Red Kite

All, we followed the general advice to Crack On and Get It Done - and MBC worked all weekend - Bank Holiday and all - long hours and really not a lot of noise. They kept the radio off and observed the 11:00 silence - only to be upstaged by one of the neighbours who turned on his pressure washer at exactly 11:00!!!! They did a great job and finished up on site late Sunday and cleared off for the next job on Monday! Today we had an email from Environmental Health saying they had some noise complaints and could we talk to them about it which we will do. However the very same day Housing Minister Robert Jenrick announced "Extended working hours will be permitted on residential construction sites as part of government efforts to help kickstart the housing market. From today, builders can agree more flexible site working hours with local councils." https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/buildings/working-hours-extended-on-residential-sites-13-05-2020/ Guess this settles it then! Shame we will not likely have contractors working weekends again. And we presume that as Self Builder any work we do (as opposed to paid contractors) counts as DIY and is not controlled at all!!!!

The majority of our new Timber Frame house is to be rendered onto render board, and we were going to use K-Rend Silicone TC 15 - a thin coat render that is low maintenance, flexible etc etc. We have just has a quote back from a company that propose to use Fassa render system: Externa Light render boards - A96 skim coat with fiberglass mesh (5-6mm) , FX526 primer / undercoat and finally RX561 Finish. I have never come across Fassa but it seems very similar to K-Rend and the other Silicon / Acrylic renders - anyone come across these products and any thoughts? Many thanks

An auspicious crane day as a Red Kite flies in front of our crane as it is installing the Timber Frame for Plot 1 ? Its been a while as life has been really hectic and keeping up with things on site have meant little time for the blog. This one is exciting and the video shows the MBC Timber Frame for Plot 1 (our son Joe's house) from start to finish. We have cut this to be chronological and cut out the days MBC were not on site so the build looks continuous. The build sequence is that they fit the sole plate to our Beam and Block (apart from one manageable problem it fitted - big sigh of relief - whew!!) and then unload all the materials for the ground floor and internal walls onto the site. Then they build the put up the big silver panels for the ground floor external walls and then crane in the internal walls and rest the joists onto the walls. This is pretty much the end of Day 1 and they can then send the crane away. Day 2 sees the joists set out and the internal walls for the ground floor put in and the Ground floor is pretty much complete. At this point we had them stop and allow time for the fitting of the Under Floor Heating for the first floor (a separate blog entry on this later - and yes there is a school of thought that says you really dont need it). This UFH consists of plastic pipes that sit in/on aluminum plates between the joists and needs to be fitted before the floorboards go down. We had our M&E person lined up for this but he was unable to meet the long communicated and long committed dates for the installation of these and was suggesting approx 10 days delay which was unacceptable. For this, and quite a few other reasons we parted company with him, and though he owes us money (which we think may be hard to recover) it is in many ways a relief because we had lost confidence in his ability to deliver and complete the project. So plan B for the UFH :- we ordered the alu plates and pipe on next day delivery and the three of us amateurs fitted all the UFH in two days. There was a complication because even though all the MBC drawings showed single joists at 400mm centres, when the arrived on site they were double joists at 400mm centres. This makes for a better building but meant every single plate had to be ripped down the length so it would fit. Juliana did a great (but very noisy) job of this with the trusty bandsaw and the job was done reasonably painlessly (with the use of ear defenders) . A bit naughty of MBC to spring this on us but we managed, worse was that the exposed feature glulam beam that runs across the entire building was 'adjusted' with a sledge hammer and left a series of very ugly and visible dents - MBC will face with a thin glulam to cover the dents - but a bit of a blow! Next MBC came back with a new Irish crew who are much more careful and meticulous and they laid the floorboards and then the next day another crane and lorry with the second floor and the roof. Same again :- unload it all, put up the external walls, crane in the internal walls, then the roof joists on top and place all the materials where they are needed. At the end of a busy day the crane leaves and everything is ready for the subsequent internal walls and the roof joists and the roof deck. The roof is simple in that it is flat, but has a complicated oversail detail that took a long time to get done. So in total 8 working days and MBC had the entire shell of Plot 1 done - a testament to the hard work and long hours the MBC crews put in. It is so exciting to see so much progress in such a short time. Fantastic to see the form of the building we have lived with on paper for years finally take shape in front of our eyes. The split level design is so neat and clever - it makes great use of the sloped site and the circulation space is very efficient. One tricky thing was getting between the four split level floors - so we knocked together 3 flights of temporary stairs using material from the skip that make this a dream - as soon as MBC have finished the last of the internal walls we can fit a handrail and safety barrier which will make them much easier and safer!!!! But amazing what you can do with bits from the skip - think its called up-cycling. Oh and we made some temporary garage doors (complete with rainbow) to give us some storage - bit wet inside at the moment but when there is a dry house above that should be fine - one of the problems with waterproof concrete is that water doesn't drain away!) When we have time a separate blog on UFH and Plot 2 The latest video is called Plot 1 Timber Frame plus all the older ones can be found here :- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0

