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Off the top of my head the delays were down to (most minor issues btw):

  • engineering calcs not sent to BC in time so pre-pour inspection was delayed by over a week
  • wrong spec of rebar used for part of the slab meant a couple of days delay
  • heavy rain on planned day of pour meant 2-3 days delay
  • steel beam - big issue! Made too deep, holes drilled in wrong place and twisted by 12mm. Ultimate delay due to waiting for Brendan to come available and then for the fix to be implemented meant a delay of 2 weeks in total
  • bad weather for a number of days has certainly impacted the guys ability to work as well as they would have liked. To be fair, the guys on site have been amazing!

So about a month longer than expected 

 

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4 hours ago, jack said:

Sounds horrendous, but hopefully all sorted out in the end.  Having good workers onsite makes a world of difference to how this sort of thing pans out.

 

Pretty much all sorted, yes. We ended up working around the beam issues which, had I known beforehand that it would have taken so long, I would have ordered a new beam. Partly I wasn't that confident with the steel company and was 50% sure a new one would have been just as bad. 

The guys are due to leave site tomorrow, I understand. Roof to be slated the week after next I think and windows due w/c 12th Dec. Apparently the windows will take around 2 weeks but hopefully they'll be done for Christmas so then I can crack on with the MVHR over the holiday period

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 24/11/2016 at 13:38, worldwidewebs said:

 

Pretty much all sorted, yes. We ended up working around the beam issues which, had I known beforehand that it would have taken so long, I would have ordered a new beam. Partly I wasn't that confident with the steel company and was 50% sure a new one would have been just as bad. 

The guys are due to leave site tomorrow, I understand. Roof to be slated the week after next I think and windows due w/c 12th Dec. Apparently the windows will take around 2 weeks but hopefully they'll be done for Christmas so then I can crack on with the MVHR over the holiday period

 

Similar schedule to ours last winter. However I had too many mince pies so the MVHR did not start until late Jan. Don't rush it, requires deep thought...

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Most of the reveals will be rendered but some will have an aluminium trim strip. The only reason for this is that we are having some elements of stone cladding (onto blockwork) and I don't want to have the stone in the reveals themselves as the thickness would be too great (25mm batten + 15mm board + 10mm adhesive + 35mm stone).

 

There are a handful of details that I haven't worked out to my satisfaction yet. Above the 4 bedroom windows and the front central glazing there will be aluminium cladding  (see CGI below) that will wrap into the top reveal. I have a few thoughts on how best to do this but I need to speak with the renderer again and get his view

 

Actually, getting the ali/render detailing right is probably going to be the hardest thing 

 

1.jpg

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3 hours ago, worldwidewebs said:

Actually, getting the ali/render detailing right is probably going to be the hardest thing 

 

Our experience is that when you've got a competent sub-contractor, then they will sort the issues entirely within their responsibility. However when it comes to interfaces - such as your reveals - then it's down to you and the devil is in the detail.

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On 01/10/2016 at 11:10, TerryE said:

My Bosch measure as been superseded by a newer model, but it is mm accurate up to 30m or further in low light conditions. I use rechargeables because, as Bitpipe says, it goes through the batteries if you use it a lot. 

 

@worldwidewebs, by project manager, I really meant your designated point of contact within MBC.  In my case it was Trish O'Dwyer.  This person has no on-site responsibilities, but is responsible as a single interface for agreeing and signing off plans, timescales, customer issues, etc.  I should hope that any framing company provides such a level of continuity for a service like this.

 

In terms of delivery time-scales, I naively thought that the MBC teams would work a normal 5 day week, but these guys are nearly all southern Irish based.  The building industry in Eire hasn't really fully recovered since the 2008 crash, so competition for jobs drives down labour rates.  By working (largely) over here they get top $.  Most work a cycle 2 weeks on and 1 off (or whatever is dictated by their family commitments).  When they are here they tend to work 12hr days, 7 days a week when possible because they all seem to have a committed work ethic and are paid on an  hourly rate.  They don't allocate contingency between jobs as this would be non-productive if not used, but instead just roll from one job to the next.  As a result it isn't at all unusual for notional start times to slip a few days or more if there has been bad weather.

