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

Villain

First Fix plumbing and electrical almost finished so insulation and slabbing next. Apart from the price of insulation things are going quite well. Getting part of the site cleared to sow the willow coppice shortly which will hopefully provide fuel for the stove, starting off with .1 of an acre to see how it goes.

Fracking Cylon

Finally got heating up and running over the weekend, so undercoat painting has started. Great timing with the January sales. Hoping to be in for early March.

adne

Fracking Cylon wrote: »

Finally got heating up and running over the weekend, so undercoat painting has started. Great timing with the January sales. Hoping to be in for early March.

At the same stage. Are you painting youself, are you spray painting. Also what type of undercoat you using, matt white is the best option ive heard.

Sorry for all the questions

Fracking Cylon

adne wrote: »

At the same stage. Are you painting youself, are you spray painting. Also what type of undercoat you using, matt white is the best option ive heard.

Sorry for all the questions

Ya, painting it ourselves. Slow work but nice to look back on it being finished. We are rolling on Dulux Matt white for the ceiling and undercoat.

adne

Fracking Cylon wrote: »

Ya, painting it ourselves. Slow work but nice to look back on it being finished. We are rolling on Dulux Matt white for the ceiling and undercoat.

Thinking of doing the same. Is the 2nd fix done or are you painting first

Fracking Cylon

adne wrote: »

Thinking of doing the same. Is the 2nd fix done or are you painting first

I painted around the sockets and switches before they went on and behind the rads. It made life easier for under coat. I'm trying to paint as much as I can before the builder comes back to hang doors etc.

New build in sight

Start date July 7th

Windows ordered at last! Went with Alu Clad in the end. Can't wait to see them in as we took some risks with the colour choices

about2build

Plumber down finishing first fix as we speak! screed price agreed...hoping for april move in

Villain

Walls pumped and insulating the rest has begun, the price of insulation rather upset me but we'll just have to get over it

john_cappa

Villain wrote: »

Walls pumped and insulating the rest has begun, the price of insulation rather upset me but we'll just have to get over it

How much did the wall pump cost and what volume?

New build in sight

Start date July 7th

First fix electrics beginning Friday.

Had a heart attack today regarding a quote for our kicthen! Where is everyone else getting their kicthens?

Waiting on price back from stairs too now.

Also will be interested to hear how much your cavity pumping was, we will be at that stage shortly once windows are in...

ShiverinEskimo

Got the plumber and electrian lined up for first fix as soon as the windows are in. Electrian is doing his chasing before hand so I can evacuate as much dust as possible too.

Have a guy coming to assess the spray-foam insulation in the roof next week. He seems really confused with how we want it done to compliment the air-tightness so that hasn't filled me with confidence. Unfortunately he's the contractor's pick so we have to roll with him. In hindsight I should have PC-summed the shít out of that too.

I don't know how people build multiple houses. I'm not cut out for all these phonecalls, figures and decisions. I'm knackered.

fclauson

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

... In hindsight I should have PC-summed the shít out of that too.
....

Why accept anything you are not happy with - ask builder to extract the cost and make it a variation if you are not happy - its your house not his

ShiverinEskimo

My engineer is looking after it and in the interests of maintaining costs (up to the builder to pay for this particular aspect of the build) I'm just to thoroughly explain and monitor what needs doing. If it's not right he'll be doing it again.

It's mostly the delay caused by this guy not quite being on the same page as us in terms of our plan for air-tightness. Should hopefully be sorted with one visit to the site because so far he's been trying to gain understanding from drawings and phonecalls alone.

1100010110

Late at this stage but in chronological order here's the story so far
Commenced 2nd week of April 2012 on a level greenfield site.
Week1:
Day 1 Profiles & levels
Day 2 Site cleared
Day 3 Foundations excavated
Day 4 Lean mix & steel laid
Day 5 Foundations poured
Week2:
Day 10 Blockwork started
Week3:
Day 14 Radon Barrier down
Day 15 Subfloor poured
Week 4:
Day 19 Corners in block above subfloor
Week 5
Day 21 Front wall X 6 blocks high & cills
Day 25 First change & money into ground by moving a freestanding chimney to a gable
Week6
No work on site
Week7
Walls to first floor ready for hollowcore, lintel in, all interior partitions in, RSJ lifted into place
Week 8
Days 39 & 40 lost to weather
Week 9
Day 41 Hollowcore lifted on
Day 42 First floor corners taken up
Walls taken to roof plate
Week 10
Gables taken up
Week11
Interior partitions upstairs completed
Week 12
No work on site
Week 13
Roof trusses on site & in place (roof 1)
Week 14
Felt on & slates started
Week 15
slates
Week 16 & 17
Builders holidays
Week 18
Week 19
Windows & doors in
Week 20
External plaster started, (trusses up for roof 2)
Week 21
Walk down valley
Week 24
Final window in, mark out for electrician
Weeks 25 to 29
Out of country, 1st fix electrics, plumbing, carpentry & groundworks completed
Week 35
Internal plaster completed
Week 36
Heating system in & turned on
Weeks 37 & 38
Christmas holidays
Week 39
Week 40
Window boards in, Tiling & laminated floors start to be laid
Day 200 Today