Hi, our MBC crew were planning to work over the weekend but sadly one of our delightful neighbours complained about the noise mid afternoon Saturday so to keep the peace and to keep MBC from being abused, I asked them to stop and they cleared up, made safe and went to another job (which they were planning to do Sunday night anyway). Noise is pretty light - sporadic nail guns and battery saws and a pretty quiet radio! - so no heavy noisy machines. Our PP has no hours restrictions in it as the Appeal Officer removed the Planning Officers condition because we said in our Appeal that a full construction plan inappropriate - so from a PP standpoint we are OK to work. However our Council has a RECOMMENDATION that no work should happen on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I am checking with my BCO on this as my argument is that due to Covid 19 travel should be restricted and keeping working helps the crew to do this. Waiting to hear back (the BCO was supportive but its not his call) but it might just get bogged down in red tape and buck passing! I also can across this article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/26/construction-sites-open-night-weekends-kickstart-recovery/ See below. Has anyone else seen this - and any more detail other than "under a change in the law being planned by ministers". Having something more concrete would help and with that I would be delighted to tell the single neighbour who has complained to go stuff it - in fact I think I might just do that anyway! Construction sites to open at night and weekends to kickstart recovery The temporary concessions for builders come as officials assess how further extensions of lockdown would affect the economy By Edward Malnick, Sunday Political Editor 26 April 2020 • 6:00am Premium Construction sites will be allowed to temporarily extend their hours to operate during evenings and at weekends, under a change in the law being planned by ministers. The Government is preparing to override restrictions preventing builders from carrying out loud work outside the typical working day, or on Sundays. The move is intended to allow construction firms to "catch up" on work as they begin returning to sites following an initial hiatus during the first weeks of the national lockdown.

Ours had a £1000 uplift if we won the appeal - we did so it seemed well worth the extra - I think the appeal fee was about 2,5k

Oz07 - the basement has part of it as warm habitable space, and part is cold garage so the insulation is complex - the habitable space has 150mm in the basement floor, and the garage has (at least - it varies!) 100mm in the roof (under the B&B). This is all overlayed with 50mm above the B&B. So minimum is 150mm (between cold and warm) which achieves the U values. The reason its all 50mm above the B&B is to get a level floor at 1st floor level, and in the basement the 150mm in habitable vs none in the garage gives you the step down into the garage you need for fuel spill etc. Inevitably there are some cold bridges and less than optimum junctions but overall its not bad - and with all of this there are diminishing returns on refining those junctions. Passive House it aint - but pretty well insulated it is! And all PIR not EPS - though SAP reckons that using Phenolic would have made no difference. Given the benefit of hindsight the overall design adds complexity at every turn in every element (different insulation, beam thicknesses, wall design etc etc) and before going to detail design we should have taken the opportunity to simplify it as much as possible. Some of the complexity comes from our basic requirements (like an underground garage dictated by the side topology and planning restrictions) plus the inevitable evolution of the design as it gets modified and refined, but after that we wish we had stood back and looked at it carefully - if we knew then what we know now! Having said that it all looks like it will work! If you want the really ugly details this is probably a blog post in its own right! Mr Punter - B&B was mainly structural as there are some large spans (6+ m) - but it could probably have been done in timber pozi joists (doubled up) that might have made the insulation simpler. Our GW contractor was OK to do B&B plus masonry, but not sure MBC would have been up for a timber floor - so we did avoid an extra contractor. Working with only two was complex enough - cant imagine how hard it would have been with a third. Another of those - 'wish we had known' things was that the B&B itself is complex in that it has different beam thickness's (140 and 215) running is different directions! which means that there are different heights of supporting walls to get to a flat floor. It might have been simpler to go to all 140mm thickness and throw some more steel in, or over engineer and go for thicker 215 beams everywhere. That cost versus complexity trade off, plus a SE who didn't really grasp the concept of value engineering! Plus of course a huge dose of ignorance / naivety on our part - ho-hum you learn the hard way! And its been really interesting learning, though everyone seems to assume we know what we are talking about, so come to us to resolve the inevitable issues - what the American term 'drinking from the fire hose'! More on those crash decks in the next post!