 

TBH its not really an EIRE thing,

I'm from norn iron and that basically how work goes on the island of Ireland if you are working away from home, and I've worked away for all my adult life mostly

turn up at 5, work till 11, 

just get the job done, 

 

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6 hours ago, TerryE said:

 

Our experience is that when you've got a competent sub-contractor, then they will sort the issues entirely within their responsibility. However when it comes to interfaces - such as your reveals - then it's down to you and the devil is in the detail.

 

Agreed, I just wish it wasn't so hard to drag information out of people. It's not as though these are original issues, they've been done thousands of times before but you would hardly know it based on the conversations I have had

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Rain. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.

 

We are still waiting for the slates to arrive so the roof is simply felted, counter-battened and battened at the moment. I've noticed about 10 quite small pools of water in the bedrooms where rain appears to be dripping in although I can't see any noticeable holes. Oddly I can see 2 rips in the felt but no water below them (or that could possibly be attributed to them). Is it normal to expect this to a small degree (rips I see I will get patched) or should it be 100% water sealed at this stage? 

 

We have a small flat roof section (2m x 5m) which again is only felted at the moment and we are getting quite a bit of rain coming in directly under the flat roof. Is this too, to be expected until the roof is covered with the rubber membrane or should it also be pretty watertight at this stage? I can't tell where the rain is getting in, but my guess would be where 2 pieces of the felt are joined

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1 hour ago, worldwidewebs said:

Rain. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.

 

We are still waiting for the slates to arrive so the roof is simply felted, counter-battened and battened at the moment. I've noticed about 10 quite small pools of water in the bedrooms where rain appears to be dripping in although I can't see any noticeable holes. Oddly I can see 2 rips in the felt but no water below them (or that could possibly be attributed to them). Is it normal to expect this to a small degree (rips I see I will get patched) or should it be 100% water sealed at this stage? 

 

We have a small flat roof section (2m x 5m) which again is only felted at the moment and we are getting quite a bit of rain coming in directly under the flat roof. Is this too, to be expected until the roof is covered with the rubber membrane or should it also be pretty watertight at this stage? I can't tell where the rain is getting in, but my guess would be where 2 pieces of the felt are joined

 

MBC have told me that they will deliver a water tight structure once the windows/doors are in and of course to the specified air changes per hour (0.54 iirc) in terms of airtightness. So water coming in and your comment that. "You will patch rips" seems at odds here. I guess they've not finished yet? 

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Surprised to hear that you've got water coming in past the felt.

My build has been clad in only the membranes since the start of the summer, and apart from one small patch where there was wind damage, has not let in a drop for months. I've been quite impressed really, given how exposed it is here.

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10 hours ago, Barney12 said:

 

MBC have told me that they will deliver a water tight structure once the windows/doors are in and of course to the specified air changes per hour (0.54 iirc) in terms of airtightness. So water coming in and your comment that. "You will patch rips" seems at odds here. I guess they've not finished yet? 

 

I think they will deliver an air-tight structure, not water-tight. I had this discussion with Brendan as he said they would only come back to do the air-tightness once the roof, windows, ali cladding and rendering was done. So I take from that that he doesn't believe what is done is water tight.

 

I think obvious rips in the roof felt are relatively easy to resolve - it's the ones that I can't see and that are letting in water that I'm more concerned about. And the flat roof section, which is pissing in. I feel like I don't want to put the final roof finishes on until I have more confidence in what's there now. Maybe this is normal but looking at @Crofter's comments maybe not

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What type of membrane is on there? They do come in different grades and weights. Mine is not the cheapest stuff as I knew it was likely to remain exposed for quite some time. The biggest problem I had was the south gable which faces into the weather, and which I had not battened; the membrane started to tear slightly around some of the nail holes. In the end i just slapped a whole second layer on top, and then stuck the battens on, and it's been absolutely perfect since. I've had my chipboard flooring down for several months now- no way that I could have done that if the membranes were leaking.

 

Your flat roof might be difficult to keep waterproof though, I imagine the water will always pond and then seep through the nail/staple holes.

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