Progress - in and out

Another very productive two weeks inside and outside, which has seen Neil Smillie on-site doing more external weather boarding, NRL Plumbing & Heating with the underfloor heating and Acorn Construction installing the flowing screed. We've also paid a deposit on the stairs and seen a ply drawing on how they will work.

The external weatherboarding is really taking shape now, with good progress being made. Starting with the gable ends and then the front and finally around the back, it's been really good to see this transformation to the look of the building. We are both delighted with how it looks.

From this...

To this...

Then this...

We decided to pre-paint the boards with 2 coats of paint, which meant that all we would have to do is touch up as and where required, however after shuffling 85 boards backwards and forwards inside the house it appears that the paint is thin on a few boards, they have only had one coat... well Fliss was in charge of painting so it's obviously her fault! We also however found that there were 5 boards with the back painted (again I will blame Fliss, even if I was sorting the boards so they were right side up for painting ;)).

Whilst this has all been happening outside loads of work has gone on inside. On the ground floor we've built the level to floor level. We've put 50mm of polystyrene insulation in and then 100mm of Kingspan Kooltherm K3 floor insulation on top and then finished the top by taping a membrane to separate the insulation and the screed.

50mm polystyrene and 100mm Kingspan Kooltherm on top.

Floor insulation installed and inspected by building control

Separation membrane taped on joints and edges to stop screed penetrating to the insulation.

Underfloor heating pipe circuits clipped in place

Underfloor heating manifold - located under the stairs

 Flowing screed delivery arrived

 Flowing screed being poured

 Screed encapsulating the pipes as it fills

 Getting closer to the front door...

 Dappling the screed to level and remove air

Finished job, looks like glass before it dries

We decided to go with a flowing screed after speaking the Shaun at Acorn Construction. The aim was to give us a smoother finish as we harbour for our screed/polished concrete/polished concrete effect floor finish. It was amazingly quick, they arrived onsite at just after 7am to carry out the final checks on the surface prior to the pour, the screed arrived just before 9 and they were pretty much wrapped up by 10:30. We've poured 50mm screed which meant that we needed to increase polystyrene insulation  from 25mm to 50mm to bring it to finished floor level. Within 48 hours it is dry enough for foot traffic but we've tried to stay off it for as long as possible to allow it to dry/cure. 

24 hours on, our bedroom (if Fliss gets her way)

And with that, I'll leave it for now, Tim

Windows, doors, boards, heating, screed, more insulation and paint

It's been 2 weeks since my last blog and there has been some pretty big changes in that time. 

We've now got windows and doors fitted (albeit with some paint issues, but I'll explain that later), the weather boarding preparation has started (and a few boards are on), our paint factory has been de-commissioned after the 2nd coat of paint on the boards being complete (with most of them stacked around the outside of the house ready to go on). First fix electrics are done (barring a couple of little bits now the boards are out of the way), we are awaiting the next delivery for Kingspan Kooltherm Insulation for the floor and walls, we have confirmed a date for the underfloor heating to be installed and also for the flowing screed to go on top of it. 

Windows and doors installed!!

A view from the inside

It's hard to believe that the weather during the 3 days prior to this picture whilst the windows and doors were being fitted was awful - wind & rain!

Fliss and I are both delighted with the windows and doors, we're just waiting for the pewter handles to finish them off. The colouring against the Oak, bricks, tiles and the weatherboard is exactly what we were hoping it would look like when we were planning! The delight of them going in has been a little muted because of an issue with the paint finish on them. We ordered pre finished timber windows so we didn't have anything to do on them once they were installed, but there are patches on all the windows which are lighter grey to what they should be. Whilst it is disappointing the resolution has been quickly dealt with and they are going to be re-painted on site.

We had a visit from my niece on the weekend, it was only right she helped out with a bit of sweeping up... it only cost me a packet of buttons! A fair swap I thought as the minimum wage isn't applicable?

Fliss finally gets the saw out to help with some insulation...

