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

JuniorB

We're back in action again.
Windows delivered and installed last week. Very exciting time and delighted with the final product.
Outside plastered. Slabbing inside nearly done. Air tightness nearly done. Plastering inside to kick off tomorrow.
Had a meeting with foreman this evening and we're looking at a 6 week schedule to move in. I'll settle for 8 !
A few more updates here...
http://carrickaneha.blogspot.com/

j timber

hi all i`ve just discovered this site and must say its been a very big help already.
i`m in the middle of our self build,we have a 3000sq two storey timber frame house with garage attached.the house is plastered outside and i`ve just finished boarding up all internal walls(both sides) and slabbed the whole place.waiting on plasterer now.
while waiting trying to get sorted for services outside,have levelled all the topsoil and now am ready to dig for water(mains) and power.what size duct do i need to install for the esb?/outside lights in the future?
i`m also pricing around for a puraflow system,any one any recommendations?is there a difference with the pre cast one and say reinforced plastic? got a call from a rep in n ireland "offering" me one at a bargain price....seem a bit dodgey tho

voodoo

Ok so we are getting to the real hair pulling out time... we had set ourselves the 2nd week in October to be in when we started the build (1st Feb 2010). It was aggressive and we are getting close... Plumber finished 2nd fix today... electrician is sending cert to ESB tomorrow and I have already spoken to ESB who will be out Tuesday! We will have electricity next week... yippee

Now the plumber has our heatpump planned to come in Monday 13th to be installed and UFH will be turned on 14th or 15th September... now if we leave it on for two weeks, that means that the tiler could come in say the 27th or 28th and begin with the kitchen.

Got a call from our stairs guy and the first stairs is being installed Friday 10th September and the 2nd (we developed our attic space) is going in on the 15th September. Our kitchen is due to be ready for 20th September but I think I will try and push him out until after the kitchen has been tiled.

Getting exciting but also very nerve wrecking!

Wolfhound14

Good progress on site over the last few weeks. The weather was a big help. Foundations and deadwork done and the Radon Barrier went in yesterday.

I was there till 8 last night helping the plumber run the water pipes as they are pouring the floors today.
Just a few dry hours needed and it can rain away.

Timber Frame company are due on Thursday to survey the base and then its time to sign off on the final drawings.

Windows are the next real big decision...not really liking PVC looks like it is going to cost me

mr_edge_to_you

your looking well there JuniorB. Keep an eye on the windows though when the plastering starts.

8 weeks to move in??? fair play if you get in by then. it was four months from windows/plastering to moving in for us.

dos29

Floors poured Saturday, blockwork started today. Should be moved in by next week :D:D

voodoo

Heatpump arrived onsite today, ESB connecting electricity tomorrow and heatpump being turned on on Friday... 3 weeks to getting floors down...

First stairs being installed on Friday... 2nd week of October is actually looking realistic I think...

JuniorB

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

your looking well there JuniorB. Keep an eye on the windows though when the plastering starts.

8 weeks to move in??? fair play if you get in by then. it was four months from windows/plastering to moving in for us.

Cheers Mr_edge. Local plasterers thought they were doing a mighty job keeping the windows clean ... until the Mrs had a gander and was making phone calls before mass of a Sunday! In fairness they have been mighty since. They'll hopefully be done by end of next week.

Loads of action on site every day now. Have given notice on our current gaff so no choice but to be in on the bank holiday weekend (6 weeks!) or more than lightly move in with the folks for a week or 2. Foreman is confident and likes deadlines.

voodoo

Ok, so we now have electricity up and running... Heatpump for Geothermal is up and running and UFH is on... will be drying out the floors for 2 weeks now... tilers coming on Wednesday to start bathroom walls and then ready to go the following week on the floors...

First stairs installed today! Not sure how we gonna get in the 2nd stairs... it's a heavy devil... That's going in on Monday now...

JuniorB - good to stick to your deadlines! We too set a deadline when we started of 2nd week in October. We will definitely hit it and maybe even a week before! Dont want to rush it though... Best of luck...

sas

Been a while since I posted anything. Nothing terribly interesting to photograph up to now.

Roofing the garage at the moment. Garage is 1.5 storey building. In the interests of planning ahead, I'm doing things that would be very expensive to do later should the need arise. For example, we're putthing softboard (35mm) on the roof to prevent cellulose bulding the membrane. Then counter battening and battening the roof.

1 shot from inside the roof. Collars still to go in, waiting on bolts for them.
1 shot from outside showing roof just about ready for slating. This can't start until collars are fitted however (and roof windows go in).

Out Of Order

In the last month I got the roof felted and battoned and put in the roof windows. We built a false chimney and got it plastered and were nearly finished the slates.
Had a big day yesterday with the windows and doors installed.
Now to try and get the external insulation contractors on site!

