Slippage from the cold

The cold weather put the inevitable jinx on the schedule, just when things were taking off again. With snow and ice for 2 weeks the site was largely inaccessible at the best of times, and even then as it started to thaw the surface is very slippy and carrying heavy granite sills would be a nightmare.  Similarly a roof would be also particularly treacherous and the last thing we'd want are any accidents.  That said, progress has been made, with the majority of the sills in and finishing off today, and the slates starting to go up on the roof.

We'll measure and order the windows straight after Christmas and then we'll be motoring.  It has been 4 weeks since I was on site, and a taste of what's to come in the future with the hill being snowed in.  With Lorraine's parents trapped in the house for a week or so its something we'll need to keep in mind, particularly when changing cars.  Rear-wheel drive isn't really the best option.

Internally, the roof is shaping out the upstairs rooms nicely, there are some features in there that will make it - in the master bedroom where we have extra height around the front window, and the triangular window above the sitting room framed by the rafters will be lovely

So once the sills are done then we'll be pausing for Christmas, and attack it with a vengeance in the new year. We'll try and get the 1st fix in while waiting for windows- HRV and plumbing, then once the windows are in we can get plastering done and 1st fix electrical.

Gables finished

Finally we have the gables complete - the concrete pour happening this morning.  The house structure is now finished and with the roof frame well under way we can see the full outline of the house for the first time.

There is loads to get a feel for now, we can get into each roof and see what the light is like, the views we'll have and generally feel like it's becoming our house.  I've yet to coax Lorraine up the ladder on the left hand side to get up to the second storey - even the incentive of seeing her walk-in wardrobe isn't enough.  But, with planning to be done in the next couple of weeks for bathroom plumbing, we'll have to find a way, I'll invest in some blinkers perhaps.

With this complete, all the window and door openings are defined and this week should also see the sills installed.  If that works out, we'll be in a position to measure windows by the weekend, and then we'll get those on order.  While waiting, we'll get the roof finished, solar panels installed, and start some of the internal fit out - HRV ducting and plumbing.  Probably best to wait till it's weather tight before we go for the wiring!

Here is another recently completed window - this is in our bedroom looking out.

All in all it's back on track in terms of moving, the roofers are bulling through it and getting great work done.  With the rest of the work as described above we could have a very productive month ahead.

Daylight viewing

This weekend I managed to be down in the daylight to get some photos of the roof.  So far you can see the general frame of it, and we're still not finished on the gables.  There is nothing waiting on these, we need to get the builder back on site to finish them off and pour the concrete.

Also we have the window sill measured out, and can order these from the supplier.  These will take about a week to prepare and deliver, and a couple of days to install.  With these in, we can finally measure and order the windows, with them in we'll have a weatherproof interior and can really crack on with the internal fit out.  Ideally we'll be able to keep the scaffolding onsite until then, and get the outside render done at the same time.  Then it'll start to look like a house for real.

Roof well under way

4 weeks since the last post, but its been slow going for that month.  The roof has certainly started with the skeleton of the roof in place and the majority of the rafters on, you can certainly see it looks like a house now.  With other commitments, the ICF builder should be in place next week to finish off the gable walls, finalise the last of the window openings and start casting the stairs.

In addition, we're considering an extension already! Not much mind you, but in order to have a preferred double-door at the front door we need to extend out about 1300 to create a porch area that we can sit the double door into.  We originally talked about converting the door where it is but the stairs starts right in the middle of that spot and a double door would be pointless.  It should be a nice feature, we're planning on a glass roof there making it light and airy.

Apart from that we have a chap lined up to do the sills, and a decent quote of the actual stone, so hopefully we can get that moving next week and order windows (finally).

With Daylight Savings there is no way I can get down during the week while it's bright, but I'll be getting some photos this weekend to post up.  It should be some noticeable progress!

Roof starts!

A change of plan means that despite not finishing off the gables, we're going to start the roof.  All the internal block work is done, and with that we have all the areas that the roof will be resting on.  So instead of finishing off the ICF and hoping it fits the roof, we can do the roof and fit the ICF to it.  Hopefully this will result in a better fit.  Our roofer is starting the scaffolding, and hopefully within a week we'll be able to polish off the gables.

The internal blocks upstairs completed, we can walk through all the rooms - once you're prepared to climb up a 3m high ladder of course!  There is a really nice bedroom there, with fantastic views and access to the roof of the sunroom - if we have more than 1 child it'll be a fight for that room. We can start planning the layouts of the bathrooms as well.

The other piece to move on now it the window cills - we picked out the type we want and are looking fro quotes.  We're also going to get a blocklayer to fit them, I'd prefer to pay for it to be done right as the damp proof course around these is vital.  We'll try and get this sorted this week and start installing them.  We'll cover them with plastic for the last ICF pour, and then we can have the windows measured.

Up Top

Over the weekend I managed to get up onto the top floor and have a look.  The walls are poured with only the gable-ends left to build up to their peaks... so still a lot of the defining shape of the house is left. Still, getting up there and looking around I could start to pace out where our bedrooms are, the en-suites etc, and check out the views we'll get from these rooms.  Again the windows should be long, close to the floor at the bottom and heading up to a regular height, here in this end is our bedroom and en-suite and somewhere as well is the walk-in-wardrobe that was the principle design effort in terms of sizing! All I know is i'll probably get a drawer or two if I'm lucky.

Also you can stand where the balcony over the living room is and look down into that area.  As the height at that point is significant it seems like a long way down and I'm not worried that the landing area there will be part of the sitting room. its the guts of 3.5 meters here.  The right edge will have a wall running along its length partitioning the stairwell from this room completely.

Once the gables are up we can then start fitting cills and measuring windows as all the openings will be cut.  All going well we can start all that process next week.  Then the stairs needs to be specified and poured - we'll be able to access all levels easily, and the roofer starts.  Then I'll feel like we have some real momentum again.

Almost there

With the height extensions on our ground floor, we've come up against the fact that the house is taller than had been anticipated.  With the ICF walls in bright white, this means we have a very stark impact on the countryside - I can see the house as I drive down from 25 kms away if truth be told.  However, when the roof is sitting on top, we've stone on a large % of the front and a muted render (I guess my dreamed of cerise pink is a no no) then it'll fade back a bit into the environment.  A few pieces of strategically placed vegetation and the fig-leaf covering will be in place.

Right now though its imposing - standing at the front door I look up over 8m to the roof plate which is almost complete.  The roof will drag the effect of this down ideally.  So - Roof plate finally is in sight with the projected pour of these walls tomorrow.  Then the roofer can get busy, we can start casting the stairs and screeding the exposed areas of the hollow-core to stop water pouring in. That'll be a major milestone, enable us to unlock more of our mortgage and start locking in the next parts of the build.  Its been tough to write about this for the last couple of weeks as I'm feel I'm repeating myself at the moment, it's been a week away for the last month and its frustrating.  However the pendulum will swing and soon I'll be giving out about the amount of time it's taking up!  Never happy me.

