Site Visitors Welcome – Our MBC 140mm frame is up & roof is on (plenty still to do)

[MarkA]

Following the example of @Weebles last year who we visited, we would like to invite fellow Buildhubbers who would like to come and see our MBC 140mm frame to get in touch and make arrangements to visit.  We are located in North Essex about 8 miles west of Colchester.

 

We briefly met @Dreadnaught and @vivienz when visiting @Weebles and we all agreed that seeing a real project was extremely useful.

 

See photos below of the house from the rear + central section - taken just after MBC had completed frame erection and gone home for Christmas (the rooflight is 2m x 1m, triple glazed and weighs just over 180kg - we had fun getting that in place ?).  The photo is a bit deceptive in that the ground does not slope as steeply as it seems, the house is set down in the ground - we had to dig out over 1,500 tonnes of soil due to the constraints those nice planners put on us ? - and there is more to come out once we start landscaping:

 

 

 

At the moment we are reaching major milestones every month or so.  November 2018 saw the slab poured, December 2018 the frame was erected and (most) windows/doors installed and PV array on roof, January 2019 the slate roof was nearly completed (slating should be finished this week).

 

About half the house has a brick skin and brickwork starts tomorrow (weather permitting) and they are expecting to take about 5/6 weeks (weather permitting – I think I shall be saying that a lot in the coming weeks).  The other half is rendered and the rendering team should start preparations within the next couple of weeks.  We also have a couple of areas with brick slips, just to keep us on our toes (but that's another story for another day).

 

MBC are due back during the second half of February to install the insulation in the roof and then make the building airtight.

 

All the above means that there is plenty to see in terms of how the house is constructed.  We have lots of lessons to share as well.

 

We have contracted with MBC for them to deliver wall & roof u-values of 0.14 W/m².K (achieved using Knauf Earthwool + PIR for the walls and similar for the roof) and the slab of 0.105 W/m².K.

 

I also have a belated apology to make to @Dreadnaught for not responding on his previous thread about the 140mm system – we have been distracted by non-build related issues in recent weeks as well as having plenty of build related issues to deal with.  @Dreadnaught - see the photo below of the panels in situ (struggled a bit with the light I am afraid)

 

 

 

 

[Dreadnaught]

Thanks @MarkA. Looks like great progress! Very interesting to see. No apology necessary. Please count me in for a visit, if it won't inconvenience you.