Blocking up - Advice needed

[Mulberry View]

This is our Window Seat arrangement. It was designed as somewhat of an 'after-thought', not properly considered really in all honesty.

 

 

This is how we decided to construct it. There were definitely better ways to build it, but we move on.

 

 

The pic is a few weeks old, there is now concrete in it, including in those projecting 'piers', all is well so far.

 

The idea was that we would push the window out from it's original design position, into a deep window seat. So we added the piers to provide structure for the window. The intention was to side-fix the window to the piers. The original design was a floating box, the piers were not intended to come down to the ground. The whole thing would be boxed in with timberwork to create a flat front. Despite an early indication of confidence from my SE, it turned out that the steel needed to make it work was extreme. So I added a couple of extra foundations and we brought it all the way down, this simplified the reinforcement no end. The solution was supported by my SE.

 

 

On further thought about the boxing in, I am now thinking of adding a further foundation between the piers and erecting blockwork up to cill height of the window, this would have better ground-level resilience than anything else. Keep in mind the main envelope of the building is ICF. The opening will be insulated on both vertical sides by the existing ICF and to the top and bottom with PIR. Therefore the blockwork doesn't really need to be thermally considered. It's just an infill, but might as well bear some of the weight of the window I guess. I'm thinking of having it built as a 9" wall (with or without a cavity) so it can be used to pick up the inner cill too.

 

Can anyone spot any flaws in my plan? If it's OK, what blocks should be used? The piece over the window up to the roofline will be timber as there is no need for it to be any other way.

Edited January 23 by Mulberry View

[Mr Punter]

I guess you have a digger on site and can source concrete in small quantities.  You will need to consider moisture ingress, airtightness and tying the the blockwork into the icf.  Is the block wall going to be cavity?  Unless you want to DIY you will need a bricklayer.

 

I am not convinced with ICF, blockwork and timber frame mixed on the same external wall but if it works, then fine.

[Mulberry View]

24 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

I guess you have a digger on site and can source concrete in small quantities.  You will need to consider moisture ingress, airtightness and tying the the blockwork into the icf.  Is the block wall going to be cavity?  Unless you want to DIY you will need a bricklayer.

 

I am not convinced with ICF, blockwork and timber frame mixed on the same external wall but if it works, then fine.

 

It's not a huge area. Our main foundation spec was 300mm minimum, but principally down to the hard chalk. When I dug for those piers, we went down to about 450mm and were well into the hard stuff in that area. It wouldn't be too hard to hand dig that little bit out and mix the concrete (about half a cube I reckon).

 

I've got a brickie coming to do some work for me, so will get him to do this bit. I'd build it up in a proper way, i.e. with a DPC etc. Not sure where else moisture would be a concern, any moreso than with the original Architectural design.

 

As I said, this design change happened late. Our Architect had all-but lost interest in the project by then. She punted out the revision, took her money and didn't care too much that it wouldn't all make sense in build.

 

This is all better than when the design was floating, so I'm hoping to make it work.

[Mr Punter]

I get it now.  I would be a bit pissed off with the architect for designing an expensive feature that has now cost you more time and money to scrap / modify and leaving you to design the solution. It looks like there is still a wasted void to the left of the left-hand pier.  That space would be worth about £2,500 round here.

[Russell griffiths]

Don’t you have half a dozen Nudura blocks spare. 

I would get it done in one continuous material. 

[Mulberry View]

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

I get it now.  I would be a bit pissed off with the architect for designing an expensive feature that has now cost you more time and money to scrap / modify and leaving you to design the solution. It looks like there is still a wasted void to the left of the left-hand pier.  That space would be worth about £2,500 round here.

 

Yeah, there is. The add-on was designed after the Beam and Block floor was done, so no easy or even moderately easy way to make it into usable floor space. Believe me, the way I forced this design away from what the Architect suggested and into what it is today, is already a triumph. If only she'd listened first time around, we're very happy with the design, just not so much the problems that are surfacing now we're building it.

 

The area to the left of the left-hand pier was drawn by the Architect as some sort of outside shelves. I made no sense to me, so I said we'd just fully box it in. It'll be blocked up from bottom to top, but there is no window to think about, so that's easier. I considered using it as an internal display area or shelving, but it all just upset our simple view of the window seat. It'll be a lovely grand feature when it's done. The seat will be 3.4m long and 600mm deep!

[Mulberry View]

38 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Don’t you have half a dozen Nudura blocks spare. 

I would get it done in one continuous material. 

 

Yeah, I should have done that, but the concrete is in now so the monolithic idea is out of the window.

 

The original idea was rejected by the Architect because it put it in the outer 2% of a very large tree root protection area. But now it's obvious that nobody gives a crap about that, I could have done it in Nudura. Instead of that, we're left having to make it work. The foundation I'm talking about adding is *just* in the protection area hence why we didn't do it first time, but I'm prepared to take the risk.