Its been a few weeks since the last post but for us its not been a quiet time - we hear from friends who now watch daytime TV at a very leisurely pace - if only!!!! As we are at a point where we have a few days breathing space this is the first of several posts to catch up with ourselves. After the scaffold went up round the outside of the build in preparation for the timber frame the next step was to lay the concrete floors as a 'lid' to the basement and sub floor and a ceiling to the next floor up. This consists of long concrete pre-cast beams spaced out across the supporting lower levels and in filled with concrete blocks. This has been a bit fraught as the design is complex (as is everything in our design!) and we are on our second B&B supplier and have taken a 5 week hit to the schedule. Anyway it was on its way and you can see that the first steps were to load in lots of the infill block (hard to source in todays climate) and a temporary plastic scaffold or 'fall arrest' deck to give the guys a platform to work from and also to prevent them falling 3m onto the concrete slab. This is great stuff (if a little wobbly at times!) and you can see it being laid out as yellow plastic posts and black plastic deck. All was well until the fall deck contractors lorry demolished the front pier of the garage and brought down a load of blockwork. Luckily the steel garage lintel had not been fitted otherwise this would have been even more spectacular. So a bit of rework and it all looked OK for the steel and then the beams. These beams are really heavy - hence the crane, but progress is amazing and they laid the entire floor in a day. Again the gremlins struck and the crane went into 'limp mode' and would only move really slowly but they managed to finish the beams and lay most of the blocks. Next step is filling in all the odd sizes of blocks and then setting out and building the 'plinth' blockwork for the timber frame to sit on - both the internal and external timber frame walls come up from the B&B floor on a level plinth. Again things on our build are complex and on Plot 1 the plinth is 250mm high filled with 150mm of PIR insulation and 100mm of screed, while on Plot 2 its 150mm (50mm of insulation and 100mm screed) - the screed and insulation are fitted at a later stage so all the rooms will look taller than they will end up. If only life was simple all the timber frame would start at this 'plinth' level, however there are some MBC steels and glulams that come down below this to bolt down to the reinforced concrete below and its been an endless and fraught process to make sure that this will all fit together seamlessly on the day - fingers crossed! Plus there are a thermal blocks under the doors and floor to ceiling windows. There are to give a thermal break and are very strange foamed glass (called Foamglass) block that are very light and take a huge load and are really expensive, plus there are three sizes of blocks and we have some of all of them!!!! The Architect wanted Foamglass all way round the outsides of both building and that would have been great - but we really couldn't afford them! So the next bit in the video after the beams is the brickies laying a load of blocks and then we can see where the internal walls will come, and how the room shapes start to look: on a bare floor they seem a bit small but that will likely change as the volumes are enclosed with walls. The last thing you see is the scaffolders back again and putting up the scaffold for the front and middle of Plot 1 - they had to work around the brickies but it all seemed to work. So for a timber frame house there is an alarming amount of concrete, steel and blockwork and an awful lot of insulation. So finally after a last minute rush and lots of issues that needed resolving we are ready for the big day tomorrow where MBC arrive on site and start erecting Plot 1 - what a journey but this is something we have been waiting to see for months and months. So exciting and we cant wait for them and another crane to arrive with a house on a lorry. The latest video is called Beam and Block plus all the older ones can be found here :- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 Our internet is a bit slow at the moment so it may take a few hours (or even days!) to sync up to Dropbox so if you dont see the time lapse video pop back in a day or so - its quite fun to see something starting to take shape above ground.

As per the last post - we live in interesting times and its not getting any easier! The only real upside is that the weather has improved finally. We had the scaffolders in last week and they have built round three sides to roof level and it looks HUGE as it surrounds both houses in one continuous run. It doesn't look it but it is in fact the houses will have the same roof height as the old bungalow (fractionally lower in fact) - we did suggest to the planners that since we have 2 and 3 story houses on either side we could come up to their ridge height with a pitched roof but they were insistent on keeping our roofs at old bungalow level - hence the flat roofs and the deep dig. We cant wait until we have the timber frames up to finally see how they look on the plot. If you look at one of the photos you can see on Plot 1 that the platform steps down which matches the split level heights of the front and back sections. The plan is to get the Beam and Block floor in next week with a crane and then have the scaffolders back to do the front of Plot 1 and the section between the two houses in preparation (hopefully) for MBC Timber Frame the following week. It is still very tight and could easily go off track if one of the steps fails or goes off schedule, or if the guidelines change and non-essential construction is halted. But we have our fingers crossed and are ploughing ahead as fast as is possible and safe.. From the video you can see that the guys (no gals scaffolding on this one - sorry) seem to be maintaining social distancing and its a wide open site with few people and no enclosed spaces so it seems OK from that standpoint. We have managed to take delivery of a few key items for the preparation for MBC - our local builders merchant has been doing a great job but has decided to close as of Friday so little chance of getting anything else. This same picture seems true of the M&E (heating and ventilation) supply but Nick (from Wales) seems to have secured all we need for first fix. The thinking being that even if we get shut down then when we re-start we are all ready to move forward again as that re-start period will be total chaos as everyone tries to source materials at the same time. If you thought panic (or prudent) buying was restricted to toilet rolls .....We hear it from everyone - its a crazy world out there. On a lighter note we decided to pump out the foundation bays which had filled with rain water to about 6 inches (they dont drain as its waterproof concrete!). We dropped the pump in and were just starting to pump when we spotted a load of frog spawn. We stopped and jumped in to collect it in a bucket to take it to a more suitable location when we discovered two (common) frogs - presumably mummy frog and daddy frog. Amazingly they had survived in what was essentially a sterile concrete pond that was impossible for them to get out of. We managed to catch them in a clean bucket and repatriated them, with their spawn to a nearby field pond. Hopefully they are enjoying their new home as ours will be covered over with a beam and block floor and be dry and very inhospitable for frogs! As they say no newts is good newts! We have kind of lost the Week xx thread on the posts - so the latest is called Scaffold plus all the older ones can be found here :- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 Our internet is a bit slow at the moment so it may take a few hours (or even days!) to sync up to Dropbox so if you dont see the Scaffold time lapse video pop back in a day or so - its quite fun to see something starting to take shape above ground.