This was a couple of days ago as the top floor is being constructed.  Without a stairs there is no way for me to get up onto that floor either - so I've no idea what its like up there, but our architect was very happy with the views from that floor where our family bedrooms will all be.  With the heights all finalised, our room ceilings are even higher than we'd originally hoped - with the bulk of the ground floor at 3.3m from finished floor to ceiling.  Plenty of cat swinging room in that.

Ground Floor slabs on

Finally we have the ground floor slabs on.  They were lifted in yesterday, and another stage of the house is completed.  It also helps us to get the real size of the rooms on this floor and many of these are the key rooms in the house as the most used.  The added height of the ceiling (to make up for the step in the kitchen) is evident when you walk in, below the floor to ceiling height is not too far off 3.5 meters, this will come down by 400mm with floor and suspended ceiling.  We can also start thinking of things such as kitchen layouts and other significant rooms that will effect parts of the build such as underfloor heating.  We're still a good 3 weeks behind where I wanted to be, so the race is on to get weather tight - something I'm clearly obsessed with at the moment.  The back rooms now seem dark - the concrete blocks don't reflect any light and we're used to having full daylight all over the rooms.

Window quotes still continue to come in.  There is a range of quotes as you'd expect from a number of companies with products that appear similar.  Some of the things I'm looking for are U-values (performance on insulation) and security - the first is important for us as we're at the edge of the heating system capability and anything we can claw back and save brings us closer to being able to work as is without adding extra heat  pumps.  The question will be how much of a premium that is worth, you spend pounds to save pennies over 20 years or so.  Once that is resolved, then the next phases are pretty much lined up to the point where we can think of starting the interior fit out.

Finally the perspective picture view with these slabs on and the steel frame completed on the front windows.

Slow going with blocks

The blocks are not going up anywhere nearly as quickly as we'd been sold.  These internal walls will be carrying load for the hollowcore 1st floor, so we can't get these in place until they are completed.  It's not a mis-estimation on the builders part, the issue is that the blockies didn't turn up for a few days, and I suspect didn't exactly do a full days work when they were there.  These guys are subcontracted by the structure builder, so I don't have a direct line to them, and the builder isn't always on site while these guys are supposed to be, so supervision is minimal.  At this stage with everyone complaining about the lack of work you'd think people would want to get through it and maintain a good name for the next job.  I guess not.

This story is nearly finished, most of the blocks are up and hopefully this will then get slabbed next week.  The final ICF row, internal blocks and then the roof (finally) can start.  In the picture the columns are either side of the fireplace.  We're looking to install a warm air circulation system, this is above the stove we'll fit here and allow air above it to get heated and circulate back out the top of the stack.  This should improve the heat we obtain from the unit when its on.  We still plasterboard over the area so this space is hidden, and we'll have to work out how to affix heavy items such as a TV etc.  But combined with the Heat-Recovery ventilation we can use the stove to pump heat all around the house.  It's located in the central open space, and warm air here will naturally circulate to the dining room, kitchen, back lobby and top landing.  However, if we're in a position that we're depending on this for heat we're already in trouble!

Again I'm only worried about the pace of building from the perspective of getting the house sealed.  We're getting quotes for windows, doors, stone and have plaster in mind, so if we get pushing we might have an intense 8-10 weeks to get weather tight and ready for internal fit-out.

Ground Floor internal walls

With the outside walls poured the work has started on the internal walls.  Again we'll start to see the floor plan come to life and be able to walk though the house, allowing us to start planning the interior layouts in our own heads.

There are more and more detail decisions we need to make at this stage, that we really haven't thought of.  Size of the opening for the stove, final ideas of room sizes, as well as starting to plan stone cladding, windows and cills.  It'll be a busy period now as we make these choices, view work in other houses and order in materials and labour. On top of that the roof will hopefully be ready to be started in another 2 weeks.  While that is going in, we want to be moving fast on all the other aspects - sills in, stone on, windows in or there-abouts and if we still have time maybe start the external render.

With the windows we'll end up with some problems.  The large windows in the basement are too big to have as side-hung, so while we could have a tilt & turn window closing it may be very difficult due to the weight.  The curved wall may either be segments or a curved pane- the latter may be very expensive.  We also have to decide if we want certain pane's divided or left as single large panes.  Thats all without deciding on colour and type.

We have a decision on the external stone - a natural stone cladding made up of quartz and granite.  This has proved to be significantly cheaper than natural stone to apply - both in the cost of the stone and more so in the cost of the labour to fit it.  We'll also need to sort out an installer for the sills - these require a bit more detail as damp-proofing needs to be installed as well.

Finally, we also have our first tenants in - a flock of swallows have built a nest in a girder inside the garage.  They did it a lot bloody quicker than we managed as well.  They'll be off for the winter, and hopefully when they get back there will be no way in for them.  The carport area is exposed though, so we'll have to ensure there are no handy nesting spots - otherwise Lorraine can park her car under the nest and clean up the consequence!

Steel up

With the steel now in around the windows and lower floor area the pace is back up.  Hopefully we'll be in a position to pour the walls of the next story Tuesday, and then it'll be a sprint to get the internal blocks up - these are needed to support the weight of the hollow-core floors above.  All in all we still may make it for the 3rd week in Aug to get to roof plate - once these slabs go up then there is only a section of ICF left to go as well as internal walls, and no details with steel for load bearing left.  Given that, ideally the roofer will start then while the stairwell is cast.

It's about 2-3 weeks off where I wanted to be at the start, we've had a lot of little niggle delays, mostly around specification and detail of areas that ideally would have been thought out to start with.  It's meant that we've had to go back and retrofit steel, penetrate the hollowcore floors and a few other things like that that make you roll your eyes a bit.  I'm all for getting sleeves rolled up and get moving, but a bit more thought on the engineering may have saved me a good few thousand euro by being rolled into the original cost and thus open for negotiation.  While the extra detail prices aren't exorbitant, its difficult to negotiate the prices as you've been locked into the builder for that section.

We also had a stonemason looking at the site as we've decided on what stone to use.  It's a natural stone cladding (comes in tile-like sections) but is made of natural stone.  The one we've picked is mostly quartz - its what we've been drawn to in the stone yards and I think the natural sheen on the stone will make it very changeable in the light.  We're also looking at internal walls where we may put stone - we're thinking of a grey slate in some areas of the basement.  Give that cave feel.

