Live self-Builds - mod warning in post no. 1

mr_edge_to_you

Well guys, our builders arrived back on monday. All ground floor block work and steel in place. Garage built. Concrete slabs will be here in the morning! Fairly productive few weeks! Only 5 weeks on site. So far so good. Ordering our windows next week as soon as the opes are done.

Karmad

Hi all,

We've just started our one & a half storey 4 bed house in Kildare. It's been a long road..took 4 changes of drawings (further info) & a year to get planning but we're finally here! We are going direct labour route.

A quick question..what exactly is the correct order for the layers of material above the hardcore to finished floor?

muffler

Karmad wrote: »

A quick question..what exactly is the correct order for the layers of material above the hardcore to finished floor?

This should help

Karmad

Thanks Muffler

mr_edge_to_you

our concrete slabs arrived. 25.5tonnes of 100% pure cavan concrete - beautiful stuff. onwards and upwards! busy week ahead.

dodgey69

Hi Folks,

Just wondering if people could pm me who they used for their windows on their houses and if they did a good job. I am at this stage at the min so need to get moving. Really like the sliding sash windows(for front of house) aswell so if anyone knows where to get cheaper, or cheaper alternatives then id be delighted to hear.
Cheers

Karmad

pm sent but hope you hear from some others as I'll be in the same boat myself soon hopefully!

Wonky Knees

Rear extension with side extension slab just poured. Ordered windows today got the guys to come to the site and go through things with the builders and engineer.

Neighbor trying best to frustrate build. Solicitor letter Monday, two building control inspections yesterday. Such is life.

Lightning McQue

Folks

can you pm your window supplier

Lightning

mr_edge_to_you

http://i697.photobucket.com/albums/vv336/donalcmoore0710/001-Copy.jpg

There's a pic of our house this evening. For the first time the site looks like a bomb hit it!!!

BoozyBabe

So, most of our roof is now slated. Went for a natural slate & am really happy with it.
Our windows came nearly 2 weeks early, so they're now in & all doors bar front door.
Went for sliding sash PVC to front & sides. They're V nice.
Plasterer was due this week, but no sign, so hopefully next week is better.
With this weather, can you blame him!!!
All running well so far. Thank God!!

conor2949

Hi everyone

Its my first time posting progress on my build so to give you all a bit of background.

A brief outline of the spec is as follows:

215mm concrete block outer leaf
200mm EPS 70 insulation externally finished in silicate render to achieve a U Value of 0.15

150mm EPS 70 insulation in the floor to achieve a U Value of 0.15

Underfloor heating upstairs and downstairs

50mm Hemi-Hydrate Screed as the Finished Floor

100mm concrete block internal partitions upstairs and downstairs

150mm solid Concrete floors with Concrete Stairs with Stainless Steel suspended ceiling downstairs

Triple glazed Timber windows with certified U Value of 1.0

HRV System with anti-microbial ducting to the supply ducting

Warm-roof made up of 225mm I-Beams with plywood inside and out pumped with Cellulose to achieve a U Value of 0.15

Roof finished in Natural Spanish Slates

In-roof windows will be White Finish Keylites

120 Evacuated Tubes on South facing Garage roof feeding into a 300 litre stainless steel tank with the surplus going into a 1000litre mild steel buffer. The buffer to be topped up by a boiler (the type of boiler as yet undecided – torn between oil and logs)

I think that covers all the basic details of my build. I’ve listed below the progress of the build to date. I will update more regularly as we go along.

We broke ground on March 16th.

The rising walls were finished on April 12th.

The 6 inch sub floor was poured on April 29th.

The blocks were brought up to first floor level by May 15th.

Concrete floors were on by June 20th (an absolute debacle let me tell you – anyone want to hear my rant then pm me)

Blocks were up to ridge height by July 12th.

Windows were installed on July 30th.

Roof truss and I Beam’s arrived and started to be assembled on July 30th also.

Roofers left site on Aug 24th with the internal of the roof to be done yet. (they left on my request)

HRV 1st fixing done on August 26th.

Stainless steel suspended ceiling installed on August 28th.

Karmad

Hi Conor,

I'd be interested in hearing about your solid concrete floor people as we'll be putting them in too, I've narrowed it down to two companies so far. I also have two quotes for roof trusses. Are we allowed mention company names & prices? I think you can on one thread but not sure about here.
Cheers,

conor2949

Karmad,

PM sent. don't think we can mention names or prices in this forum. think its the Prices/Costs forum that we can do that in.

Conor

muffler

conor2949 wrote: »

Karmad,

PM sent. don't think we can mention names or prices in this forum. think its the Prices/Costs forum that we can do that in.

