Foundations started today...

[Cambs]

Well, it’s  been a momentous day today.  It’s taken us a couple of years to get to this stage but we finally broke ground today.  All watched over by an archaeologist and in the grounds of a listed building, I’m pleased to say that nothing was found apart from a few copper nails and a few fragments of no significance.  

 

Groundworker didn’t encounter any problems and will be back at it tomorrow.  Visit scheduled in from Building Control (using Stroma) scheduled for Thursday.  Limestone ridge at about 1.5m deep, so a nice solid base to sit on.

 

Here’s some pictures taken by the Groundworker.  I’m working away at the moment unfortunately but can’t wait to see what’s been happening this weekend.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Cambs

[epsilonGreedy]

You have a well drained site there in view of the time of year and recent rainfall.

[Mr Punter]

Looks like a super location.  What style of house are you building?  Any chance of you doing a blog?

[Cambs]

8 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

Looks like a super location.  What style of house are you building?  Any chance of you doing a blog?

 

Not sure about a blog yet but may do.  Here’s a link to the original post showing what we are doing.  Been a few tweaks since then e.g dropped down to 3 bedrooms.  The sunken part is turning out to be an expensive option but the council wouldn’t let us raise the ridge height so we decided to dig down instead. 

 

Timber frame from PYC, in production now, and windows from Green Building Store. PYC are agents for GBS so they are doing the install for the windows. 

 

On 31/12/2017 at 16:47, Cambs said:

Hi -

 

Been on here for a while and planning to start self build number 5 in 2018, so seems like a good time to introduce myself.  We got planning permission towards the end of this year so time to share some plans.

 

We're on the Cambs/Lincs borders, in a conservation area, in the grounds of a listed building and with a Planning Department which was split as to whether this should be approved or not, so it has not been an easy process....  We got there in the end, though.

 

It's our "downsize" self build - the last one was about 320 sq. m and this one will be around 170m so quite a lot to try and squeeze in.

 

Aim is to build to PH standard, but certification may prove difficult due to form factor.  Got a PH designer on board (he did the drawings attached), so will get him to do a quick and dirty PHPP calc to see how close we can get.  I think the form factor (dictated by planning, with little room to change) will preclude it, but we'll see.

 

It'll be a timber frame - we're in discussions with some of the firms who regularly pop up here.  We were aiming to hand over to a single builder but that is proving difficult, so may have to get more hands on than ever before.  My son's in the building industry, so he'll prove a useful source of hopefully good tradesmen.

 

Thank you to everyone on this forum - it has been a great source of information, inspiration and entertainment.... and I'm sure that it'll continue to be so during our build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cambs]

9 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

You have a well drained site there in view of the time of year and recent rainfall.

 

Yes, looking good so far.  I’m told the excavation was just about finished today and the archaeologist didn’t find anything of note - hooray ?. The soil is not clay and the underlying layer of limestone seems to be draining ok. 

[Posty697]

On 18/12/2018 at 19:22, Cambs said:

 Visit scheduled in from Building Control (using Stroma) scheduled for Thursday.  

 

 

@Cambs What was your reasoning in Using Storma to do your building control please

[Cambs]

5 hours ago, Posty697 said:

On 18/12/2018 at 19:22, Cambs said:

 

@Cambs What was your reasoning in Using Storma to do your building control please

 

It was one of the warranty company’s approved inspectors, so was driven by the choice of warranty company and my desire to combine building control inspections and warranty inspections to hopefully reduce costs. 

Edited January 13, 2019 by Cambs
Correct typos

[Cambs]

 

Good progress has been made over the last few weeks.  Now completed the excavations and all of the footings were poured last week and have been left to go off.  Groundworkers return to site tomorrow to do a percolation test for our complex soakway set up - this is due to the sunken section of the building and then we'll get the brickies in to start building up.

 

The good news is that they found exactly what was expected when they dug out for the foundations - solid limestone at about 1.5m down which gives us a good base to build off.

 

Here are some pictures ......

 

View from the top level down to the sunken area

 

 

Detail showing how the retaining wall between the two levels will work - red lines are for the retaining wall and yellow lines are for the house.  The square yellow box is for a pier to support a column.

 

 

Nail driven in to mark the exact position.....

 

 

The muck in the foreground will be removed and will eventually form the sunken patio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Cambs
Removed duplicates + typo