Windows are still not even quoted - there has been a big hold up in getting a proper window schedule, with designated fire hinges or toughened glass where required for regulations.  Not a massive blocker now, but we're now into the builders holidays and a lot of firms will be shut up for these 2 weeks.  It's all getting tight to get closed up by end of October.

Steel onsite

The steel for the windows and reinforcing the garage roof are now onsite, when you see it laid out you can see why it costs so much!  I thought it was a few small sections, but there is metres of the stuff.

Delayed on fabricating the structures needed, but with lightning in the area over the last few days I can understand a certain reluctance to be swinging some of these about.

Ground floor detail

The walls rising on the ground floor bring to it a number of details that have to be resolved as we construct.  There seem to be number of issues cropping up here, mostly as a result of changes and one that has been deferred until now.

• First off, we moved the kitchen wall out by a foot.  Sounds small, but what we all forgot is that there was a steel beam in the basement roof below that was waiting to carry that wall, and more importantly the weight of the hollow-core slabs on top of it.  We moved it as we're worried the kitchen would be smaller than we'd hoped.  Similarly, the front wall of the living room moved out 450mm or so to ensure it was sitting on the wall underneath it.  The incremental cost here is a new steel beam in the underside.
• We've decided to add another half block of ICF on the wall level of the ground floor - with the step in the kitchen the ceiling height there would have been affected, so to maintain a reasonable height there we need to up the size of the wall a little.  More cost of material to do so.
• The living room features windows that wrap around the corners, nice but something needs to carry the weight of the wall above and in particular the stone on that wall.  This requires steel box sections to carry these, with .  Up till now it's been left, but now the engineer has spec'ed it our builder is a little skittish about the fabrication of the piece.

With all that, timeline for the next bit are to pour these walls towards the end of this week, complete the internal blocks next week and lie the hollow-core slabs by the end of next week.  If we miss the last deadline, we'll have an issue as we'll be waiting 2 weeks while the floor slab company are on holidays.  If we make it, it's likely we'll get all the walls completed by mid-august and look at starting on the roof.

Ground Floor walls started

The Radon barrier in, floor poured and the walls for the ground story are starting.  Had a look last night to see the progress and get a sense of the house as it sits back offset on the basement.  Also, all important, the tape measure to ensure the kitchen size is correct - 5.4m square.  The tape is correct, but without all the walls and ceiling on it's really hard to judge the size accurately.  It was the same in the basement, rooms look a lot smaller until they are finished off.  So finger are crossed really that it will work out.

Here is the back wall of the house, the radon peeking out from where the walls join the footings.  Again lots of jacks are going up to support the walls, giving me confidence that they will be straight!  This phase will only take a few days, with the detail going in around the front door - it seems to transcend the levels of basement/ground floor so getting these levels right is a task for the architect.

In the meantime, our minds switch more firmly to stone and windows.  Realistically we need to order our windows in about 3-4 weeks.  Similarly, we'll need to get in cills and stonework before they arrive, and it's proving difficult to get the stone - colour is no problem but we like the more rectangular cut rather than square or round and sourcing it is tricky.  However we've seen it around so it can be done.

On the windows the PvC or Alu-Clad is still a topic.  We've quotes from several companies that are competitive and may open up alu-clads, still would be a massive stretch.  But, if we're going with black windows PvC suffer from expansion and contraction with heat and this will cause gaps to appear, with contraction in winter.  So we may end up saving on windows and spending money yearly on heating.  With the heating specification at a stretch that isn't ideal.  We're going to look at some samples on the weekend and see where it all stands.

The offset on the basement leaves us with a natural balcony from the sitting room, which will be great in summer.  The outline of it is going up above.  Also working out nicely is the vertical services shaft.  So far, so good - the next detail to go in at this level is central vacuum and HRV duct runs!

Ground Floor footings

The ground floor footings are laid out, defining all the rooms on this floor over the ground (as opposed to over the basement).  These have a Radon barrier placed over them and the interior filled back up with earth.

These footings will support the block walls internally, and ICF externally or for load-bearing.  The plumber has also been in to install soil-pipes for waste water and showers at this level so that they will be under the path level on the finished build.  This will stop all the pipes being visible on the finished walls.  For the 1st floor, these pipes will route via the suspended ceilings internally.

Also added at this stage are the draw pipes for the stove fire.  Since the rooms are not ventilated naturally, we don't want the fire drawing air from the room directly.  2 pipes are installed, one routing to the left of the stove (just at the edge of the curved section of wall), the other routing back to the kitchen wall.  This allows 2 directions for air to get into the fire, preventing downdraft from the chimney into the fire if the wind direction isn't favorable.

Next is the installation of the Radon, and remaining pipes to sit in this floor level.

With the perspective drawing, I'll keep a set of photos taken from roughly the same perspective and it will be interesting to see the progress to that - so far we look like this

Ground Floor

After a bit of re-jigging we're nearly ready to pour the ground floor.  The changes we made went in after the foundations were poured, so thankfully these limited the extent of what could change.  Now the next Radon barrier and floor are ready to go in on the areas not over the basement section.

We need to get the plumber back on site to install the pipes for the kitchen, bathrooms and utility areas, of course I should have really known this and arranged it earlier, but my inexperience shows through.  Luckily he's able to have a look today, and hopefully able to install soon after that, but the builder is a little unhappy at losing days.  In fairness though, I'm not hassling him on the days here and there he isn't on site (he's very reliable though) so a little leeway here from him should be expected, although I can understand he may be a bit frustrated after the delay with plan changes.  After this though, it should all be in his control and no more delays - the only other thing will b the 1st floor plumbing.

I also have to get a the HRV and central vacuum points arranged for this floor before the ICF is poured.  I have a fair idea where these will go, but the HRV in particular is a little more fuzzy as the designer refused to believe that the vertical service shaft would line up.  Of course he also refused to look at the updated set of plans I sent. Net result is that for the basement it wasn't a complicated run and we could extrapolate the duct run to the shaft, but the ground floor is more complex and I'll have to chase him for this.

Week delay

Moving the walls a bit has certainly delayed us.  Because of these changes the builder quite rightly wants a set of drawings that represent these - for himself and also for other suppliers (hollowcore floors for example) that need to measure off and use them.  Problem is getting time from the architect to sit down and go over the changes, as opposed to catching him on the road where he can't see the drawing.

As a result, we're nearly a week delayed.  The builder is getting antsy over the stall, and so am I - I wanted to start the roof in mid-July and it's now slipping to August.  Since the roofer isn't around the 1st 2 weeks of August, it could mean the roof takes to the end of September - and we're heading for Winter.