As I mentioned all the boards are now painted with 2 coats, which means that we should only have to do a little bit of touching up once they are on the house. It has amazed me as to the amount of preparation required before the boarding even started. Damp proof course was used to close the brick cavity, lead has been dressed around the top and bottom of all windows and doors, timber finishing to frame the windows were fixed, lead has been dressed on the top of the brick work and batten was put on - before it even got close to putting boards on. Upright finishers on the corners and end of boards around doors and then to boarding could start to go on.

Corner posts, lead dressing, window finish frame and first weather board on

Batten and blue skies

Normal skies resume...

This week we've got our next Kingspan delivery coming and we've got the architect coming to do his next certification visit. The under floor heating in being installed early 4th & 5th of March, which gives me just over a week to put the insulation in the floor and the DPC on top so the pipes can go on. Luckily it looks a lot easier than the roof so we should be fine for time... famous last words!

Finally we have decided to go with Flowing screed through Acorn Construction rather than semi dry. It is a bit more expensive, but it has better thermal value for the underfloor heating and it will also have a smoother (more level) finish. I'll come back to that once it has been done!

Thanks for reading, Tim 

Our Luxton love in and a sawfinger

Meeting up with Charlie Luxton this time was an altogether less stressful experience, I'd even go so far as saying it was great fun and provided some more very useful ideas and food for thought...

After last time, when we were a few weeks away from starting our build, the suggestions Charlie made were a lot easier to digest and comprehend (and didn't make me feel angry this time!) The days filming started with a cup of tea and then followed with a walk through the house and a chat about which ideas from the first time we met we had decided to go with. We talked about how the build was progressing and the ideas we had for the stair and balcony area (which was one of the major suggestions we took forward into the building) upstairs bedroom storage and flooring.

Once we had finished filming at the house, we headed off down to the Corners for a spot of lunch and Charlie sketched of few of the ideas and suggestions he had. The main suggestions were around the stairs/balcony areas. The suggestion for the stairs half kite steps for the first 4 rises is likely to save a bit of money and will remove the need for a handrail at the bottom and gain a little bit of headroom on the stairs. We were planning on having a glass balcony, but the suggestion that we used only glass to form the barrier, without the need for a handrail is something we hadn't thought about previously and we will be looking into this some more.

We were both quite impressed with the 3d drawing of the stairs

A frameless glass balcony... could it be done?

This weeks progress has seen GRM Electrical first fix electrics moving on nicely, which should be finished next week

 Wiring for the lighting in the main living space

1st fix wiring

... but the one we really have been waiting for THE WINDOWS & DOORS ARE DUE TO BE FITTED, starting on Wednesday.

Please insert windows here!

Whilst we have been busy with the house, we've got a bit of local news today regarding the weather, we've had flooding in Kingsland and just 700 meters or so from us, the river has burst it's banks which we haven't see to this extent previously. Thankfully, we're quite a bit higher up so with the exception of potentially being cut off we won't be affected. 

The river just down the road from us

This should be a wooded field... 

The other end of the village

Finally, work this weekend has been slowed by my inability to use a saw correctly... I had been making good progress with the second coat of paint on the weatherboard (33 boards of 85), To enable us to fit them all in the house while doing so we have been stacking them with spacers to enable air to flow through the boards, allowing them to dry. I'd run out of spacers and decided to cut some more... but I managed cut a large grove into my index finger and finished the job off with a bit more lacerating on the backward stroke. So a trip to A & E and my finger was taped up and bandaged to allow it to heal, with strict instructions by the nurse to rest my finger and don't get it wet. 

"Sore Finger" with enhanced pointing ability

So to summarise it all, we have warmed to Charlie's ideas at the point of hearing them (rather than after a few days of reflection), I've learnt to ensure I concentrate on whilst I am doing jobs and I've also learnt that you can't do anything to control the weather (hopefully it won't delay the windows & doors again!)

Filming a nosey around another house...

We've had a hectic week on the build and filming! Neil Littleworth has been and done the first fix plumbing and GRM Electrical Services have made a start on the first fix electrics. We've had two lots of filming including a presenter catch up with Charlie Luxton (i'll cover the Charlie catch up in the next blog).