Rushy Fields

Facia and soffit & Guttering being put up tomorrow (Weather Permitting).
Cavity Walls being pumped this week.
Airtightness possibly this week also, then slabbing inside of external walls with insulated slabs.

JuniorB

We've moved in a while now but still working away on the landscaping etc so we're still technically a Live Self-Build ??

Got the paving, driveway, lawns and gates out of the way so just left with a bit of fencing to do.
Our house featured in the winter edition of the selfbuild magazine.
http://www.selfbuild.ie/magazine/article-library/case-studies/inside-out-but-not-upside-down!/
The Boards Construction and Planning section got a mention in the hard copy!
If anyone has any Q's or wants a guided tour PM me.

AntrimGlens

Hi JuniorB,
i was flicking through the self build mag the other day in the shop and thought i recognised the stairs and the glass balustrade. Well done, if only i was that far on.

New build in sight

Amazing JuniorB! Can i ask what date you started and finished? How long was the build in total?

We've a moving in date of June 1st and as we are now on 1st fix electrics, im anxious!

The pictures on FB are amazing and the article was fantastic, probably wasnt the best idea for me to read it though....;)

Well done again!

muffler

JuniorB wrote: »

The Boards Construction and Planning section got a mention in the hard copy!

Any chance of scanning a copy of the page and posting it here or PM it? Cheers

heavydawson

JuniorB wrote: »

We've moved in a while now but still working away on the landscaping etc so we're still technically a Live Self-Build ??

Got the paving, driveway, lawns and gates out of the way so just left with a bit of fencing to do.
Our house featured in the winter edition of the selfbuild magazine.
http://www.selfbuild.ie/magazine/article-library/case-studies/inside-out-but-not-upside-down!/
The Boards Construction and Planning section got a mention in the hard copy!
If anyone has any Q's or wants a guided tour PM me.

Was well impressed with the house JuniorB. Saw it in SB a couple of months back. Tip of the cap!

Just trying to get the first floor poured at the moment. Weather is killing us. Looks like Monday will be the first chance we get. Trying to get the house finished in time for our wedding at the end of September.

Started on October 2nd with the site clearance and it's taken us this long to get to the 1st floor pour. Bad time of the year to start a build, but it's Ireland, so I suppose there's no perfect time to start.

House construction is cavity wall:
* 100mm inner and outer leaf
* 150mm full fill CavityTherm board in 150mm cavity
* 165mm Xtratherm insulation in floor, with Quinn-Lite foundation blocks where the rising walls meet the floor insulation
* Hollow-core 1st floor
* Downstairs internal partitions are all standard 4" blocks
* Upstairs internal partitions are all QuinnLite B3s (for load-bearing reasons)
* MHRV with 4" circular ducting underneath hollow-core slab
* Attic floored for storage with 170mm insulation between joists, then counter-battened with an additional 170mm insulation with plywood flooring on top of this. There will be an insulated Stira or similar into the attic space, but there'll be no rooms up there. I'll keep the heat on the first floor thanks!
* The on-paper plan is to have a full building envelope u-value of 0.12 (excluding doors and windows)
* We'll be getting the air-tightness done professionally and I'm aiming for an ACH of < 1

We've changed a few things as we've gone along. When we went to check the height of the ground floor walls in the days leading up to the slab being dropped, I found it was just over 3" lower than planned. Ended up laying an extra 3" brick on all existing walls to correct. A lucky catch.

Also found that we need to move some door opes a couple of inches to the left or right of positions after the opes had been built. Blocklayer was fairly good about it, and the lintels provided sufficient bearing to do so within structural tolerances.

