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

paolosnapid

12k is too much for roof,my roofer is about to slate mine (4000 slates ordered) so I would say my roof is larger than yours & is charging me €4800 (price includes all roofwork including fascia & soffit),the house (bungalow) is 21.75 metres long and averages 10m wide.My house is 3100sq ft,my roof prices ranged from 5k to 14k so price plenty more,60c is fair for footings but I paid my blocklayer €4900 for blocks over the ground & one guy looked for €7600 for over the ground,so again price loads more.I cant comment on groundworks/foundations/pouring concrete as I did most of that myself with good friends,stonework is priced per yard,my stonemason charged €60 per yd,I also got price for €80 per yd,you shud definitely do concrete floors,more expensive but worth it in long run,thats all I can help with for now.

mr_edge_to_you

I don't think it makes sense to be getting quotes if you still haven't decided what kind of house you want. How can you possibly have a budget planned? I know two people who started building before us and they are living in unfinished houses because they got their budgets wrong. Concrete floors isn't a whole lot more pricewise. What about heating, windows etc? Our windows and heating for a 2300sq ft house, 1.5 storey cost over 50k. The concrete floor decision should be well crossed off it the stage when you get quotes.

Viking House

What type of build method are most of you guys using? Are people still using the traditional methods?

mr_edge_to_you

Traditional block built but warmly embracing modern heating, insulation and windows!

Viking House

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Traditional block built but warmly embracing modern heating, insulation and windows!

Are you pumping the cavities or using an insulation board? What insulation are you using for the floor? How are you dealing with the wall/floor cold bridge?

dos29

Foundations poured and 2 courses of foundation blocks laid. Just waiting on Quinn-lite blocks to do the last course before block on edge to hem in the floor now. Have also changed from 150mm to 200mm cavity, so costs already on the up from expected thanks to extra concrete, but thankfully the foundation blocks were already covering the cavity change.
Hopefully the extra insulation will offset the extra concrete.

sas

We poured the ringbeam today.

Great fun playing with crane and concrete skip etc.

Pic attached from last night after final preperation. No pic after pour yet because it was coming down pretty heavy and I didn't fancy getting the camera wet.

Shuttering coming down on Tuesday and the floor for the attic will begin on Monday week. Slowly but surely etc.

dorky dave

Hi there guys, does anyboby know about getting secounds floor insulation in cavan, apparantly damaged kingspan insul, costing half the price, these guys have been around for years....... any info would be helpful cheers

Viking House

dos29 wrote: »

Foundations poured and 2 courses of foundation blocks laid. Just waiting on Quinn-lite blocks to do the last course before block on edge to hem in the floor now. Have also changed from 150mm to 200mm cavity, so costs already on the up from expected thanks to extra concrete, but thankfully the foundation blocks were already covering the cavity change.
Hopefully the extra insulation will offset the extra concrete.

Why did you need extra concrete? When you widen the cavity, the wall doesn't get any heavier so the same width of foundations should suffice.

The new IAB cert being requested from Quinn will show details of the QL blocks below the dpc being wrapped in dpc to stop them getting damp. The IAB give a lambda of 0.46W/m.K for QL blocks used below the dpc and 0.19W/m.K when used above the dpc. Are you putting a drain all around your house?

Well done with the 200mm cavity are you using Basalt wall ties?

dos29

Working off the 3 x total width rule for the founds. Only meant an extra 15% of concrete but the price adds up. Still, better safe than sorry.
As for wrapping the Quinn blocks, not gonna bother. The damp values are still supposed to be much better than standard blocks, and add material and time of wrapping the blocks and weigh it against energy savings, and I personally don't feel its worth it.
Basalt ties seem very expensive to me. Trying to get glass fibre ones, but the company don't sound like they're bothered with the business. might end up using steel ones altogether as the savings once again can't be that huge, can they?

Technophobe

Finally got there....:D:D

House cleaned and ready to move into....need to grab a day off work and away we go....delighted to have finally reached the (first) end line and very happy with how everything turned out...:D

muffler

Technophobe wrote: »

Finally got there....:D:D

House cleaned and ready to move into....need to grab a day off work and away we go....delighted to have finally reached the (first) end line and very happy with how everything turned out...:D

Congrats and well done

mr_edge_to_you

Well done Techno! Delighted for you. Best of luck in your new home. I think they should give people special certs on Boards when they move into a new build. Sort of like a graduation. You can't beat the Class of 2010!

paolosnapid

Roof nearly slated,suspended ceiling nearly in,plasterers started today.Windows & doors goin in next wk,however we have 4 windows with a 2m span and we had to put girders over them to support the concrete floors,we now need to do somethin so that the plaster sticks to the girders,plasterer talkin bout plywood & expanding metal,can anyone explain to me exactly what I need to do,and how quick do I need to do it?

weebuck

hi guys, new to all this, but great idea and very useful. just commenced my own self-build...at the moment, rock breaker on site doing some breaking, luckily, my bro has his own plant and I have managed to sell the excavated material to a local forrestry operator laying a forrestry road nearby my site so it all helps. long road ahead im assuming. building standard 1800 sq ft dwelling storey and a half with the option of doing first floor, fairly traditional in design, aim is to get first floor done and finance permitting, aim to complete first floor later on, but for now, id be happy to have stairs/floors and doors done and leave it at that. just about to embark of the getting prices stage. just wondering any ideas on what i will likely be looking at to get my dwelling sealed, in other words, block work done, roof on and windows in...that is my target by the end of this yr...

sas

Shuttering is off and the finished ring beam looks good. I'm no expert but I can't see the house budging anytime soon.

AMG86

Looks good. The two walls appear to be be tied well together. What about insulation around this block of concrete. I think that any heat that is kept in by the cavity below will get through the concrete mass at the top.