2nd Foundations poured

With excellent weather there has been no reason to hold back and with the last of this section of groundworks completed it's a blessing with no delays for rain or the tracked vehicles tearing up the surface.  It's dry and compacted all over the next build area.  With a few days left of the sunshine forecast, hopefully we can get a solid start on the ground floor walls and bring up the house another level.

The changes to the walls mean that we owe our builder a revised drawing, I prefer he demands that rather than winging it, but any reason to stop is painful.  Hopefully our architect can jiggle these in CAD over the weekend and we can get started.  Neither of us can wait to step into the next floor, and no doubt the room sizes will be a topic of discussion.  If we're lucky, we could see the next 2 floors on within the month.

Basement enclosed

With much excitement we headed down last night to have a look at the basement with the hollowcore floors on top - seems like a small step compared to the last few weeks of effort but it seems to represent a notable waypoint in the construction.  The walls have been clearly visible for sometime, but as we pull up to it and walk inside the volume each room contains becomes tangible, finally.  The 3m high garage area suddenly has a massive ceiling, and feels much higher than anticipated, and we're already altering the uses of the rooms in the basement based on their look and feel.  But all in all we're both very happy and can't wait to start getting into the house.

Here is our engineer and Lorraine debating the age old topic of room sizes.  Yesterday, our engineer had prepared the layout of the next floor in red spray in order to direct where the foundations for the next floor need to sit.  It was a great opportunity to see how the whole house will sit.  We took the chance to move these virtual walls a bit, extending the rear wall and side wall a300mm out to create a slightly bigger kitchen.  Today we should get these dug and poured, and the ICF sits right into the foundation so we can then start the ground floor.

The next major part to decide upon is windows and stone.  Both of us like the real wood/alu-clad window, but the price of these may be out of our reach.  It's something like 30% more for wood than PVC, and then 20% over wood for alu-clad.  We have about 4 weeks until we can even start to measure the openings, so until then we'll have to visit some showrooms, cruise around peoples window and generally make a decision.  Never easy.

Tidy up and go again

So with some long hours over the weekend we managed to complete the planned works and have the basement backfilled.  We also insulated the wall at the end with some wall-cavity insulation, more for peace of mind.  The biggest job was refilling in abut 200m3 of clay that we'd taken out, and also to bring up the natural fall of the hill to allow the ground floor a level area to sit on.

That alone was about 1 1/2 days with an excavator and a 20 ton truck to tip into the area.  Thankfully we have a lot of filling to replace the missing volume or we may of had to buy in more.  Also, the internal block work is complete and you can see the floor plan above.

Today, the blocks are being raised in the garage/car-port partition to allow a steel beam to sit across them for the hollowcore floors to sit into.  We waited until the steel was onsite as a single column of block is not stable without the steel beam to sit on top and tie in.  The hollowcore is due for delivery tomorrow morning, and then we can dig foundations and go up again!

Backfilling

This week we've been backfilling the house - getting the basement back surrounded by the earth.  Its a heavy job and I took a few days off work to get on the end of a shovel and get stuck in.  While we're using an excavator, it can't do everything nor can it be 100% exact for some of the detail - therefore the shovel is the only way to get it tidy.

The initial excavation was neat and there isn't a massive amount of fill to go against the wall.  The tricky thing is that we want a layer of drainage stone all the way up the wall, but as it's expensive we can't just use that - we need to build up with caly and stone.  In order to do this we need to build up slowly with a plywood board providing a seperation.  Some stone, then clay, then stone all piled in from 3 meters overhead.  But we get it done. and I get a free workout from it.  At the bottom of all this is a drainage pipe, and we manage to exhume the original drain at the side and feed the this drain into it.  All that took a full day with me, Tom and a digger, while the builder and blocklayer continued to bring up the walls inside. 

Today, we're bringing up the level for the ground floor to sit on, that's a full day to refill a large qty of earth with a digger and a 20-ton truck tipping it in.  Tommorow we can then backfill the last section of the retaining wall.

We also noticed a little 'detail' that we'll resolve.  Where the blocks of the internal wall meet the concrete retaining wall there is a cold bridge that will leak heat.  Where the block meets ICF it's insulated, but where its block on concrete it isn't.  So when backfilling we'll place a 60mm insulation layer in between the deck-drain board and the bituthene membrane to mitigate that.  It's more a mental thing to be honest, knowing its there is worse than the actual effect of it.

Internal walls and tanking

Nipped down to the site last night to have a look at the progress.  Internal walls are half way built, both the load-bearing 6" and the partitions on the basement.  This means we can now stand in the rooms and get a real feel for the size of the floor area in each.  Up to this point the best we could do was mark off sections on the floor slab, but without the walls to catch your eye it's a struggle to imagine it properly.

As you can see the rain is back and with the elevation we're right in the clouds on this particular evening.  You can just make out the stand of trees across the road, normally from here Mt Leinster is looming in the background! This is exactly the wrong time for it as well as we're getting the retaining wall tanked - the primer paint and bituthene membrane can only go on when the wall is dry.  This weather is only forecast to last a couple of days, but really it's the worst couple in terms of the schedule over the previous and next week.

The tanking can be seen below - a layer of primer paint, a rubber-like bituthene membrane, a deck-drain board, a layer of round drainage stone and finally backfilled with earth

We're trying to get it done as together as possible - we don't want to leave any of the layers exposed for too long without backfilling to keep pressure on these layers against the wall.

Once the weather picks up we can polish off the backfill and start bringing up the levels around the house, as well as dig the foundations for the load bearing walls on the ground floor.  The slabs that sit on top of the basement are ordered for Monday.  Then we go up again.

Cash flows

Finally we hear word that the bank has released the first stage payment.  After a very panicky 2 weeks where we managed to apply for, get approved and draw down a mortgage in record time (since 2008) the cash is en route to our solicitor and of right now has arrived!  That removes one cause of recent sleepless nights, perhaps cutting back on the coffee habit might get another hour or two.

Of course, as soon as we want to start groundworks and tanking, it starts to rain.  We have the first meter of bituthene sheeting up and its well stuck on - we can now add the drain around the back and fill with stone up to the level the water is weeping from the rock.  The rain is handy as it will help identify where that is, although we did mark it last time it rained... unusual to think that was some weeks ago in Ireland!! Hopefully the interior load-bearing block wall is completed today as well and we'll be ready for the for basement roof slabs.  The interior wall is block because unfortunately the architect forgot to account for the width on drawing the plans :/.  An ICF wall would be thicker at 200+mm, so we're using a 6" concrete block wall instead ~ 150mm.  This has an impact on the corridor, having that too narrow is pointless.

