New build "what if / what's that " Anxiety

[Jenki]

A question for those of you who've built and are living in your new build.

 

Yesterday in North Scotland, winds of 35mph, gusts to 48 and with intense rain. My question is how long before the anxiety of "how's the house coping", "what's that noise" subsides?. This is our second storm in 10days, and all seems to be going ok.

 

I've had to replace an aerial bracket for my 4G aerial, and will test having it in the loft at some point.  But other than that all good, but I have this anxiety every time I hear different noises.😬. I can hear some tile rattle when we get big guests 40mph plus, but I know they are nailed and clipped and suspect this will be some of the slim cut verge tiles. But I'm hoping this settling in feeling and anxiety is short lived.

Anyone else go through this?

Edited December 28, 2023 by Jenki
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[Kelvin]

I know what you mean. We aren’t living here yet but we rent two miles away. I’ve been down at the house at all times of the night in all weathers keeping an eye on things. Every morning I come down there’s a little part of me expecting something wrong. Other half thinks I’m mad. 

[joe90]

During my build the west gable wall blew over twice (the mortar was still green) after the first time my brikie propped it with my tower scaffold and that didn’t work so the second time he fashioned timber trusses to support it overnight.after the build was finished  I did have a roof rattle that I thought was a loose slate but turned out to be a vibrating plastic downpipe so extra brackets fitted.

[ToughButterCup]

Ugh, pushing on an open door here.

29 minutes ago, Jenki said:

....

My question is how long before the anxiety of "how's the house coping", "what's that noise" subsides?. This is our second storm in 10days, and all seems to be going ok

...

 

We've been in for two full years so far. Now not much worries me, (remember our wall collapse?)  but here's a list of what did

• Water droplets on the floor in (say) the pantry: automatic look-up reflex. Why? the flat roof leaked once and was repaired under guarantee. Still look up. Never leaks now.  Annoying.
• Any wind over 70 knots (and gusting higher) the louvres on our Winter Garden whistle and moan if the wind comes from  SSW. The sound is deep and threatening.  Bit  like @SteamyTea when someone writes KwH instead of KWh or is it KWH 
• Whassat noise ? : most often heard just after dawn. Scratching like a kid dragging its nails down a blackboard:  Its the local buzzard grabbing onto and pissing about on our Lindab  guttering. 
• Drip - drip - drip - drip in the upstairs bathroom. SWMBO had quickly washed her hair over the bath, and put the hand-shower head on a low chair by the bath.... and didn't switch it off fully. I discovered it at 0300 (old-man-trouble) Well thank God I have an old bladder because the bloody ceiling below would have fallen in. Fault? MINE. I should have designed it so that nobody could do what she did. 
• Gusty NW wind. One Lindab bracket is slightly loose. Why haven't I fixed it? Nesting Grey Wagtail, and Starlings a meter away. 
• Took me a year to reassure myself that the fridge makes stoopid noises. At night. Sodding thing.
• Whassat air bubbling up in the wetroom shower floor drain for? IC's lifted , shoo shoo backed up in three ICs, but not the last one. 6 year old - "Can I help?"  Out with the rods - whoosh - "...All Gone Grandad.." (more worried about him falling in than  anything) . Why? The sodding digga driver had pulled our rodding point up, despite it being marked and him being told to use a hand shovel. Split the pipe. I can feel a bit of foul drainage and foul language coming on next year ....  Shoulda done it myself - my fault.

The massive advantage of DIY MAX is that you know everything about the house, and you have the tools and know-how to hand to fix it.

[Gone West]

2 hours ago, Jenki said:

My question is how long before the anxiety of "how's the house coping", "what's that noise" subsides?

Pretty quick. Once you've lived through a winter and you realise it's not going to blow down, there are probably plenty of things, other than the house to think about.

[Kelvin]

7 minutes ago, Gone West said:

Pretty quick. Once you've lived through a winter and you realise it's not going to blow down, there are probably plenty of things, other than the house to think about.

There’s been three/four storms since we started building in February. Record breaking rainfall round here. So far so good and the house isn’t finished yet. My anxiety levels have already dropped significantly. 

[ProDave]

We had a storm while living in the static caravan.  Obvious concern about would the 'van survive, it did and is still in one piece now.  But we barely noticed the noise of a neighbours tree blowing down.  

 

 

We were asleep in the 'van when that happened, good job the wind was not the other way.

 

Being an all timber house, we expected a lot of creaking and groaning when the wind blows but surprisingly little.

 

I guess are two big worries are if a tree blew down onto the house, or flooding from the burn.  Neither has happened yet.  The burn has had two "once in 10 year" floods in the time we have been here.  No danger to the house, just a little damage to the banks of the burn and each time we learn and try and alter things or improve them to make them more resilient for next time.  The lesson learned from this years flood is we now know where flood water is likely to run across the garden back into the burn and that bit of the bank has been reinforced, and the berm I built along the boundary to try and keep flood water out of our garden in the first place needs to be a bit higher.

 

See this picture.  the berm along the boundary needs raising to try and limit flood water from the field entering.  And where most of it spilled over back into the burn, that part of bank that got eroded has been reinforced with big rocks.

 

The grass in the foreground is the house side and no flood water threatened that so the house was not in any danger.

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We were asleep in the 'van when that happened, good job the wind was not the other way.

Back in '82 I lived in a static next to Poole Marines base.

Helicopters and artics 24/7 once the Argies kicked off.

Slept through the lot.

[Andehh]

We're 6 months in, and just starting to settle. One benefit of 100% block built inside and out is the storms don't register much, but having about 2 acres of field higher then us, but being halfway up a hill, does mean every large rain fall has me up checking water discharges and Drains etc!

 

We also have a leak in the damage garage flat roof, one for January as part of snagging!

[Kelvin]

An example from today. A sudden small pool of water appeared in one of the rooms. Ffs! No obvious source. But it wasn’t there earlier. Turned out the electrician popped in for a looksee and his water bottle leaked on the floor!