FergusD

paolosnapid wrote: »

Roof nearly slated,suspended ceiling nearly in,plasterers started today.Windows & doors goin in next wk,however we have 4 windows with a 2m span and we had to put girders over them to support the concrete floors,we now need to do somethin so that the plaster sticks to the girders,plasterer talkin bout plywood & expanding metal,can anyone explain to me exactly what I need to do,and how quick do I need to do it?

Your carpenter needs to fit plywood onto the girder - possibly using tek (self tapping) screws and some offcuts. Your plasterer then will put mesh onto this before plastering it. It's not a big job.

Fergus.

ninjaBob

Came home last night to see that a certain trade had made ****e of our wooden floors upstairs. In their infinite wisdom they decided to cut some steel on the landing. 2 holes in the floor, several scratches (all which can be filled) but there is a large dent spanning 2 boards where they dragged something very heavy into the bedroom.

I'm furious.

sas

AMG86 wrote: »

What about insulation around this block of concrete. I think that any heat that is kept in by the cavity below will get through the concrete mass at the top.

House is being built with block on flat (i.e. no cavity) and will be externally insulated (i.e. no heat loss at that junction).

Viking House

sas wrote: »

Shuttering is off and the finished ring beam looks good. I'm no expert but I can't see the house budging anytime soon.

As you are using blocks on the flat I would have thought you wouldn't have needed a ringbeam, a 400mm high ringbeam seems complete overkill! why did you think this necessary? an over-cautious Engineer maybe?

paolosnapid

FergusD wrote: »

Your carpenter needs to fit plywood onto the girder - possibly using tek (self tapping) screws and some offcuts. Your plasterer then will put mesh onto this before plastering it. It's not a big job.

Fergus.

Thanx,I'm gonna wrap dpc round the ply as well,will tex screws do the job? I was thinking of nailing the ply on with a Hilti gun.

soldsold

What about underneath the rsj?

Also if plywood is fitted into the rsj it will be well inside the line of the blockwork, how does the plasterer bring it out to be flush with the rest of the plaster?

Cheers

Viking House

soldsold wrote: »

What about underneath the rsj?

Also if plywood is fitted into the rsj it will be well inside the line of the blockwork, how does the plasterer bring it out to be flush with the rest of the plaster?

Cheers

Why did you need RSJ's in the first place when you have a 400mm x 200mm ringbeam directly over the steel? That ringbeam can probably take a greater loading than the RSJ. I would have put the shuttering under the RSJ and let the concrete envelope the whole lot to make it easier to airtighten.

sas

Viking House wrote: »

As you are using blocks on the flat I would have thought you wouldn't have needed a ringbeam, a 400mm high ringbeam seems complete overkill! why did you think this necessary? an over-cautious Engineer maybe?

The ring beam was primarily designed in as part of the airtightness strategy. The detail I then decided I wanted for the roof (internally) meant that it was going to be needed for structural reasons. The engineer specifically commented that I didn't need the ringbeam the size I was pouring but as I said, it was part of the airtightness strategy.

sas

soldsold wrote: »

What about underneath the rsj?

Also if plywood is fitted into the rsj it will be well inside the line of the blockwork, how does the plasterer bring it out to be flush with the rest of the plaster?

Cheers

I think you've gotten the wrong end of the stick here. As I read it, the op was talking about undeneath the rsj, not inside the web.

As for what you do in the web of the rsj, I assume it varies depending on the steel speced. In my case the rsj is 203 wide so we can get 3 inch solids into the web either side. These will be held in place using expanded metal (hilti fixed into rsj) as ties.

sas

Viking House wrote: »

Why did you need RSJ's in the first place when you have a 400mm x 200mm ringbeam directly over the steel? That ringbeam can probably take a greater loading than the RSJ. I would have put the shuttering under the RSJ and let the concrete envelope the whole lot to make it easier to airtighten.

I've been overspecing structurally alot on this build. It's just something I decided to do. I worry so I'm prepared to pay a little more to lose less sleep.

Also, due to the nature of the build (and my complete lack of construction experience) alot of the decisions are being made when we need to make them, not in advance. It's not ideal but spending a little more where I didn't necessarily need to spend is something I'm prepared to accept because in my opinion "less speed = fewer mistakes".

Not sure your idea to envelope the RSJ is a runner because I had thought about it. The reason I walked away from it is as follows:

The rsj is 203 wide, the block work is 215.

The plaster on the internal face of the walls is required to overlap the ringbeam to form airtight seal i.e. the face of the ring beam needs to be flush with the face of the block work. That means that either side of the rsj there would only be 6mm ((215mm - 203mm) / 2)between the steel edge and the shuttering.

The 20mm chip clearly couldn't pass through that gap and pokering it would have been impossible too. So we'd have had to make the ring beam wider in order to allow the concrete to flow around the upper flange of the rsj and into the web.

Quazzie

I think what was suggested was that with the ring beam there was no need for an RSJ at all. Some additional reinforcing mesh in the ring beam probably would've been adequate, although that would've requried input from a structural engineer.

sas

Quazzie wrote: »

I think what was suggested was that with the ring beam there was no need for an RSJ at all. Some additional reinforcing mesh in the ring beam probably would've been adequate, although that would've requried input from a structural engineer.

That was one of the suggestions. The one I was refering to was

"I would have put the shuttering under the RSJ and let the concrete envelope the whole lot to make it easier to airtighten."

I don't like the idea of cast in situ lintels. For me there are too many variables which could result in failure. With an rsj speced to size it is what it is.

Quazzie

sas wrote: »

I don't like the idea of cast in situ lintels. For me there are too many variables which could result in failure. With an rsj speced to size it is what it is.

FWIW I agree 100%