We had always heard that self build was not only exciting but difficult and stressful, and it was living up to its reputation as we worked through all the issues of foundations and sub structure to get ready for the Timber Frame. There was a hiccup in the Beam and Block floor supply that pushed the schedule out a week but it was all looking good for B&B on the 27th March and MBC Timber Frame on the 6th April. This was a really tight but achievable schedule, and the Internorm with windows on the 11th of May would have been great - heading to wind and watertight by end of May. Then the world went crazy!!!!! Right now we are pushing ahead, and have been amazed at how committed and flexible our suppliers have been, but who knows what will happen tomorrow - things change hour by hour. Today we have the scaffolders on site preparing for the TF, we have a somewhat tenuous commitment to deliver the B&B floor and crane onto site on 1st April (the irony of that particular date has not escaped us). our groundworks lined up to fit the blocks and prepare the plinth, and MBC on site on the 8th. This all sounds possible - but it is so finely balanced and inter-dependant that one element in the critical path will bring the whole project to a standstill. And we get the feeling that this could happen at any minute. Guidance seems to allow work on site and as long as the folks are safe and able to maintain distance then we are happy to have them working. We are keeping our site visits down to a minimum but as self builders we believe that we are OK to follow the guidance for the construction industry and are able to travel to site - anyone out there been challenged on that? Our intent is still to try to get to a shell, but there is certainly an argument to pull back and sit it out - however we are in rented accommodation so that adds another element of pressure to the equation. Added to this is that most of our build budget is invested and shrinking by the day so funds are tight to the point that we will need to get stuck in and do the unskilled labour to even get close to finishing. Internorm just pushed out the installation of our windows out by about 4 weeks, and subject to review, so if we get the TF up then it will sit without windows for ages - a situation we have been trying hard to avoid. We have a roofer 'pencilled in' but who knows if he will be able to work, or if he can get the materials to site. So , this is not in any way belittling the major world wide disaster that is unfolding around us all - more to just to let you know that we are doing our bit to keep our project afloat and keep the very squeaky wheels of the construction industry turning. While there is some criticism of the construction industry continuing to work, our position is that, providing its safe to work, then if we dont pay the guys then they dont have money to feed their families. We are painfully aware as our Son lost 16 weeks work as a self employed lighting designer when they cancelled his David Gray WW tour as it hit production rehearsals and he lost all his income from that and the summer festival season. Hats off to anyone else who has been attempting the impossible over the last few weeks - and commiserations to anyone who has put their project on hold on these 'interesting times'. As we seem to have some more time on our hands we will get round to the time lapse video and keep our blog up to date

The SAP assessor got back and said he had used TF70 R=0.022 (not the better K103) for the calcs as this was worst case, so going ahead with this will be fine from a SAP point of view. He said he didn't think it would make a difference to the SAP calcs either way - which sounds a bit odd, but well possible. So this is the way we will go because in the current climate funds are very stretched. If, and its a big IF, we get a TF then we will go with seconds, IF we can get delivery in these crazy times.