Also, we think we may have found the stone and window combination we like for the areas on the plans marked in as stone.  We have seen the stone on a hotel while on the prowl for suitable stone, so the next challenge is to try and ring them and identify where and what the stone is.  Window wise we're thinking about a two-tone window - cream/white  on the inside and black on the outside.  The stone is a yellow-y colour and will be warmer than a more traditional grey stone.

We've also put some thought into putting stone on the inside of the house - primarily on the wall of the living area that will be double height and contain the windows housing our main view.  I think it'll add a touch of rustic quality inside and having seen such in another house really liked the feel.  In doing so though, we had to preplan for the walls in the basement section to be reinforced to take the load of the extra weight - so not something we can just decide on the fly.  Mixing this with light woods and white interior might just do the job on that room and be light and airy.  Anyway - that's a good bit away at this stage so better keep focus on grubbing around in the dirt!

Basement ICF Poured

Yesterday afternoon saw the pour of the basement ICF walls.  At this point of the build these pours are the piece I'm most nervous of - I've seen an ICF build that had a noticeable wave in the wall due to movement of the ICF blocks during the pour (and failure to correct after).  This has knock on problems later with internal and external plaster costs increasing.

There was only about 13m3 of concrete to go in and with the use of a concrete pump this is a quick process.  With 2 cement trucks lined up to go we set up the pump on the top level of the cleared area, and the swing arm has plenty of reach left when we were pouring.

The pump itself is quite an impressive machine.  While pouring, the pump nozzle is constantly being moved around to keep the levels from building too far in a section of the wall.  After the first cement truck was empty the concrete was vibrated to remove some of the air trapped in the concrete.  The second load is added and concrete poured into the window cill openings.  The whole lot is floated off at the top and cills and the trucks head offsite, after an interesting display of "hide the sponge" while the pump is getting cleaned.

The next part is truing up the walls.  The jacks that are holding up the ICF are adjustable and there is a race against time to get the walls inline before the concrete hardens too much.  There is a builders line at the top of the wall that is used to check its horizontally aligned, and a level against each section to get it vertical.  After a number of adjustments things look good, and we leave the wall to cure.

Into the wall we've set a number of ducts - 400x200mm areas for dual HRV ducts, 4" pipe for electrical cables - both of these are set into the ceiling area.  For the vacuum there is a set of 55mm pipes in the subfloor area.  Hopefully these are all correctly set and we won't be breaking through the walls later.

So next week we're back on groundworks and a few other bits and pieces.  We need to tank and backfill against the retaining wall, install a drain at the back of the wall and raise up some of the level that the top section of the house will sit on.  Foundations for load-bearing walls on the ground floor also need to go in, floor slabs on top of the basement and for the ground floor and then we're ready to raise up again.

All going well, ideally we'll be looking to get the roofer onsite in about 4 weeks.

Planning Ducting

The HRV Installer called over to the site on Saturday morning, mostly to nose around and say hello (and get some money) and to see what we're about.  From my perspective it was good to discuss exactly how he wants us to prepare the walls for allowing his ducts to pass through.  With ICF, getting a hole in the wall after the fact is not easy - you need reasonably expensive drilling bits, and they get destroyed. So planning anything in advance saves a vast effort later.  The same for the central vacuum, and we'll also put in smaller ducts for routing electrical cables around during the 1st fix.

Rather than placing the ducts in first and pouring concrete around them we'll put in a frame that allows 25mm around the duct.  There are 2 good reasons to do this - 1) the ducts have an insulation jacket around them that might not play nice with the concrete and 2) it allows a little wiggle room for the installer to move the pipes and generally adjust the length etc with less cutting.  So after 10 mins of agreeing the installation followed by an hour talking about rugby another piece of the overall jigsaw has been specified.

Also we're trying to determine the best way to tank the retaining wall.  Initially we were not going to backfill to the wall with earth and just have the drain at the back of the wall.  But the tanking system was concerning me.  The system is to use a bitumen membrane that is waterproof and is stuck to the ICF wall.  This is also taped to the radon barrier to provide a watertight layer wrapping the house.  The membrane is reasonably delicate, so on top of that is hung what is effectively industrial bubble wrap.  Its the same system used across the road.  The problem is that without backfill, the only thing holding it up is sticky pads, and I didn't think they'd last 30+ years.    So - on going back to the supplier the only solution is to backfill the cavity to hold the membrane against the wall - or go with a spray on plastic coating at twice the price.  Backfilling is a messy job but worth it in the end.

Hopefully we'll get the walls poured this week - it seems slow going again but the formwork is largely completed (we now have a doorway) with the delay being detail on how the stairs will sit (we'll be casting the stairs in place with concrete) and need to plan where starter bars that protrude from the wall will have to go.  Its a tricky piece of detail and the architect needs to get his measurements right here.  But - by the end of the week we may finally have an enclosed structure on the site, and getting the next foundations sorted out.

A little short..

The ICF is on going, with more of the basement walls being constructed.  The system we're using is new to the contractor - while the ICF idea is pretty much the same for all there are detail differences, such as distances between ties, sleeve & lintel details etc.  So its been a little slower going now while we learn the best approach of using the maximum material to fit with the dimensions of the house.  We also amend some of the dimensions, 50mm wider may allow easier cutting and could be preferable to 150mm shorter - especially when talking about room area.  Doesn't sound much, but I'd prefer to have it rather than not.

.  This section is the forward room in the basement, and you now see the size of the windows we're putting in down here.  More light is better, and in this section we're looking at having a study and a small home gym - so some welcome relief of contemplating the scenery is needed.  The bottom of the windows will be closer again to the finished floor, as there is 100mm of insulation and 100 of a concrete floor screed to go in.  With underfloor heating, I'd of liked to go thicker with the insulation, but the danger is that the concrete screed can crack on thicker levels of floor insulation.

The ICF Suppliers are also looking to get full up -front payment on the entire quantity of ICF.  They started with an initial amount, which should have been enough to complete the basement, but 'forgot' to leave enough of the sleeves for closing the window/door openings.  So we have to sort them out before pouring the basement.

You can see above the jacks to hold the ICF in place during the pour, as well as a walkway to use when pouring the concrete in the top.

Inside we have the steel rebar - and before pouring more will be placed perpendicular to these horizontal ones.  The inside of the ICF block is ridged - this is to allow the sleeves to slot into these ridges at the openings, but also to increase the internal surface area of the block to give the concrete more area to bind onto.

One question I wondered about was the ability hang heavy items off these walls - such as TV's shelves etc.  The insulating polystyrene itself isn't going to hold anything, but the plastic ties you can see have a head on them inside the polystyrene.  These are evenly spaced every 200mm and you can fix into these - they support pretty much whatever you'd consider fixing to a wall.  Rooted in the concrete, they have plenty of backing.