As part of "Building the Dream" we had the opportunity to have a nosey around another self built home that is going to be similar in construction to ours. The house is quite a bit bigger than ours will be, with a lot more oak throughout but it is finished in weatherboard and it has given us feel for what ours will be like at the end. Emma showed us around her home, which felt very warm and homely with a country cottage feel throughout. They have used flooring to make the house flow from the entrance into the kitchen/diner/snug looking and this is something we will look at carefully as we decide on the flooring. 

Holly Cottage, New Radnor

Although ours isn't going be a country cottage style, there were some nice features that either reinforced decisions we had made (like galvanised steel guttering) or gave us something to think about. We had been considering oak ledge and brace doors and these look great with pewter iron mongery (although it might not be what we end up with, but i'll talk about that next blog). They also had solid flooring throughout including bedrooms and seeing this in reality, made me realise that maybe Fliss wasn't wrong with the fact that this can work... We are also (after seeing the stone floor tiles) going to look again at tiles in the main living space, because polished concrete is looking too cost prohibitive at the moment. Another potential cost saving option is to use white skirting and architrave? It is something we were looking at, but seeing how they did theirs works quite well against oak.

Following advice of the plumber we decided to do first fix plumbing in a couple of stages so we can progress along with other works. 

 Copper pipes for the bath run through the stud wall timbers to keep them hidden.

 We'll need to box in this section in afterwards

The soil pipe is left part in place to allow clean cuts for plasterboarding

In the next blog I am going tell you about our day with Charlie Luxton and some more ideas along with giving you more of a look at the inside of the house, our plans and some of the changes made.

What a stud...

and I'm not talking about myself or big Tone!

With the help of big Tone (well most of it to be honest), we've managed to get the stud walling in on the ground floor now as well - so we now have some bedrooms, hallway and a shower room shell downstairs along with two bedrooms and a bathrooms upstairs. It's really starting to feel like a house now!

We've built the downstairs stud walls on stilts to support them until we've decided on what we are doing with the flooring. The plan is to run some flowing screed under the walls and finish at the bottom of the stud, but we are undecided on the floor coverings yet.

Building the stud walling has highlighted a problem with one of the external walls being a little bit out of upright. with timber you can often get issues with alignment, but it is just a little more than we would like so we want to deal with it now so it won't cause any longer-term issues with the finishing. We're not entirely sure of the best way of resolving it, but we are on the case of sorting it out.

Over the last week or so MGL building have been back on-site to finish off all the external brickwork on the house. We think it really looks good now and when we have the painted weatherboard on the exterior it really will compliment the oak.

The stud walling means we are now ready for the plumber to come next week. We've also got another bit of filming scheduled for "Building the Dream," but this time not on site - we're going to look around a finished self-build house to help give us some inspiration and ideas for finishing ours!

So back to another weekend of insulation, first fix carpentry and some painting more boards for Fliss, along with a visit to Burton Court wedding fair and then next week a nose around someone elses house, Neil Littleworth is coming to start first fix plumbing and Gareth at GRM Electrical is coming over for a site meeting so we can get ready for first fix electrics to take place!

First delays... a new experience for our build

The build has been moving along so well, in terms of timing and things being done as expected, but this week we have seen our first real setback.

We were due to have our windows and doors fitted next week, but due to flooding in the factory there has been a delay that is likely to mean we will fall several weeks behind where we thought we would be on the external side of the build. I realise it isn't anyones fault, but that doesn't mask the disappointment Fliss and I felt on Monday when we found out. We'd been really looking forwards to getting the windows fitted! It's the first date on the build that hasn't been met, which is a new experience for us.

The consequence of the delay will impact on other work, we had scheduled the remaining brick work to be completed this week (which is still on track), following on with windows and doors next week and then first week in February the external weather boarding to be done - which would have meant by mid February the house would be completely water tight... hopefully the delay won't push us too far back into worse weather.