Hi, we are in the process of ordering insulation for our floors and the Architect has specified 150mm of Phenolic Kingspan K103 with and R=0.018. However this is really expensive so there is an option of 150mm of PIR Kingspan TF70 or similar with and R=0.022 which is much cheaper (about half the price). Does anyone know if this change in material will make much difference to the SAP rating - currently A96? We would like to keep an A rating so we could potentially go down to A92. Given the vagaries of SAP I have no idea what effect, if any, using cheaper insulation will have on the calcs - or if anyone will ever know! From a practical point of view I dont believe going for PIR insulation will make much noticeable difference as there will be a very airtight and highly insulated MBC timber frame structure, but I may be wrong? Changing the insulation depth is not an option, but already looking at Seconds & Co which seem to be OK and much cheaper (much bigger price difference for seconds vs first for Phenolic than PIR)- under 100mm of screed I cant see that a bit of variation will make much odds. Any thoughts from the wise on this? Thx

This blog & video from Charlie Luxton shows leak testing on his flat roof (prior to green roof) - might be work looking at? https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/leak-testing-the-flat-roof/ He used Thornton Consultants https://thorntonconsulting.co.uk/ to test the membrane - but with consultant in their name they may be expensive!

We have 30 frames a second and 30 second interval on our Brinno. We edit the footage to take out when the guys are not on site Hope that helps

We will look at what ours is when we are on site tomorrow. Have a look on the blog to see if its the speed you want. We use Energiser Ultimate Lithium Batteries which do seem to last longer. One of our SD cards was a wireless one and used a lot more batteries - we now have a mains connection though.

We had these all ready to order following several discussions with Roofmaker. They called on Friday to say they have stopped doing the opening ones. We would like an opening one to allow access to the flat roof occasionally to look at the solar panels and ventilation. Does anyone know of anyone else who does an opening one ? Thanks

Thanks, it sounds like we will give it a miss

Hi It would be great if you could share if you think it is worthwhile going. we have tickets and were planning to go during the week. dont think we can afford much !!

What sort of ground conditions do you have? If its not rock or boulders I would check out temporary sheet piles rather than permanent concrete contiguous piles - might be cheaper if they will do the job. We held back about a 4m wall of wet clay with them (and the driveway + vehicle traffic) OK and then built the RC walls and backfilled with clean stone and removed them. So far everything seems to be staying put. Cost will depend on steel grade / how thick sheet you need and how deep you need to go. 10m sounds a lot - I think the rule of thumb for sheets is about as much in as out, but I think with steel you may get some gain vs concrete because they all interlock. Also depends what sort of machine you need for the hammer (we used the big digger already on site with a high frequency hammer). Might be worth talking to a specialist. Our sheet piling was about £15k for the duration (installation, hire and removal) - dont know how this stacks up with the concrete piles? Also depends if you are into re-use - I think steel piles get used many times over. Not sure if the nuisance factor for sheet is worse than concrete piles - but the vibration was a bit epic! It might be a factor if for any reason you care about your neighbours. This photo is our 'short' side not fully dug yet (went down to about 4m) but you get the idea - and note the water - we needed to run a pump almost continuously, The bit further on was not piled and sat OK having been terraced / battered for the duration - but our clay was pretty stable and has a reasonable repose angle - I suppose there has to be some benefit to clay in that it sticks to itself, and pretty much anything else it touches! And this is the shuttering in behind the sheet pile which held back the driveway to the right - gives you an idea of the space you need to work in

Its the almost in that sentence that gives me the shivers!!!!