Central Vacuum

We just decided on another feature in our house, to install a central vacuum system.  This consists of a large vacuum motor in the garage, and ducting distributed around the house.  These terminate into sockets into which you plug a long hose that is the same as any other vacuum (only about 10m in length).

The system activates when you plug the hose into a socket.  This activates the motor and creates a vacuum in the duct system.  There is also a floor pan system for the kitchen, where by you activate the system with your foot and sweep into it from the floor as you would a dustpan.

Its certainly a little bit of an extravagance, but not too much so.  There are genuine benefits to the system, primarily the fact that the really small dust is taken out of the room rather than recycled through the motor back into the air in the room, also the motor is considerably stronger than a standard vacuum cleaner, giving a better clean to the carpet.  You have the less compelling benefit of not having to carry the heavy motor unit around.  All in all it's about even but I think given we have the opportunity to add this in now I'd prefer to do so.

The ducting runs through the finished floor (a sand & cement screed on top of the pre-cast floors) at the same level as the underfloor heating.  We also have to plan to insert runs through the walls and around where the sockets will live in order to minimize the effort of installing the system - with the walls being constructed as I speak we ran close to the wire on this, but with all the other primary issues to get sorted this had to wait until the important stuff got sorted!

ICF Started

The first blocks of ICF are now going onto the basement!  These blocks are forming the front-outside walls and main load-bearing internal walls of the basement.  With these up, we'll be able to walk inside our house for the first time.

The blocks arrive flat-packed from the factory and open up with the plastic internal ties locking them into shape. These are then stacked like lego and steel bars places along them for reinforcing the concrete.  For door and window openings the blocks are simply sawed into the lengths.  No morter or glue is required to hold them together, the blocks fit via a set of plugs on top and sockets on the bottom in a snug fit.

The gap between the polystyrene needs to be shut at the door and window openings, lest the concrete pour out!  Another piece of polystyrene slots between the 2 layers facing into the gap.  Some ICF systems just use wood either, and this has the same effect, the only difference is that the polystyrene sleeves have a better insulation, and it's at the door and window joins that you get a lot of issues with cold-bridging and drafts.  Drafts can be sealed with an expandable foam insulation, but cold-bridging is harder.. its where a conductive material (such as metal) runs from the inside where its warm to the outside where its cold.  This creates a conductive bridge between the 2 environments that bypasses the insulation layers, and leaks heat at a high rate.  It's tricky as where components join it's very easy to create a bridge unknowingly.. an example might be if screws from the inside were to connect to brackets that hold in the windows, and the bracket were to be on the outside.  Its the detail like this that can turn a warm home into a cold one.  In designing the house, there are lots of places these can creep in, and then all it takes is a tradesman to take a short cut and you leak heat (and money!)

So this week should see the build and pour of the basement sections.  I managed to procure a number of ducts from the HRV supplier to place into the walls before we pour the concrete, we'll also add a couple of other 6" or similar ducts to allow electrical cabling and the central vacuum to route through.  This will save drilling through the concrete later (if we've thought of everything).

So far we only have some of the walls complete, waiting on confirmation of the window sizes to properly construct the walls.

The weather right now is fantastic, long may it continue!!  In other news, the bank has re-approved our mortgage and once we re-sign updated documents we should be able to start accessing the money - a massive weight lifted off my shoulders on reading that.

You want money?? - Do you think we're a bank or something??

Cash flow is probably the more stressful part of the build in my opinion, all the other choices are positive in terms of how you want the house to look, or last over time, cost, etc but in general are positive, exciting things to think about.  Cash flow however is wondering who, when and how much you have to pay vs what you have in the bank.  No one like waiting to get paid and I resolved at the start to do my level best to ensure people get paid on time and stay happy.

As stated before the mortgage is paid in arrears, so not until we had the 1st stage complete could we start drawing down the mortgage.  Of course the catch-22 is that you don't want to sign any contracts until the mortgage is 100% available.  So in Nov we finalized and signed the loan agreements, with a 90 day period to draw down the 1st payment.  In that time we had to pick the builder, finailze the price negotiations, find a digger, wait for weather, etc.. but it was more like 6 mths before we were ready to draw down.  In that time we contacted the bank a number of times to ensure that the offer was still good, and if not is there anything we need to do.  All was well.

Until we needed the money that is.  Now the loan offer needs to be redone from scratch.  For anyone who has got a mortgage before there is a lot of documentation that needs to be assembled, all of which cross-confirms your potential to pay.  With the builder having bought the ICF blocks (on our site) he's left at the moment short until we pay the next stage.... and that certainly isn't fair on him.  What should have been a couple of days may turn into a couple of weeks.  And then of course there is the potential for the bank to refuse the application!! But I'm trying not to think of that.  So - all day is a scramble to get documentation together, rooting in various drawers etc.  Funny thing is both Lorraine and I bank day-day with the same bank and they have a more complete picture of our transactions than we do!!  Maybe they are looking to prove that we know what they already know so that they know that we know we can pay the mortgage.  Damn clever.

On the house front, we are delaying a day on starting the ICF walls because I don't know what size door to use internally!  All was fine until I visited a friends house and after a few minutes in there (and acting suspiciously around the door) I realised the door is subtly bigger than standard. It's not a massive thing, but I liked the effect.  It'll also be handy getting things in and out, such as myself when drunk!!  So, while I wait for a poor chap to measure up his doors at home we wait before starting as we need to cut the door openings into the walls as we build up the ICF.  At this stage though more delays are better until we have money to pay for the next bit.

Stress!

Floor poured, 1st Walls up!

After being away for 10 days, the site looks very different again.  Before, we had a layout on the ground and had to imagine how it would look as we went.  Now that floor is concrete, and with the rear walls of the basement up it's gone 3D.  The rear walls are huge to stand beside - over 3.5 metres tall.  A typical room with reasonably high ceilings is about 2.7 metres tall, so we're a metre again up.  For a totally useless piece of information, the weight of just this section is about 340 tonnes!  Also completely useless is the fact that if you had a big enough crane, you could actually lift the entire structure up - the radon barrier completely separates it from the ground underneath.

There is an access panel for brining in the live ESB - it comes in at the base, in the floor, up through the wall into the meter box, then back through the wall up to the top of the wall.  This can then route into the suspended ceiling that will hang from the roof and route in the far corner in the picture (left most corner) - it comes in from picture right.