Am thinking about getting the septic tank, percolation area, and soak pits done now, before we get into the real winter weather.

Lemlin

Building a 3800 square foot house. Just about to start slating the roof. The windows are due to come around the first week of October. We hope to be in the house by the first of April next year. Are we being realistic?
My hope would be that the house will be watertight by the second week of October with the slates on the main roof and the windows in. The plasters then need to apply wet dash to the back and sides (stone finish already completed to the front) so that the two smaller roof areas can be finished with slates. These are only two small areas though and I hope they'll be slated and all completed by the first of November.
The house will still need:

1. scratch coat applied to inside external walls for airtightness.
2. plumbing work
3. carpentry work (fitting of doors, acrhetraves, wooden floors)
4. slabbing 50ml insulated slabs
5. sewerage system
6. staircase completed
7. kitchen completed
8. Other plastering work
9. Installation of ground source heat pump, underfloor heating and MHRV.
10. Painting
11. Electric work
12. Spray foam applied to attic and bead to cavity wall.
13. Tiling

My brother is overseeing the project (I don't know too much about building as evident from my posts here!) but my schedule of events is:

Get the house watertight as per paragraph re windows, dashing completed etc. above.
Get the cavity wall beadding and attic insulation completed.
Get the plasterers to do the internal scratch coat.
Get the MHRV and heat pump lads in.
Get electrician and plumber to complete first fixes
Slabbing completed
Plasterers do skimming
Carpentry, plumbing and electrical second fixing
Tiling
Kitchen fitted and staircase completed
Painting

I'm not sure where the sewerage fits into that or how much work it is.

mendel

We are pouring our screed to finished floor level tomorrow. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

UFH pipes installed. Windows hopefully monday week.

still hoping to hit our christmas deadline

mendel

Screed went down with some issues about levels, the 50ml we ended to put in was lowering than the finished floor so ended up having to pump more in some places (i.e. more money) the finish was still a bit low so had to do some corrective work at the doors and floor level windows in a few places. I'm assured it wont cause any major problems.

Got a big shock at quote to do the "patch up job on a flat roof" we have. engineer led me to believe it was just a small thing. Also are turning a pitch section into a flat roof. hasn't turned out to be that small job but have to try and put up with it and move on. hopefully new PVC roof going on next week. Fingers crossed for us that the new roof looks ok.

Positively, new windows coming on wednesday. stone mason should be finished and then on to plastering................

LoTwan

We are building a 2500 sq ft 1.5 storey house. Waiting for the last quote for groundworks & waste treatment/percolation area then we can file the commencement notice and get started. Part of me can't wait, the other part wants to pretend it is not happening

JuniorB

Best of luck Lotwan.. once you get going you'll be flying it!

We're motoring along. Got all the outside finally painted - totally underestimated the amount of cutting in etc. Was good craic though.
Plasterers will be substantially done tomorrow.
Sparky has a lot of work done. Power should be connected this week.
Plumber has the stove in and will have heat on Tues/Weds this week.
Septic tank and associated works are nearly there.
Stone mason is in the final furlong.

Delay with heat going on has probably delayed us a week or two - so will be tight to make Oct 22nd ... wont be too far off ....fingers crossed.

Have updated photos here..
http://carrickaneha.blogspot.com/

SARAH ANNE

just wondering,
roof going on just noticed windows upstairs in domar very low only 20 inches from ffl. is this a problem
thanks

Dugsy

JuniorB,

Very impressive build. As a matter of interest how did you protect the window boards and door frames during plastering?

Thanks

JuniorB

Cheers Dugsy,
Window boards were covered in cling film or similar when they were installed - will be cut away when plastering and spary undercoat are done.
Door frames are not in yet. I think what they call 'Liners' were put in for plastering. See door on left of this photo...

mendel

well done Junior B, that's great. you are in the final stretch.

Our windows delayed again so have to put the plasterer off (again)

deadline not looking good.

JuniorB

Cheers Mendel ... tis always the windows!!

ei.sdraob

On the final stretch now tradesmen falling over each other

painting done, all white for time being inside will change myself colour of rooms when get furniture planned etc (too much going on at moment to think about that!) except outside, very hard to pick right colours especially with natural stone faces

architraves, skirting in progress
so is tiling, alot of marble going in

if anyone is putting in marble make sure the suppliers dont try to **** around and inspect each crate!, a certain distributor from north west is to be avoided at all costs (pm me for details if you going down this path in the area)! they tried to send used (i kid you not, some had adhesive on back) and cracked tiles and lie lie lie, anyways got proper tiles now elsewhere and the tiler is very very good the result so far is very nice

of all the build so far everything went very smooth except for the above company and their ****, causing unnecessary stress, i didnt think that tiles be the most stressful bit

anwyays kitchen and stairs (oak+glass) be in next few weeks and hopefully electric whenever esb get their act together and flip a switch :P this week

afrofish

Hello everyone,

Just an update on progress so far. We have now got all the brickwork done for the main house and the builder is currently putting the roof trusses in place.