Welcome Mark, we are with you on thinking basements are great and we are building a basement which is fully in ground at the back of our sloped plot and out of the ground at the front. So, not wishing to prescriptive or 'know it all', and you may have already thought it all through, but here are some of our thoughts - hope they help :- Your most important element with a basement will likely be waterproofing: and for waterproofing you will need (for building regs, BS 8102 etc) 2 out of 3 methods :- (i) external tanking, (ii) waterproof concrete and (iii) internal drainage/waterproofing. We went for external tanking and shuttered and reinforced structural waterproof concrete (btw steel reinforced concrete is often shortened to RC) as it seems like admitting defeat letting the water in and then draining it internally and pumping it out again. However internal drainage is often preferred by warranty and lenders since you can see it (and fix it) after you have finished. We will have a 20 year guarantee for our waterproofing from Cementaid / Caltite and they seem to be very thorough in checking the work our contractor is doing. Our contractor - who is a specialist groundworker / RC expert and is fantastic - reckons our external tanking is unnecessary except to get the warranty as the concrete is 100% waterproof on its own (providing it is properly done). Interestingly our structural warranty provider (LABC) was not prepared to cover the basement element. With ours - since we are out of the ground at the front, hydrostatic pressure in not a big issue - which it can be when you are fully in ground - so is much less critical and we have an externally drained French drain around the outside. Odd though it may seem, one of the issues is that in-ground basements tend to want to float (if you are below the water table at any time of the year) so you need to watch that! Not sure what your need for a contiguous piled structure is (retention of some form?) - you may well be able to use the basement walls for this structural element (if they have enough steel and concrete) - and perhaps temporary sheet piles while you do the dig and construction - we have done some of this and it has worked fine - and it may be cheaper that permanent piling plus basement walls. But you certainly don't want everything to collapse into your nice newly dug hole, and the last thing you want is one of your contractors buried in it (btw not a joking matter - holes can be very very dangerous place). Also you may want to consider having a basement footprint that matches the house above - depends on cost/budget - but can simplify things and may not be that much incremental cost. There can be an issue that if you mix a basement with traditional foundations they both need to go down to the same depth to avoid any differential movement - but talk to Structural Engineers on that. Tip: if you want to build extra basement, but dont have PP, then the extra bits you build are technically an 'undercroft' that you might convert at a later stage (subject to PP / PD). Our advice would be to first consider the use you want from a basement - storage (easyish) or fully habitable (much harder). Then look at the warranty and funding side and see if this constrains you on the methodology. Next step is a topo survey plus a good soil survey (this will be money well spent - and if a basement contractor is prepared to quote without seeing a soil survey then they are likely clueless or naive) and some careful thought about site drainage (while building and on-going) - which is really important if you are below ground. Armed with all that then talk to a few Structural Engineers and/or Architects and see what they think is best - they may not focus on cheapest but you likely will! Also talk to a few of the competing basement product providers for you chosen waterproofing - they should have approved contractors you can talk to. You may also want to look at ICF as it can be a good option for basements and is probably your only option if you want to do it yourself - we are not experts in this area but there are some on the Forum who are, and have done it all themselves (hats off!). You may also want to consider a few other things - like fire protection and exits (note that 3 story buildings get much more complex from a fire standpoint and basements have a few fire quirks all of their own), natural light, foul and grey water drainage, access, insulation, and of course how your SIP structure will sit on the basement (and link to the basement insulation without cold bridges). Also consider muck away - we generated 600m3 and this is really expensive if you cant 'loose' it somewhere. Site access may be a big issue on a small site as you will likely need lots of machines and lorries - oh and look at any overhead cables and underground services - these can cause havoc and delays that you might not believe - we can tell you the saga of the sewer if you ply us with drink! So best of luck with the project and welcome to the forum - we have found that there are lots of amazingly knowledgeable and generous folks out there. If you want then take a look at our week by week video Blog ( Self Building two in North Wiltshire) but be aware that we are building two houses and the below ground elements are really complex - PM us if you have specific questions or want to chat or visit. If you want we can ask our contractor if he is interested in a job in Herts but this may be too far for him - though he does cover a big area, and ours is a smallish job for him!

As you can see there has been some progress on site and things are looking good - not all plain sailing but as we keep telling ourselves - we are getting there. Blockwork walls are going in and we can finally get a real feel for the basement rooms and the layout. Lots of back and forth on waterproofing and insulation/ thermal break under the walls and real problems locating 100mm high Marmox blocks - these are specialist lightweight composite insulating blocks that help prevent thermal bridges and keep the house warm - we dont need many but there are few substitutes (Foamglass being the only one we found). These are made in Egypt and due to some big orders in early Jan there are none in stock in the country until mid Feb which is too late for us so we went for the 65mm thick which are not quite as good - but hopefully good enough. We will need some more for other areas later but for now these will do the job and keep the guys on site busy. The design is complex and in hindsight we should have made much more effort in simplifying the design (or persuading our professionals) much earlier on - our advice would be that if the design looks complex on paper then this is the time to question everything and try and remove the difficult or odd bits. For example we have multiple floor levels and a combination of 155 and 215 high concrete beams for the floor - if we had known how difficult this would make things we would have changed it beforehand. Its the small details like this that make life very hectic as we finalise the exact construction and are constantly running round trying to keep the guys on site busy. We also have some steel in the basement that an MBC steel frame bolts down onto and needs to be exactly right as concrete and steel have very little wiggle room, and in the process we uncovered an error that would have impacted all the way through the build - luckily caught in time. And as it needs to be in place before the blockwork can be completed its on the critical path. So now steelwork and Beam and Block are on order, as is a crane to fit them all - not sure exactly when but it will be another big day when we get the B&B floor in. The guys are doing really well, and despite the weather, are making good progress and are cheerful - amazing what difference giving them cookies, doughnuts and fruit make when its wet and miserable. One of those frustrating and ironic parts of the build is that you bemoan the lack of progress and everything seems to be in limbo for weeks, and then suddenly everything hits you at once. The MBC drawings are 95% done but not signed off, but we have construction starting on site on 30th March - so plenty of time to make sure the groundworks are ready and we can sign off the drawings and get the frame into production. MBC estimate 2 weeks for Plot 1 and 3 weeks for Plot 2 - perfect. But then Internorm finally come back with some dates and they want to check the window and door apertures on site on March 31st, and start install on April 20th! Strangely there wont be any window apertures the day after MBC start, and they will still be on site on April 20th. So now we will have to push back Internorm and juggle dates and work on site, but at least we will get the windows in pretty soon after the frame is finished which will be a great relief - we have all seen the TV programs where the windows take months to arrive - we seem to have the opposite problem! Good problem to have but ..... On the video front see https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 for the weekly videos