The wall itself is watertight (due to the amount of cement in the concrete) but the back of it nearest the wall needs to be tanked - that is made watertight (more so).  This involves placing a layer of waterproof membrane all along the wall and bonding it to the Radon barrier that is also waterproof. You can see the tight space that lies in here

The radon barrier is cleaned off and wrapped up tight to the wall and the membrane overlaps it.  Also in here we need to place a drain, as even when it's dry as today the back wall is weeping water.  A layer of drainage stone goes in, another of the yellow land-drainage pipes goes on top, and we fill in with more stone to above where the wall is damp, about 1.2 metres.  Where this picture is now will eventually be right under the main house itself.

We marked out the internal ICF walls as well, these will start to be assembled on Wednesday, and will form the rest of the outer walls, as well as some load bearing internal ones.  By Saturday, we're likely to be ready to pour these with concrete, and we'll have the first section of the house structure complete.

Before we pour, there are a number of services that need to transit through these walls, and we'll place pipes where they cross through before pouring.  This prevents us later having to drill though the mass concrete. All in all, now most of the tricky stage is complete, and with hopefully a few weeks of fine weather that you expect as all the poor students sit down to write exams, we can get cracking and make a good push on the build.  Finally - our nutritious grass and diesel fumes are having a positive effect on the local wildlife with a new lawnmower gambling about, no fear of our grass getting out of hand.

Radon-on

The weekend sees the floor coming along - the Radon barrier is down, steel cages are all in and the first set of pipes have been placed by the plumber.  With the radon barrier providing a sharp contrast in colour, the house outline is even clearer to see

On the left-hand side is where the basement bathroom will be, and the 2 long pipes in the center allow for cables to be run from the back where the electrical switchboard will be to the front for whatever purpose - outside sockets, gate intercom etc.  Great idea from the engineer and will save us a lot of bother in future when we wish to add or change any such cabling.  Of course, all I can think of is that it'll be the perfect way for Rats to get in as well, perhaps we should have made the diameter big enough to flush them through with a cat every so often.

With Monday being a bank holiday, realistically it will be Wednesday when the floor is poured.  With that finished, we'll have finally reached a stage where we can access our mortgage, and fingers crossed that it will still be there.  We have all the application signed and returned, but until you draw the funds it's still a little up in the air, and since we signed in January (with 30 days to draw down) its a little bit of worry in case anything has changed.  Our broker & bank have it on hold, but who knows.  It's a funny way of providing a build-mortgage, but you don't get any money upfront to start the project.  As you build (and add value to the site) then the bank pays you in arrears for that value.  This leaves you having to manage a tight cash flow, and all the unforeseeable extras serve to tighten the screw.

So by Wednesday I hope to have another milestone reached.  Again the clock here is to get weather-tight by the end of September (I won't say Summer) to allow us to work inside over Winter.

Shuttering the floor

With the pads in and ready, the surface to the pads has been flattened and shaped for the raft to be poured.  Yesterday, the shuttering outlining the area of the raft was constructed, today steel cages are being positioned into this as well as pipes for the basement bathroom/electrical conduit etc.  The radon barrier also has to go in, but we require 1-2 fine days for laying this.  Once all this is set up we can pour the first substantial concrete mass, and the first floor of our house is there.  We'll be able to see the outline of the area and see the real size of the living areas, especially as the walls start to be built onto it.

The notch in the middle of the photo outlines where the front door will be.  Aiming for this to be filled with concrete early next week, all going well.

Choosing our Architect

(Spoiler : To see what we're building a summary of the drawings can be seen here)

One of the first things we had to do, and as a result its intimidating, is finding an architect.  As I know nothing about building I was concerned about being able to pick the 'right' architect, someone who could deliver a house that was different enough yet within a relatively tight budget.  We hoped for something less than traditional and would stand out a bit.

The first architect we talked to was a recommendation from a friend, who incidentally has a fantastic house.  We got an initial draft done of what he was thinking having looked at the site, and we were excited.  But we of course wanted a couple of opinions so solicited a few more.

The second we talked to also designed a house we knew of, but on seeing the location of the site didn't think that we'd get a house of the scale we wanted through planning, and strongly implied that he didn't want to make any waves at the planning office.  In my opinion, that's exactly what we're paying for (note: we're paying, not the planners!) an architect who will make the most of the regulations and policies set by the planners - push the envelope if you will.  We wanted a fighter.

The final architect we wanted to talk to first sent us off to look at a couple of houses in the area he'd designed before he'd talk to us.  If we were still interested then we were to ring him.. Homework.  We duly went and acted suspiciously outside a number of residences, concocting unbelievable cover stories in the event we were rumbled, when in fact the truth would have probably got us an invite inside and a chocolate biscuit if lucky.  On driving around remote country lanes we thought it may be difficult to see which house may be his.  However, every time the house immediately sprang out at us as remarkable in its situation.  They had a different look and feel and really looked like a custom house, not one pulled off a book of house plans.

So we went further, happy with our homework done we went for an interview... and it was both ways.  This guy didn't want to know if we wanted a straight-forward house, he wants to design a house, not throw it up.  Having blagged our way through that and accepted ;P we left with more homework - a wish list of what we wanted.  Open question and deliberately so.  At the end of this meeting, we knew we'd found the guy.  He let his portfolio speak for itself and was only interested in delivering something out of the mundane.  Looking back at no point have we regretted our choice as we're very happy with the outcome, as well as his management of the planning process.

The planning process isn't a one-way street.  There can (and should be) initial meetings with planners to set the tone of what is being suggested and how that fits in with the policies for the area.  The earlier that happens, the quicker the boundaries can be set and we can concentrate on designing with what will be allowed, rather than wishful thinking.  The initial meeting went very well, with positive noises from the planner.  Throughout the design process any significant additions or changes to the house was ran past them, usually as part of other interaction, and if we overstepped we removed and looked at it again.  This is also the benefit of having a local architect on the job (either as the principal or in an advisory role) as they will be very familiar with the local restrictions and personalities involved.

With anxiety we submitted our application for planning, our house is in an 'Area of Special Interest' and with the commanding view it also suffers from the opposite - it can be seen from everywhere.  While we had been in regular contact with the planners, the matter of the triangular windows at the front were a grey area up for debate.  We had compromised in removing the 1 1/2 story high front window, but it was far from certain.

Thankfully after the initial period had passed we were granted permission in one pass, with conditions but nothing that was too onerous.  The first hurdle was vaulted with no faults conceded! A night of (mild) celebration followed, and after that the sleeves were firmly rolled up to get to grips with what the task to hand was.  From there, it took another 6 months to arrange finance, agree a contractor for the structure, and line up the major trades to follow!

Wonderbar.. the padded foundation for extra 'lift'

Foundation pads have now been shuttered and poured.  These are 'lean mix' concrete poured into wooden shutters (to define the size and shape of the concrete) that were placed into the holes dug at the end of the initial groundworks stage.  These reach down to the hard rock substrate and provide a solid platform for the front of the raft to sit on, keeping it from sagging.  No supermodel pictures to advertise it unfortunately!

