood man has removed about 5 cubic yards and wants all but the nailiest bits. More skip savings and he seems to understand that for it to work he has to turn up when agreed and load up without help. Marvellous. So on Tuesday we started stripping off the internal plaster. The external walls are 4” x 2” stud with metal lathe either side then pebble dash outside and a weak cement render inside with a skim. Between the studs is a patchy application of white fluffy insulation, which had settled significantly, or was completely absent where they missed sections. A fantastic illustration of the cowboy insulators of yesteryear. The plan was to knock off the internal plaster, then peel off the wire to grab and bag the fluff section by section, then thump the pebble dash off from inside. We had visions of the whole neighbourhood being covered in wind blown non bio degradable fluff for decades to come. We soon discovered that the tool of choice was yet again, my trusty spade, backed up by my SDS with a funny crushing bit. Hours of hacking leaves the wire mesh clean enough to go in metal recycling. The render was then barrowed to the growing aggregate pile in the back garden to be used to build up the solid floor. Peeling off the metal lathe involved much yanking with a nailbar and we generated an enormous pile of plastic bags of captured fluff, the only non recyclable bit. Quite pleasing. The frightening bit was knocking off the pebble dash. Too easy. It came off in huge bits with very little effort. It happened so quickly that once we’d cleared that up we had time to start cutting down some stud work. We started with the end wall. A couple of high level cuts and a gentle push and down it fell into the garden, in two sections, with a small plume of wood dust from the disintegrating rotten sole plate. If our neighbours see these bits they’ll be scared stiff at the likely condition of their near identical bungalow, built as a pair roughly a hundred years ago. The chimney and masonry wall in the centre of the bungalow forms a stable support to the side walls as we’d left the joists connected for safety, so we started cutting out an upright and a joist at a time. These walls are only a meter from our neighbour’s walls, so I stood for a good few minutes having a bit of a wobble before doing the first one. It finally occurred to me that the years I’ve spent cutting trees down (an odd hobby but a satisfying one) were of use. Just think of the studs like little trees. Worked a treat. So on Wednesday we went home pleased with progress. I was alone on site Thursday and Friday so it was tip runs to get rid of the fluff bag and wire mountains, and lots more hours of spade work stripping plaster. When on Friday I realised how dusty the site (and our neighbours front patio) had become I quickly deployed the hose to damp the floors down which improved the feel of the shell significantly. I had a day off Saturday, and J and I visited site for J to tend plants and see progress first hand. Oddly, I found not working really difficult. I really needed the weekend off, especially my shoulders, but my head felt I should get in there. As both J and Steve remind me constantly, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there’s always tomorrow. But stopping before exhaustion is, I find, very difficult. My body clock has shifted completely now. I wake before 06:00 and lay there thinking stuff through as there’s no way I can get back to sleep even though I’m still tired. We’re still chasing quotes on many things, and it seems in a lot of areas our need for early quotes simply doesn’t fit the industry. We are asking too early, though of course we want the info for both budgetary reassurance or to be able to plan nicely in advance. However getting numbers requires the work to be imminent, it appears. This is even the case with our BCO. He wants all changes from the architect drawn building regs plans authorised by a grown up. Acceptable grown ups include architects and SEs. A good example is the attic. We do not want eve vents, we want just ridge vents and a roof sealed by OSB (sort of sarking). Our architect refused to remove the eve vents as that’s what he’s always done, so we are fortunate that our SE is happy with our alternative plan. All I have to do is draw it up and submit it to Bob, our SE, for approval. I know that’s vital work but as it doesn’t involve a spade it somehow feels less so. Yet another odd thing.