Over the long Xmas (much needed) break we turned the e pump off for a few days and even though it was not raining the level went up about a foot - so back to pumping to keep the water at bay. When the guys came back it was dry so they cracked on with more black tanking, external sheathing and backfill - which is what the video shows. They built a French drain around the outside which is a big black perforated pipe laid in gravel, covered with geotextile membrane which allow water through, but not the clay fines. Then lots of free flowing clean stone up towards the top of the wall. Finally we can get around the outside of the wall without walking in clay, and you begin to see where the ground level will come. Now the backfill is in place they can start to take out the sheet piles as the clay is held back by the walls and the backfill - surprisingly the clean stone doesn't seem to need compacting - but there is a lot of it! Removing the piles is more work than it was putting them in as the clay has stuck to them and even with the high frequency vibration hammer and the big digger its a slow process. They get really hot and steam as they come out - and I am told that they can friction weld to each other if you dont have lots of wet clay to cool them down. You can see just how tall they are with Ian stood next to one as it comes out. So on that front good progress - but in other areas less so - the bad news is that some of the concrete wall is too high by about 220mm. The contractors missed it, and so did we, that there is a step down in the back wall where the small house sits. We have been focused on a recovery plan as cutting the top off the wall is not an option!!!! Luckily its not as bad as it seems - after a very productive meeting with the Contractor, the SE and the Architect it seems as simple as building an additional blockwork wall inside the rear wall so the Beam and Block floor sits on this and luckily it at just the same height as the intended wall should have been. There is a lot of blockwork to do so a bit extra should be no big deal. In hindsight there should have been some really simple drawings of each RC wall - rather than the really complex drawings where its hard to spot! We have signed off the windows and are waiting for a delivery date - but it seems unlikely they will arrive too soon. Sadly we have still not signed off the Timber Frame for a number of reasons that come down to making absolutely sure that the interface between the concrete sub-structure and the Timber Frame will fit exactly. Its a really frustrating pain - but something that really does need to be right, and the above issue might have had a huge impact. So onwards and upwards - blockwork and beam and block next - and still lots of complex details that seem to need a huge amount of handholding.

Progress on site has been a bit slow so we have combined the last two weeks together, and also the guys packed up early on Friday for their long and well earned Christmas break. Over the last two weeks you can see them taking down the last of the shuttering and getting it off site. So that is the end of the poured concrete for us which is a big milestone and you can now see the full extent of the basement / foundations. The next step was to put a fillet of mortar all around the outside of the kicker to get a smooth edge for the membrane, and then prime the outside of the concrete in black. Then they have started to put on the external tanking membrane which has been a real challenge in the wet and cold. At one point they resorted to putting the membrane in the digger cab and running the heater to get it flexible and warm. They managed to get the left hand side wall completed and the first job next year will be to put the French drain around that side and backfill with clean stone so they can get around to the back and continue the tanking. They then need to build the internal walls out of blockwork and then the beam and block floor ready for the Timber Frame. So given a really wet autumn progress is pretty good; the guys have worked really hard and though it has taken longer than we thought, we are pretty happy. Now it all depends on the weather in January! The waterproofing guys inspected the concrete and declared it 'near perfect' so looking good for the warranty. Also the BCO and Structural Warranty folks all seem happy so that is comforting. They seem impressed, as we are, with the quality of the work and the attention to detail - which, given the weather, is a huge credit to the guys on site. And whatever the weather they are cheerful and work really hard. Are there any convention out there on how you treat your contractors? - we make sure to drop off cake or cookies to them about once a week, and even mince pies for Christmas! It also looks like we have finally got some drawings to sign off from the TF company so just waiting on our SE to agree and we can push the button to get it into production - so likely to see it in Feb. Similarly with the windows - we have a complete schedule that looks good and though it has taken ages the window supplier, the TF supplier and our Architect all see to be in agreement - fingers crossed they all fit!!!! And they are on 12 - 14 weeks lead time so likely in March! So wishing all of you following our build a Happy Christmas and we are looking forward to further progress and an exciting New Year! On the video front see https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 for the weekly videos (Week 12 & Week 13 just added - but not too exciting). And as an extra special Christmas treat the entire 13 weeks of 2019 Groundworks videos are compacted down to a 3 minute video summary named 2019 ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbvjhdxn1dyrufm/2019.mp4?dl=0 ) Its much too quick to capture the detail but it give a really rapid view of the progress we have made this year - starting after the demolition in October. So still a way to go - but moving forward is so much better than having your soul ever so slowly destroyed by the Planning process! So From This To This