For those that really want to know, you can learn a lot about concrete here.  In short - a major determiner of concrete strength is the cement-to-water ratio - less water = stronger and a lean mix is a mix with a low water content. (The downside is that as its less fluid it's not as easy to work with).

So about 10m3 of the foundations are poured.  48hrs to cure enough, and on top of that a beam will run connecting all 4 pads and rising up to the raft.  Then we have a radon barrier, and the raft itself!  Then (finally) we can start building some walls and get a real feeling that the house is growing out of the ground!

22/4/2010 - The top of the pads having been poured to cap them off.  Starter bars were retrospectively added to the pour above (change of mind by the engineer) and brought up

With Starter bars to hold the 2 separate pours together..

And capped off with a pour - the raft will sit on top of these.







And finally with the shutters removed and the stone leveled off (23/04/2010)

Scorchio, bbrrrrrrr

The heating system has been a constant headache since day one of the project.  As a technical piece it's also held the most fascination for me after the structure itself, with a background in Physics all the theory and design appeals to my illusion that I still remember what all the mumbo-jumbo was about.  However despite being decided, its not entirely risk free the way we've gone.


The system we're installing is attempting to be cost neutral over the medium term, return over maybe 20 years at current prices, and if Carbon Tax and oil goes as expected then return shorter than that.  It should also reduce the mess and hassle of oil, namely a dripping tank and calling for for refills.


We're fitting a flat-panel solar collector and an air-source heat pump (A2W).  The solar collector is as you'd imagine - a panel set on the roof that heats a liquid (not water) that circulates through the panels into a central tank.  The A2W pump looks like an air-conditioner, sucking in air one side and drawing out latent energy, blowing cooler air out the other.  It works just like Geo-thermal but without the ground pipes which are unsuitable for our site (horizontal) or too expensive (vertical).  This too feeds into a central tank - 600L in size.


This central tank or buffer store is kept at a temperature of about 40-55 degrees by a combination of these 2 systems, with an immersion coil as a booster in the event of these failing.  From this tank, domestic hot water is acquired by drawing cold water in one end, through a large coil and emerging hot at the other end.  The water in the tank isn't directly used, the energy is transferred.  Similarly, the underfloor heating draws water from this tank and is pulled on demand into each heating zone.  A thermostat in each zone monitors the temperature and when it falls below the requires a little motor in the UFH manifold opens and lets more hot water in.


Finally, we're adding MHRV.  This is mechanical Heat-recovery Ventilation and makes a huge difference to the efficiency of the house.  Air is drawn from rooms that tend to be damper (bathrooms/kitchen), up through an air pump and out.  Air is drawn in by the same pump and a honeycomb in the middle of the pump allows the the two air flows to be close enough to transfer heat without the gases mixing.  So you get warm fresh air pumped into rooms such as bedrooms and living rooms.  The motor only uses the energy of a light bulb.


The risk we're taking?  Well - the size of our build suggests a bigger heat pump than we're installing... but I'm heard a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest the performance of an ICF house is better than an 'average' house.  So I'm under-spec'ing the heat pump now and will monitor it's performance over then next year or two, and if we need to bolt on more than we can look at the options then.  It's better than a bigger spend now at a cost of higher heating rates, but even with that it'll still be less than using Oil for a year.  


So - now thats decided, I can stop talking about my pet topic and concentrate on the more mundane items!

Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey

No visible progress on site this weekend, although the engineer has signed off on the holes dug for the pads.  They are in the right place, which is nice, and on Friday we had another look around as well as deciding how to route in the ESB mains, water, and other conduits required to be added into the base and walls.  Its funny just how many little things there are to think about, the minutia of it can sometimes leave me slightly stressed that we're missing something that will require a lot of work to rectify.

This week I was supposed to be in the US for work, but Vulcan has deemed otherwise and so I'm left here instead.  While disappointing in itself it means I can sort out a few things that would have been otherwise difficult.  We've closed on the heating system, a major expense factor on par with the roof, and will be able to tie up a little legal juggling with the structure contractor easier with Lorraine and I here to sign contracts.  So while nothing looks different we can start to build on the details required to ensure these items fit correctly, and avoid hacking through mass concrete at a later date.  Our plumber is on standby to drop up and see what pipes he needs to lay before the floor is poured, and we'll place some ducts for electric cables to allow access to the outside front area.

Expecting the concrete pour to happen this week into the pads, Tuesday is likely.  48-hrs to cure and back fill and we can start the raft proper at that stage, and things should really start moving then.

Preparing foundations

With the bulk excavation finished the site looks very tidy.  We now have a large area at the front where the basement will sit all nicely graded off with stone.  Also, we have 4 deep holes at the front for the pads for the front of the raft to sit.  I believe the instruction was to dig until they found rock and as you look across the site that is found from about 2m down to nearly 3 on the side nearest the entrance.  When I got there though, it was a bit of a shock to see what was actually the case.  Naturally, everything you're being told is passed off as 'just a little pad of concrete" or "just have to take that back a bit" or "just a little filling of stone".  When you see what the reality is then you need to adjust a bit and realize that frames of reference are not aligned.  Little is dependent of whether your the one paying in my opinion, and a practical exercise in their opinion.  A day of filling stone might not be a major exercise to do, but expensive to pay for.  Tip number 1 - ask how much its likely to cost!

The cross section is interesting.  The hole is the guts of 3 meters deep for a start, just to give you and idea of scale.  The top section is stone filling we've added.  The black strata looks almost like an embryonic coal seam (the area is riddled with tunnels from the old Rossmore Collieries, the dancing boards mentioned are 2 fields to the south of our site) so i can imagine that if that was further compressed over time it would become coal.  Finally at the very bottom is solid rock rather than the light shale  that makes up the bulk of the substrate.

In terms of (over)spend, the excavation was 50% more than anticipated.  This is mostly due to hitting the springs under the basement, the resulting drain and tidy up of the saturated and useless clay.  The start of what I guess will be many overruns.  We also have an as yet unknown cost of the stone filling, is was drawn on demand, so I expect another financial ripple to roll across my spreadsheet.

But - its important to be house (or site) proud and maintain it in the way you intend.  With that we have the latest in ride-on mower technology keeping our lawn trim, utterly autonomous and self-maintaining.

Now steel is coming onsite that will be used in the pads and raft foundation cages, hopefully this will start today/tomorrow and we can see the first baby steps in construction.  Also this brings us closer to the time we can access the first draw-down on our mortgage - up till now we've been paying all the costs out of our savings and will need to access the bank's money soon!