Roofer has been been picked, and just trying to line up electrician and plasterer now.
There's been some heated debate between myself and the missus-to-be about certain aspects of the build, and I'll never forget the terror of the first day heading to the site wondering what I'd gotten myself into (I'm working in Dublin, site is in Tipp).
I have to say though, it's very fulfilling so far and I'll appreciate the house more when it's all said and done.

If there's any other self-builders out there in Tipp at the moment, PM me!
I wouldn't mind shooting the breeze in person.

I'll finish up with a photo I grabbed the morning after the slabs were laid. Took it at sunrise looking south at the galtees.

dos30

Hi JuniorB,

I'm currently in the middle of a self build and am looking at options for a sound system.

The article says "The result is total flexibility for audio and visual so that it is possible to watch and listen to something different in every room"

What did you use?

The house looks great by the way, I love the hall and the walkway.

JuniorB

Cheers folks, thought it might offer some inspiration to others getting near the end!

Build took a year - Started Dec 09, Finished Nov 10 - or should I say moved in ... still not finished!

Sound system is Sonos. Great flexibility but not overly cheap. Have speakers in all rooms back to central point. Use Iphones/Ipads for control.
Have cat5e points all back to central cisco switch connected to what passes as broadband.
TV - Quad LNB on for Freesat and std ariel back to office. 16 port TV switch there that distributes to all TV points. 2 points at each TV (one sat, one std)
2 network points at each TV.
Freesat box at each TV
Have a 4TB NAS full of movies and music - have either media player or built into TV media player at most TV's.

dos30

JuniorB wrote: »

Cheers folks, thought it might offer some inspiration to others getting near the end!

Build took a year - Started Dec 09, Finished Nov 10 - or should I say moved in ... still not finished!

Sound system is Sonos. Great flexibility but not overly cheap. Have speakers in all rooms back to central point. Use Iphones/Ipads for control.
Have cat5e points all back to central cisco switch connected to what passes as broadband.
TV - Quad LNB on for Freesat and std ariel back to office. 16 port TV switch there that distributes to all TV points. 2 points at each TV (one sat, one std)
2 network points at each TV.
Freesat box at each TV
Have a 4TB NAS full of movies and music - have either media player or built into TV media player at most TV's.

Thanks JuniorB, that's practically the exact same setup I had been planning. I didn't have any TV switch planned though so must look into that.

1100010110

Beautiful house JuniorB, and a sweet network, quick Q., with the MHRV did you stack your server/switches in a cabinet with an extract above it? Just asking as my installer was reluctant to put an extract at the point I hope to stack in the future. (Hope this isn't going off topic)

JuniorB

1100010110 wrote: »

Beautiful house JuniorB, and a sweet network, quick Q., with the MHRV did you stack your server/switches in a cabinet with an extract above it? Just asking as my installer was reluctant to put an extract at the point I hope to stack in the future. (Hope this isn't going off topic)

Just left MHRV as originally designed. Have a rack in corner of office with all kit. MHRV 'intake' point is in opposite corner. North facing room so no need to be 'recovering' any heat from there!
Advice I was given ref MHRV was any where you have heat (e.g. sunroom) have an 'intake' point which will push the air out of that room around the house. If you have an extract you are just taking the heat out of the room and then trying to use your heat exchanger to transfer that to the fresh air coming in with the subseqent percentage loss.

ShiverinEskimo

Same advice recieved by myself from our HRV installer - extracts in 'wet' rooms only to suck the moist air out from showers, kitchens and bathrooms (also any bad smells ). inlets in all other rooms to circulate the warm air.

1100010110

yup I understand how the MHRV works and it wasn't a case of trying to harvest the heat energy from the electronic equipment but as a means of aiding the cooling of same, that's all. But when the system is commissioned and balanced it shall work as well (in theory) as if the extract above the stack was never put in. Me hopes

New build in sight

July 7th 2012 start date:

Windows went in last Friday, just waiting on front and back door and garage.

1st fix electrics done. (almost)

Plasterer preparing walls etc.

Need to do a lot of work around windows to seal them.... (very confused about this part and i have posted in another forum for advice)

Hopefully we are getting there.....

Weve picked (or should i say IVE picked a moving in date) June 1st? Anyone out there think its achievable?

muffler

New build in sight wrote: »

Weve picked (or should i say IVE picked a moving in date) June 1st? Anyone out there think its achievable?

With good, steady work I dont see why you cant achieve that target