The weather was really cold this week but the guys cracked on and removed the shuttering from the first pour of the walls and moved it ready for the second pour. Luckily the weather warmed up and they were able to pour the final structural walls on Friday so this should be the last of the waterproof concrete. As you can see where the shuttering has come off we are left with really neat concrete with just the shutter panel marks. The waterproofing guy inspected these and was really happy: in his words 'near perfect'! He will do a detailed inspection when all the shuttering is off and if there are any cracks (and he couldn't see any so far) they will get filled and sealed with some sort of waterproof compound. The next step will be to remove all the shuttering and then we will see the real space for the basement and houses . Its odd how sometimes the space seems huge and at other times it gets much smaller. Following the clean-up its external tanking/waterproofing and backfill and internal masonry walls. Also you can see the opening for the garage window which has been pre-cast, its the only opening we can actually measure before we order the windows which is a scary thought! Sadly the temperature really went down with one of our main suppliers this week. Firstly they missed some details in their quote and the (agreed price) contract,and came back with an extra price to fix this. This is really annoying since we pointed out several time at the quote stage that there was a really odd detail in the Architects plans and were they OK with it; we were assured that this was OK so we went forward on that basis, only now do we find that they missed the complexity and extra work it will take. They have had the drawings for this detail, which has never changed, for at least 6 months and we released final Architects drawing to them about 3 months ago - so its taken them a very long time to figure this out, though they do apologise and acknowledge its their cock up. From our point of view, and we are confident from a contractual standpoint, we are in the right and its their cost, obviously they have their view on it which is somewhat different. Eventually they did come down 30% but they refused to meet us half way. So what do you do at this point? They are adamant that without the extra payment they are not prepared to do the work. We could take it to arbitration and we are reasonably confident we would win, or at least end up at the 50/50 point we were reluctantly prepared to go to. However if were to go down that route then its pretty certain they would stop work and we would be facing a huge delay, and certainly it would be very difficult to work with them going forward. To some extent we can see their point of view - its extra work and materials they hadn't costed and it does need to be done. Annoyingly though, if we had know about this when we were negotiating Non Material Amendments with Planning we might have been able to design it out and go to their zero cost standard detail - but going back to Planning at this stage is not really an option (or one fraught with risk and delay, and a huge history!). We had not quite decided what to do, but seemed to be between a rock and a hard place when they came back with some more elements they had missed and wanted to reduce window sizes, add more steel, take out the Pocket Doors and charge us more money. At this point I have to say I lost it a bit and voiced my dissatisfaction! Things have improved a bit and they looked at the design with some more care and it seems they can solve most of the problems and all we need to do is compromise some room sizes to accommodate them. If this had happened when they first got the drawings, or when we gave them 'final' Architect drawings we would have been much happier, but really this is very late in the day to uncover issues like this. The really worrying bit is what else is there that they have not found yet! So with the relationship temperature still below freezing we seem to have little choice but to carry on - but we are still really unhappy and as its a major reputable supplier it make our position really difficult. Perhaps we are being unreasonable, or naive, in our expectations, but its probably a lesson learnt - regardless of the contract when you reach a certain point going back becomes an almost impossible option and your supplier has you in a corner (to put it politely!). See https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 for the weekly videos.

Pre-cast is probably less labour and possibly cheaper materials, but I was not able to find a waterproof version so I never costed it out. If I had gone this way then I would have had to put external tanking (as I am doing now) and also an internal tanking / drainage membrane. You need two of three, forms of waterproofing in habitable basements (external tanking, waterproof concrete, internal tanking/drainage). I have a real aversion to internal drainage as it seems like an admission of failure if you let the water in and then pump it out. The other two options were Glathaar (German offsite precast) that are eye wateringly expensive, plus they dont do the dig - just the panels. Or ICF which would have worked out well, but we have a very odd insulation setup that would have made it tricky. Plus I wanted to use our contractors and they are singularly unimpressed by ICF - though they are never very clear on why. The waterproof concrete on its own in likely sufficient, especially as we are out of the ground at the front so have low hydrostatic pressure, and the external membrane is just another of those 'belt and braces' features to keep the BCO happy and give us a 20 year warranty.