The scaffolding is now completely down internally and externally, which revealed the house more fully on the outside and gave a sense of the space inside. We are both delighted with how it is taking shape and pleased with the colour we've been painting on the exposed softwood timbers. As well as Fliss and I painting weather board (52 down, just another 32 to go), I've been quietly carrying on with the insulation in the roof over the last week or so. It's coming along but is a slow process when your are doing it around a normal working day. I had Dad helping again last Saturday, which has made a big difference.

I've got a day off on Friday to help start to do the downstairs stud walling and a bit more on Saturday so we are ready for first fix plumbing  last week in January and then moving on to electrics.

So, by the end of this month we should have all the house external brick work completed, all the internal stud walling in place and the first fix plumbing done. We will also have done a bit more filming for our mentor visit to another house!

Finally I just wanted to thank you for reading, since the blog started we've now had over 4000 views!

Weather dodging into the new year...

As the first blog post of the year, I'd like to start by wishing you all the best for the New Year. This is one of the most important years of our lives to date. Somewhere towards the middle of it we will be moving into our new home and in September we'll be getting married. Nothing like cramming a couple of major life events in, in a few months!

We've had some pretty awful weather over the last 2 weeks, when it's rained its really RAINED, it's been windy - VERY WINDY, but we've actually had quite a few dry days or afternoons complete with blue sky and the upshot of that is that we've managed to dodge the weather to do some work on the outside of the house that we weren't necessarily expecting to be able to do.

So it's been all hands on deck over the Christmas break, with no trades on site we've been busy ourselves and have had some help from my Mum & Dad and also the kids when they were up with us.

With the weather being kind in patches we've painted both the gable ends of the house (3 coats of paint, so that's finished), the front of the house under the eves, with 2 coats and the rear of the house 1 coat. Considering the time of year that's pretty good going! We've also managed when dry to move 85 x 6meter feather edge boards inside the house to dry and shifted most of the Kingspan K7 Kooltherm Roof Insulation upstairs, in the dry. Maneuvering around the scaffolding proved tricky, but we managed to do it. Keeping as much of the materials as possible dry at this time of year is critical to being able to get on to the next stage...

Kingspan K7 Kooltherm in the dry

75mm & 100mm K7 Boards laid out for easy access to cut and install

85 x 6 meter Larch Feather Edge Boards inside, laid out for painting or drying

I sourced 6 meter Baltic grown, Larch Feather Edged Boards from local Kingsland timber merchants Powell & Co. Excellent service and very helpful staff and being just 5 mins down the road from our home very handy! Once we'd moved all of the feather edged boards inside, we set about giving them a coat of paint. We had plans on doing them all, but due to a technical issue (um I spilt a tin of paint and when I tried to replenish it found out that the supplier was closed until January 2nd) we only managed to get a third of them painted and dried. Josh & Liv spent a day over Christmas mucking in and helping us paint a few of the boards. Giving them a coat of paint (or 2) now means that if and when they shrink on the outside of the building we won't be left with unpainted wood showing through (that tip was from John at Border Oak). We've now got more paint though so can crack on with those over the coming weeks. Our deadline for getting this done is the end of January. Weather permitting, the external timber cladding is scheduled to be fitted early February.

The first piece of Kingspan K7 Kooltherm insulation in place - quite a few more left to do!

We managed to get started on insulating the roof, but from what I've seen so far it's going to be a long process! Dad and Mum helped out and we've managed to make a good start, but with 175mm of insulation going into the roof (between the rafters), before the plasterboard on top - it means cutting every section twice. Something I've learnt from speaking various insulation buffs is that the aim of the game with insulation is to keep it continuous and free from gaps. Any joints between the front boards and the rear shouldn't be the same, overlapping and taping joints. The big and straight sections aren't too difficult, but the small intricate sections are time consuming and tricky.

Insulation taking shape.

If anyone else reading this is planning on Self Building, I'd say that you need to be flexible with your approach to the jobs you plan to do yourself - when it's dry, do as much of the outside work as you can, because once you've got the house in the dry you can always revert back inside.

Over the next week, we'll be carrying on with insulation, painting more boards and Boyd Scaffolding will be on site to take down the scaffolding - so we'll be able to see the house properly!

Thanks for reading this blog!

Tim