[ETC]

Here’s a thought - why don’t you form the window seat inside the room?

[Mulberry View]

9 minutes ago, ETC said:

Here’s a thought - why don’t you form the window seat inside the room?

 

1. It's a bit late for that (concrete is in).

2. We did it this was so as not to lose floor space, which it does. Internally, it looks great.

[ETC]

3 hours ago, Mulberry View said:

 

1. It's a bit late for that (concrete is in).

2. We did it this was so as not to lose floor space, which it does. Internally, it looks great.

Bookcase either side. Frame out a window seat. Simple.

[Mulberry View]

1 hour ago, ETC said:

Bookcase either side. Frame out a window seat. Simple.

 

It's not the point of this post. Did you not notice that I have built it? I cannot make such a change at this stage. I'm just after advice about bricking up the section under the window, not a design critique. The metaphorical horse has already bolted.

Edited January 23 by Mulberry View

[Russell griffiths]

 

if this is what your after then bite the bullet and get it done, strip foundation, two courses of Nudura, couple of lengths of floor beam and a dozen blocks, build it in to the side pillars. 

Strip of the Nudura to the pillars on the inside faces, resin fix in some rebar and pour it. 

[Russell griffiths]

Depending on what your outer wall finish is I wouldn’t want dissimilar materials. 

Rendering across eps onto concrete blocks is asking for a crack in my opinion. 

[ETC]

12 hours ago, Mulberry View said:

 

It's not the point of this post. Try not to get your knickers in a twist when a member suggests something you may or may not have thought of. Did you not notice that I have built it? I did - yes I cannot make such a change at this stage. Yes you can - its inside and not structural - you just need a good joiner - look at the post above from Pinterest from @Russell griffiths I'm just after advice about bricking up the section under the window, not a design critique. If you wanted a floating box why on earth didn't you get this sorted out at the design stage instead of placing two not floating piers to the side of the window. Why don't you get a steel box formed and bolt it to the built structure - unless that's not the point of this post!! The metaphorical horse has already bolted.

Calm down dear!

 

I was only suggesting a (much cheaper) alternative to what you are suggesting. 

[ETC]

If you ask nicely I might even do a 3D of what I am suggesting!!

[Mulberry View]

22 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

if this is what your after then bite the bullet and get it done, strip foundation, two courses of Nudura, couple of lengths of floor beam and a dozen blocks, build it in to the side pillars. 

Strip of the Nudura to the pillars on the inside faces, resin fix in some rebar and pour it. 

 

That is pretty much what we're seeking. We don't have any internal detailing like that, but the shape is mainly the same.

 

It's not a bad idea to do it with Nudura, I have sufficient blocks. I would just have to wait to infill it until my next pour or mix it on site.

 

The dissimilar materials thing isn't so much of a concern I don't think. If you look at the plan drawing above, the part denoted as being rendered would be infilled with Timber (the easiest way, I don't have to add a steel or concrete lintel then) and faced with EPS to match the Nudura and the part denoted as having brick slips would be infilled with blockwork.

 

Or I could do the blocks in the slipped areas and timber in the rendered areas, then face the whole front face with EPS and be back to where I should have been had it been built 'properly'.

[Mulberry View]

22 hours ago, ETC said:

Calm down dear!

 

I was only suggesting a (much cheaper) alternative to what you are suggesting. 

 

Sorry, didn't mean to rear up. The underlying problem here is my Architect. She took £20k from us for RIBA Stage 4a and while we're happy with the design, some of the details were just not thought through. This is one of them. She did not fully understand Nudura and refused to get aligned with us on it.

 

Her view was to trim out the window seat internally, I had always said I didn't want to do that as I didn't want it to eat in to the room, besides there is a step detail from the Kitchen into the Living Room that would have been compromised. At the moment, it's a nice wide 2-step.

 

There were parts of the project where she forgot who the paying client is, but that's a whole other story. She made it clear she no longer wants to be involved on the project, so I have no choice but to deal with the legacy problems.

 

In the end, I refused to proceed with a detail we weren't completely happy with, but by then she'd lost interest. Hence she cobbled this effort together and once she handed it over, that was basically it for us and when the structural complications emerged, we no longer had her support to revise it and its only been since it has become real that I can see a better way. I could show you other details that are similarly frustrating, it defies all logic, but we're not deeply experienced, so could not call all this stuff out until I actually started to progress. Sorry to waffle, please bear with me, I think you can see there's more to this than meets the eye! But I just want a way to bring it right, get what we want and build it.

[ETC]

Sounds like you experienced some very poor customer care. If you are very unhappy with how you were treated drop the ARB and RIBA a line. I presume she is Registered and Chartered.

 

I’d love to see the drawings if you want to post them or pm me.

 

Can you elaborate a bit more about what you would like to achieve and where your stumbling blocks are. 

[ETC]