All has gone very well with the exeption of the following minor issues:

The useable area in the kitchen is a touch too small. We have five doors into the kitchen area as it is the hub of the house but as a result the area we can fit units to is fairly small. This was done in order to try to keep to 3000sq ft total area but with hindsight I should have made the kitchen a metre wider (regardless of the additional size).

Two fireplaces were placed in the centre of walls despite there being doors/windows to the side of them. This has resulted in very little clearance between the edge of the fireplace opening and the door/window. With hindsight they should have been placed in the centre of the clear wall after the door/window.

A couple of 'maybe' issues have been decided for us due to the ufh pipes. For instance we were considering putting a sun tunnel into one of the downstairs bathrooms (which has no natural light) but getting it through the concrete floor (without interfering with the ufh pipes) might be a bridge too far. If there is any possibility of additions like this make sure the plumber is aware asap.

We had one section upstairs where we wanted a cathedral ceiling (a hexagonal landing but the builder had put normal beams across. Easily rectified but I could have saved them a few hours if I had been clearer initially.

Thats it for the problems.

As to the general build we decided to go with a traditional cavity wall over ICF or similar but did try to bring it up to date. We are using a 150mm Quinn lite internally with 200mm of polystrene fixed to it. There is then a 40mm cavity before the outer 100mm concrete block skin. This is all tied together with basalt wall ties. It seems to be a great job so far but we won't really know until the winter 2011 when we are living in it.

The only downside with going for a super insulated wall is trying to keep up in other areas. We are currently trying to decide on windows but the price of alu-clad wooden windows is hard to justify when the PVC guy says he can get the same U-value for half the price! That covers the cost of fitting a ground source heat pump (which otherwise we couldn't afford).

We need to make up our minds soon but it is all progressing nicely.

(The garage has its foundations in but no more at this time.)

Wolfhound14

Very exciting times here. The Frame arrived on site yesterday morning. I stuck around for an hour to see the unloading and the placing of the first panel.
(I will post pics as soon as I figure out how)
Good enough day yesterday and the perimeter walls were completed when I got home from work.
The roof arrived this morning, but I was too busy to stick around.
Got a call at 12:30 and the crane had to stop cos of high winds...I think it was the right call, but I'm still disappointed.

Here's hoping for better weather next week.

LoTwan

BOQ is finished, tender docs being done up as we speak & we will start asking for quotes for the same stuff. We have a variety of wildly different quotes for groundworks but they are all quoting for different things so there is no way to compare.

Now I need to find a hard hat for a nearly 6 year old!

newhouse

LoTwan wrote: »

BOQ is finished, tender docs being done up as we speak & we will start asking for quotes for the same stuff. We have a variety of wildly different quotes for groundworks but they are all quoting for different things so there is no way to compare.

Now I need to find a hard hat for a nearly 6 year old!

put a bicyle helmet on - it saved our 2 year old when he tumbled down the makeshift stairs

LoTwan

newhouse wrote: »

put a bicyle helmet on - it saved our 2 year old when he tumbled down the makeshift stairs

I never thought of a bicycle helmet. That solves the problem for the 2 year old as well

Now to get them high vis jackets

voodoo

Yeah, we moved in on Friday A week ahead of schedule (we turned sod on 1st Feb and set a date of 2nd week of October (15th) to be in... delighted with life. Still a few bits like a bit of skirting and architrave to be completed which will be done by end of next week... bst of luck to all others building! It's a great buzz to finally be there

muffler

voodoo wrote: »

Yeah, we moved in on Friday A week ahead of schedule (we turned sod on 1st Feb and set a date of 2nd week of October (15th) to be in... delighted with life. Still a few bits like a bit of skirting and architrave to be completed which will be done by end of next week... bst of luck to all others building! It's a great buzz to finally be there

Well done. Im sure you are delighted and thanks for keeping us updated during the build.

I suppose we may send you our addresses by PM for the house warming party

mendel

Well done Voodoo, that's great. you must be so delighted and so tired!

Well our window finally arrived and i am really happy with them, if a little disappointed in the supplier who caused such a delay. Anyway, done now

Plasterer is well under way has spent last 10 days outside and is moving inside on monday. All slabbing done on ceiling and internal walls. just need to complete the insulation slabs on the exterior walls.

10 weeks to christmas.........still hoping we can make it in