Conor

That would be it. Cheers.

kilmoran

0lordy wrote: »

Just at the roof stage of a 1.5 storey house.

Geothermal, solar panels, underfloor heating, solid fuel stove & backboiler. Yep, we should be warm enough anyway...
Thinking about "The automated home" concept, but funds won't stretch to that any time soon, so just want to future proof the house if at all possible.
Concrete slabs in upstairs.
Envirocare-type system to go in
Tegral Trutone to go on the roof

Im using tegral trutone relief slates, same price as the tegral super cem, have a look, i think they are a nicer slate. I have just laid my concrete slabs on 1st flor level. Did you put your plumbing for upstairs in a concrete screed over the slabs or in the suspended ceiling below?

kilmoran

Im at same stage. Are you going to plumb in your screed above slabs or in suspended ceiling below. Im thinking of carrying on with screed and plumbing in suspended ceiling.

kilmoran

conor,

i have just installed concrete slabs at 1st floor level also. Are you plumbing in your screed above slabs or in suspended ceiling below? Im thinking suspended ceiling. Drilling through slab for flow and return at each radiator.

kilmoran

did you use coloured rendered? I am thinking K-REND but afraid of cracking, as most buildings do. Repair work would be difficult

BoozyBabe

kilmoran wrote: »

did you use coloured rendered? I am thinking ****** but afraid of cracking, as most buildings do. Repair work would be difficult

Briefly considered this myself, but read far too many bad customer testimonials.
So, Am definitely not chancing it on my house

conor2949

kilmoran,

yes i am carrying my plumbing in the suspended ceiling. I'm going with underfloor heating upstairs on the slabs so i only have to drill the slabs for a flow and return to the manifolds.

I am going with a coloured silicate plaster finish on my external insulation. It is "self cleaning" to a certain extent [and i use that phrase lightly!] and it will flex with any expansion/contraction that may occur.

Conor2949

DMARTINGTI

Just a note on the coloured render. I was looking at all the different options and reading the various posts here which put me off. My plasterer also put me off but then suggested I use Dash receiver instead. It is the plaster used under pebble dash and is basically a sand & cement product. You won't have colour choices just white and cream I think but a safer option than some of the other products. So far so good on my own build the render looks very well and no apparent problems at the moment. I stress it is only on about 3 Months at this stage. But dash receiver is a widely used product in Ireland so I hope to have no problems. I went with K-Dash and it was significantly cheaper than K-Rend or other coloured plaster systems. This suited me because I wanted white anyway.

johnwstafford

Hi Conor,
I am really wanting to go with concrete floors 1st and 2nd floor :-)
Please tell me as much about your experience as you care to, i'm all ears!!!!!!
Also, did you have to get a structual engineer to assess the foundations and load bearing walls when you planned to put in concrete floors?

mr_edge_to_you

I don't think this is the appropriate thread for this but we put in concrete slabs for our first floor. The engineer who is looking after our mortgage sign offs under the builders instruction spec'd the slabs and it's supporting blockwork. He then forwarded the info to our builder who sourced the specified slabs.

muffler

Listen guys/gals. This thread is running badly off topic as such.

The idea is for people to post details of the various stages they are at and perhaps what issues they encountered. Should anyone then feel the need to further debate a particular issue the please start a new thread on the matter.

Thank you for you anticipated co-operation.

kilmoran

How do you start a new thread? New user!!! This thread is covering three topics: concrete slabs,suspended ceilings and coloured renders. How bad?

muffler

kilmoran wrote: »

How do you start a new thread? New user!!! This thread is covering three topics: concrete slabs,suspended ceilings and coloured renders. How bad?

Go to the front page here and above the list of topics and to the left you will see a tab called "New Thread" Click on that, enter a title for your topic and then post in the box as normal. When finished just scroll down a wee bit and click on "Submit new thread"

selfbuildlost

the foundation starts on Monday the house is 3500 sq feet so a fairly sizable footprint as well - it's looking like it'll cost about 15k to get it to finished floor level. I was told to put dpc (damp proof course) everywhere - its as cheap as chips so putting down 3 layers - I think im going to go with standard cavity wall insulation but not sure looking at the pumped beading as well - any advice would be appreciated

mr_edge_to_you

The blockwork on our TajMahal is finished now. The roof trusses will be started in the morning. Finalising our slate choice with the builder at the moment.

Waiting for word on the cost of our kitchen - not looking forward to that - "that's a big kitchen" they're all saying. We're a while away from it but we just want to start nailing down a budget for it.

selfbuildlost

foundation going good - the weather has helped a lot and to be fair the guys doing the job are excellent - no messing just getting on with the job